Dispensing...with Style

The latest dispensers combine modern aesthetics with practical functionality.

Joanna Cosgrove, Contributing Editor

When sizing up the on-shelf appeal of a fragrance or personal care package, consumers usually let the primary container do the wowing. Appreciation for a product’s dispenser usually blooms after the product’s first use, when consumers start to better understand how functional features like even misting, airless dispensing and even locking mechanisms can improve the usability of the product they dispense.
   
According to Carleen Kreider, vice president of innovation, SeaquistPerfect Dispensing, Cary, IL, the most prevalent dispenser demands are speed, ease and convenience. Something with a little whimsy is also favorable. SeaquistPerfect’s Bottom Line package was developed with an eye toward the trend of more viscous shampoos, conditioners and sun care items. An inverted package, it features a pressurized plastic dispenser that unassumingly transforms viscous formulations into whipped foam confections. “The package orientation causes the product to always be in the dispensing position, offering complete evacuation of the product,” notes Kreider.
   
The Bottom Line package is currently in use by Beyond Fresh Intimates, a three SKU body wash, shave gel and shower gel line manufactured by Lake Consumer Products, Jackson, WI, a company established in the feminine hygiene segment. “We’re in a category that has, for the most part, lacked innovation over the years. The feminine hygiene shelf contains practically the same products and brands that were there 15 years ago,” admits Mike Kermendy, the company’s director of marketing. “We felt this dispenser could bring some innovation to the category while giving consumers something they hadn’t had before. The technology of our formula’s ingredients is paired with a really great dispenser that brings a new level of innovation to the category.”
   

fMagic SL (Slim Line) dispenser from RPC Bramlage Wiko-USA

Avon also sought dispensing innovation when it selected the Magic SL (Slim Line) dispenser from RPC Bramlage Wiko-USA, Morgantown, PA, which features a patented “Air New” valve technology, to top its Anew Alternative Intensive Age Treatment SPF 25 Day product. After a successful launch in both the U.S. and Europe, a 30ml version is being introduced in Latin America and Asia.
   
“We were looking for quality package in a consumer-preferred form for a creamy lotion. The economically-priced Magic SL airless pump package, with its feminine, low profile pump head and closure, allowed us to differentiate ourselves from others on the market while adding newness to our Anew brand,” notes Pam Teevan, manager, global engineering, Anew Skin Care, Avon Products, Inc., New York.
   
The Magic SL builds upon RPC Bramlage Wiko-USA’s original Magic Star dispenser technology. “Utilizing the same ‘Air New’ valve system as the Magic Star, The Magic SL is able to offer the same superior quality and performance of a meter dosing pump, with a sleek and compact design,” says RPC Bramlage Wiko-USA’s president, Mark Zolty. “The SL is offered in both a 30ml and 50ml size and features a slightly smaller output per stroke of 1ml, compared to the Magic Star’s 1.45ml. Both dispensers offer the much needed convenience of top filling with an easy to assembly snap fit between the pump head and container.”
   
Zolty adds that the Magic Star line will soon be complemented by the Magic Oval, a new oval version of the Magic SL dispenser which incorporates the smaller diameter pump head of the SL with an oval body. The Magic Oval is due to debut by year’s end.

Updated Appeal

Adding modernized line extensions to a time-tested, iconic brand is never an easy undertaking, especially when there are multiple SKUs and a tight schedule to keep. Procter & Gamble USA learned this first-hand when it decided to add OS Signature to its Old Spice product family. The new OS Signature lineup is formulated to appeal to “today’s generation of Old Spice guys” and consists of a premium aftershave and cologne line.
   

ITP from VOA

According to Edward Quinn, national director of sales, perfumery and cosmetic, Valois of America (VOA), Procter & Gamble approached his custom development team and sales team with a tall order: it needed no fewer than five new references for its Old Spice range (three sprays and two splashes) under the new OS Signature name. VOA met the challenge on time and within specs.
   
P&G tapped into Congers, NY-based VOA’s Integrated Top Package (ITP) technology, which entails the delivery of a fully assembled component (pump, collar and cap) to the customer’s site, speeding up production and productivity during the filling and packaging assembly processes.
   
To make the two OS Signature 30 and 50 ml sprays, VOA had to position the spray nozzle below available height, limit the toggle of a very wide actuator and secure the metal collar on the plastic insert with no adhesive. VOA also automated a complex assembly process which required indexing each of the components while protecting a production rate which was financially optimal. Delivered as an ITP, the five spray components—four custom elements and the VP4/70 Seal-Tight 15 FEA pump—were assembled in a single movement at the filler facility.
   
The primary challenges behind the OS Signature 15mL spray involved respecting very tight deadlines—presenting the first metal parts after just three weeks of development—and indexing the metal piece. For this spray, Valois developed a custom cap assembled on the Eclipse pump and composed of two custom components.
   
