12.11.08
Glass Sealing
Decorative embellishments can turn an everyday glass bottle into a sophisticated piece of art.
By Lindsay Elkins, Contributing Editor
The distinctive bottle for True Religion for Women, created by Zorbit Resources, is oversprayed for a uniquely textured translucency and adorned with a faceted glass jewel inset within a cast metal face plate. |
Nothing says timeless elegance like a chic, glass bottle. Most often used to house fragrance, nail color and high-end skin care products, this luxe packaging is often displayed in a woman’s bedroom and bathroom. Decorative effects such as silk screening, pad printing and lacquering can turn everyday cosmetic products into mini pieces of art and boost the sophistication factor in an everyday product. Despite certain drawbacks such as potential breakage, demand for glass containers in cosmetic and toiletry applications is forecast to increase, albeit modestly, by less than 1% per year to 1.4 billion units in 2012, according to The Freedonia Group.
With the popularity of celebrity fragrance brands and the upscaling of mass market fragrance lines, there will be opportunities for higher-value glass bottles that offer a premium image for such fragrances, according to The Freedonia Group. Due to a fragrance’s traditionally short lifespan, many companies are introducing fragrance flankers as a means to extend the fragrance’s presence, while also avoiding the need to start from scratch in terms of package design, according to Marc Rosen, president and CEO, Marc Rosen Associates, a design firm specializing in package and product design.
The same bottle is transformed to give the flanker a different personality; designers are really pushing the envelope for uniqueness,” says Rosen. “A flanker can use the same bottle as its predecessor, but with a few innovative decoration techniques, can have its own identity in a cost-effective way.”
One successful flanker series continues with Warhol Lexington Ave, the third introduction in the Warhol series for Bond No. 9, an edgy downtown perfumery that draws inspiration from the neighborhoods of New York, with scents bearing names such as Bleecker Street, Chinatown and Park Avenue. The company is known for using high-impact decorative silk screening effects. Lexington Avenue recalls Warhol’s formative pre-Pop years in 1950s New York, when he lived in the first of several apartments on the busy avenue and honed his trade as an illustrator—mainly of imaginative shoes. The flacon features a combination of exclamation-point heels and high-button boots in vivid colors of pink, purple and green, among others, which pop on an all black background embossed with the Andy Warhol signature in metallic silver. USS Corporation provided decorative extras to the statement flacon including silk screening the sides of the cap and bottle, according to Bob DeProspo, executive vice president of sales and marketing.
The third flanker installment in the Christian Dior Poison fragrance series recently launched in decorative packaging developed by SGD N.A. Christian Dior Midnight Poison utilizes the same dramatic, feminine sweeping bottle as past Poison concoctions, only this time SGD packaged the sensual juice in a rich, midnight blue, according to Shéhérazade Chamlou, vice president of marketing and global account executive for SGD N.A. The perfume bottle features swirls of midnight blue glass inside the flint glass bottle creating constantly changing, satin-like effects. “These swirls follow the bottle’s curves and are the result of the addition of a drop of color in the feeder,” says Chamlou. “The glass takes unpredictable hues, making each piece a one-of-a-kind work of art. In terms of decoration, the bottle is sprayed all over with a midnight blue lacquer, the ribs are lacquered in black and the perfume name is silver hot stamped.”
Minor Detail, Major Impact
Embellishments such as charms, plaques and decorative accessories glued, hung or clipped onto a glass bottle are right on trend for this year and continuing into the future, according to Chamlou, who cites Gucci by Gucci as a prime example of this technique. The heavily weighted glass bottle features goldtone hardware and a horsebit detail charm, which dangles from the neck of the bottle and is engraved with the Gucci name.
The third flanker in Christian Dior’s Poison series tempts consumers with its rich, midnight blue. |
The Coco Monoi collection from Beauty of Bathing, which includes oil, soap, cream, shower gel, foaming bath and eau de parfum that utilizes precious oils and flower essences, wanted to create glass packaging that quite literally put its Polynesian heritage and notes of white gardenia on display. The brand enlisted help from Duffy & Partners to create an array of nature-inspired decorative effects such as etching techniques to create foliage and botanical shapes on a multi-hued sprayed frosted finish. The glass also has an ombre effect, with colors deepening toward the bottom to give it extra flair.
“We’re beginning to see a trend in packaging in general that we call ‘integrated branding,’ ” says Dan Olson, creative director, Duffy & Partners. “It’s where branding happens in ways beyond the traditional logo, through color, shape, pattern and texture. It can be about the intrinsics of a product—or what it’s made of. When done right, it provides far greater opportunity than just using a logo in a package design; it allows brands to speak more deeply about a product or the company that it comes from.”
Celebrity-staple denim brand True Religion enlisted Zorbit Resources to create a unique package that fit with the brand’s California boho-chic vibe for the recent launch of True Religion for Women, the company’s first foray into fragrance. The distinctive bottle is oversprayed for a uniquely textured translucency and adorned with a faceted glass jewel inset within a cast metal face plate.
“Our intent was to design a bottle that would have the look and feel of a precious artifact you would find in an attic or a garage sale,” said Scott Oshry, executive vice president, design, for Zorbit Resources.
Innovation Is King
According to Manny Mazzei at Heinz Glass USA, the company has been doing a lot of pad printing on glass lately for its client roster, whose recent launches include Vera Wang Look.
For the ultimate holiday gift, Bond No. 9 created this $1,300 limited-edition shoe, containing three different colored bottles of Andy Warhol Lexington Avenue. |
Heinz was the innovator behind the recent launch of Secret Obsession for Calvin Klein, who tapped perfumer Calice Becker to create the sexy, sophisticated fragrance, peddled by A-lister Eva Mendes. The packaging follows suit with its feminine, curvy shape and amber-hued glass.
Other new advances in decorative glass packaging include an internal mirror effect, developed by SGD and utilized in the packages of both Narciso Rodriguez For Him and For Her, which gives the illusion that the fragrance is suspended within the bottle.
“Another new area of innovation in decorative techniques has been the new inks for silk screening, allowing for a vast range of finishes and colors,” explains SGD’s Chamlou. “For example, inks with glitter and pearlescent and floral inks. We also have new inks for lacquering, which include helicons, hologram and soft touch, as well as spraying with a crackled effect.”
SGD has also developed a new generation of spray with fluorescent pigments, which can be seen in the recent launch of high fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s Ma Dame fragrance. The fresh floral is housed in a flashy pink/orange bottle that features the silhouette of a woman’s torso and depending on the light, can appear to be pink, orange or a combination of both.
USS Corporation’s DeProspo told Beauty Packaging that the company has been working on texturizing methods as well, and recently debuted an innovative spray technique that allows the glass to have a crackle-like finish. “We’re spraying actual texture onto a glass package; it’s a unique process,” explains DeProspo.
Glass Goes Green
Once thought of as a fly-by-night trend, consumers are showing that greening their lives is important and is becoming more of an overall lifestyle with the launches of everything from eco-friendly clothing to organic cosmetics, and manufacturers are now looking into options for creating glass packages and using decorative techniques that are environmentally responsible, without sacrificing a sophisticated look.
“We are very in tune with the ‘green’ aspect of packaging and we are careful to develop decorating processes that are as eco-friendly as possible,” asserts Mazzei of Heinz Glass.
According to USS Corporation’s DeProspo, all of the ceramic inks the company uses are environmentally safe and free of toxins such as lead. “When using spraying techniques, we’re completely environmentally friendly,” he says. “Our machines also don’t emit fumes into the atmosphere. Companies really need to and should want to comply.”
Coco Monoi used etching techniques to create foliage and botanical shapes on a multi-hued sprayed frosted finish. |
The Gaia collection is derived 100% from the recycling of household glass. By using a higher level of cullet, 100% of recycled household waste, SGD avoids raw material extractions and can drastically lower carbon dioxide rejections, as well as energy consumption.
Even with the emergence of thick-walled PET jars that resemble glass, nothing can take the place of this sophisticated material. “Glass offers an added value that cannot be duplicated in other materials,” says Mazzei of Heinz Glass. “When we talk about fine fragrance and treatment, there is no substitute.”
Incorporating the right decorative effects such as dangling charms, spraying techniques or internal mirror effects play an increasingly important role in packaging for high-end beauty products aiming to satisfy consumers’ perception of prestige.