The OS Signature 50mL splash entailed a constant orientation of all the components, anti-rotation on the glass neck and sharing of the same metal piece for both spray and splash to reduce the investment. VOA developed a cap and shaker valve composed of five custom elements. The product is assembled automatically and delivered as an ITP.
   
And finally, for its OS Signature 15mL splash, P&G wanted the product to be “quiet” when opened and afforded VOA a very short development time to execute that objective. In turn, VOA quickly developed a customized Seal-Tight cap and splash shaker valve.
   

Kaufman Container’s Keltec Star dispenser helps upgrade the Amenity package.

Updating a package is a great way to freshen a brand’s consumer appeal. When New York-based Amenity decided to update the look of its two-year old signature men’s grooming line, it replaced the line’s glass packaging with sleek black packaging and more functional componentry. Kaufman Container of Cleveland, OH, provided dispensing units for the line’s gel facial cleanser and aftershave and face moisturizer.
   
Amenity selected the Keltec Star dispenser series because its metered dose output enables men to pump the unit once to receive the precise amount of product. Although product viscosity proved to be a challenge, the Keltec provided the desired result with little to no waste. To boot, the top-filling airless dispenser affords the product a longer shelf life and eliminates contamination. Kaufman Container silk screened the dispensers in two colors to complement the line’s color scheme.
   
Other elements that solidified Keltec as the perfect dispenser for Amenity included its travel-friendliness and an overall aesthetic that seemed to have been made with a man in mind: the dispensing heads are large and easily accessible for a man’s finger, and the metered dose dispensing created a no nonsense product for today’s man on the go.

New Product Overviews

The dispenser segment is brimming with new innovations, many of which debuted at this year’s Luxe Pack Monaco.
   

Rexam Airspray’s invisible diptube features a clear glass ball bearing.

In the fragrance arena, the invisible dip tube continues to be highly sought after. “Fragrance packaging is a completely visual sales medium and in the past, a visible dip tube was a necessary evil but making it invisible adds to the overall appeal of the package,” says Robert Brands, chief executive officer, Rexam Airspray, a division of Rexam Dispensing Systems, North Pompano Beach, FL, whose Invisible Dip Tube on its SLPP or SP7 pumps features a clear glass ball bearing rather than a metal ball, bringing low-profile, upscale transparency to a new level.
   
The company also launched the Prodigio lotion dispenser for difficult to dispense viscous lotion and cream formulations. The pump’s Clean Point Technology prevents unsightly leftover lotion from gathering at the dispenser exit point by means of an actuator channel that mechanically closes to keep the point neat and free of residue build-up. This proprietary, Rexam-developed system, engineered with a patented, wide-channel airless pump mechanism, makes lotion dispensing smooth and consistent without splattering or blockage.
   

TricorBraun’s one-handed pump

St. Louis, MO-based TricorBraun’s latest lotion pump prototype requires only one hand to operate, unlike traditional dispensers that require one hand to depress the pump and another to “catch” the product. “There have been no changes in the lotion pump for almost 40 years, and people have become so accustomed to using two hands to dispense viscous liquids from a bottle that packaging designers have not thought about how to improve upon it,” according to Craig Sawicki, executive vice president, TricorBraun Design, who says the product would appeal to consumers such as hair stylists who can reach with one hand to dispense shampoo, conditioner or styling products while continuing the application with the other hand.
   
Olan de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, has added the SAM Plus high viscosity cream and gel dispenser solution to its SAM line. The product uses the same 15ml tube and snap fit pump concept used in its spray version and is available in two dosages: 120mL and 160mL. The package componentry (tube, pump and overcap) is complete and ready for filling, and it can include up to three-ink decoration, for a ready-to-go-to-market item
   
The latest dispenser from Cospack, Edison, NJ, employs the company’s patented OS Treatment Dispenser, which uses an outer spring design to protect the product from corrosion and contamination by eliminating any contact with metal components in the fluid pathway.
   
In addition to this feature, the OS pump is designed to dispense more viscous formulas than a regular pump.
   
The Cosmetic Packaging Group, a division of O.Berk Co., Union, NJ, introduced a colorful line extension to its natural 24-410 Mini-Trigger Sprayers. The mini-trigger sprayers have 360º rotating heads, along with locking clips to allow for non-spillage during shipping and can be manufactured in custom colors or purchased from stock in natural.
   
Pfeiffer GMBH, Radolfzell, Germany, recently launched ModulArt, an easily personalized dispensing system for viscous products that’s based on standard componentry. The unit is a single block conception that integrates pump, outershell, actuator and slider that allows customers to design individualized packaging by changing only one part—the outer shell.