The Rise of Airless

When it comes to dispensing trends, the popularity of airless dispensers tops the charts.

By Leah Genuario, Contributing Editor

Joico Re:nu’s advanced formulas are protected from contamination thanks to airless dispensers.

This holiday season, consumers are seeing stripes and not the red-and-white-candy-cane kind typical of December. For savvy beauty shoppers eyeing the latest anti-aging remedies in the mass aisle, a brown-and-white swirl will most certainly catch their eyes.

There’s no question it’s a standout on store shelves. The white-and-brown swirls suspended in a clear gel are a signature packaging element of P&G Beauty’s Olay Definity Color Recapture. The spirals peek through both the primary and secondary containers, and aside from capturing a consumer’s attention, the look helps the brand champion product efficacy as well.

According to a company spokesperson for P&G, consumers associate distinct product benefits with each of the phases of Color Recapture. The white signals to the consumer moisturization and SPF, the brown swirl communicates immediate tone coverage, and the clear gel is serum-like which communicates anti-aging.

Olay Definity Color Recapture features a white and brown spiral suspended in clear gel.

The visual demonstration of three levels of benefits, says the spokesperson, builds P&G’s brand equity because its consumer clearly understands what results she should expect with this product before she even gets it home.

This striking look was enabled by using a sophisticated dispensing system. The brand chose an airless dispenser from Mega Pumps, an Eatontown, NJ-based airless dispensing supplier. It was a natural move considering the product’s high viscosity and surface tension. The airless dispenser also provides a controlled dose, pushes the product up uniformly and meets filling process requirements, namely a top fill with a fill orifice that matches the packaging’s body diameter.

The product debuted in July, at a retail price of $24.99.

Airless Rises in Popularity

Olay is one of many brands in today’s marketplace utilizing airless dispensing systems within its packaging. Experts site several reasons for its surge in popularity.

There are three main reasons for utilizing airless dispensers, explains Terry Sweeney, director of sales for Mega Pumps. First, “companies are using fewer preservatives in products—they are moving toward more natural formulas,” he says.

The industry trend toward natural—and also more sophisticated—formulations results in more sensitive ingredients, which are vulnerable to contamination. Airless dispensers eliminate air and hence the possibility of contamination.

Second, “airless dispensers provide an extremely good consumer experience,” says Sweeney. Not only do they add perceived value with their upscale appearance, but airless dispensers also provide extra convenience with “precise and repeatable dosing, and allow consumers to dispense nearly all of the product from the container,” Sweeney adds. “Repeatable dosing is particularly important to the anti-aging and wrinkle cream segment, allowing consumers to follow an accurate treatment regimen.”

Personal care products achieve a more upscale look with the use of airless dispensers. Those shown here are from Mega Pumps.

And finally, with an increase in more viscous formulas in the marketplace, “airless dispensers are ideal for thicker products,” says Sweeney. “Consumers get more concentrated formula with more active ingredients.”

While airless is gaining ground these days, not all beauty segments are using airless equally. “Airless packaging is really a growing segment,” says Norbert De Jong, marketing director of Rexam Personal Care, Paris, France. “Skin care formulations are getting more and more sophisticated. I’d say ninety percent of airless dispenser use would be in the skin care market.”

This may be the current reality, but beauty brands outside of the skin care arena are quickly learning the value of going airless. Joico hair care recently utilized technology created by anti-aging skin care expert Shiseido to release its Re:nu Age Defy Hair Care system. Shiseido says the scientifically advanced hair care formula is “designed to stop hair from acting its age,” and utilizes airless dispensers to ensure the formula also stays tame.

Hide and Seek

This dynamic area of packaging has produced many other innovations in recent years aside from airless dispenser advancements. Fine mist sprays for fragrances also present an area of opportunity to push technology limits.

Many fragrance brands choose to conceal the dispenser as much as possible in order to highlight the fragrance and packaging. Suppliers have met the challenge of creating dispensers that “hide.”

Rexam, for example, has launched the XD 11, an ultra-low-profile neutral fragrance pump for the prestige fragrance market. Its miniature mechanism is concealed within the neck of the bottle. The product also features a reduced-diameter nozzle and an ergonomically advanced push button available in either metal or plastic.

MWV Calmar's Clickit IP offers prestige fragrance brands a luxury look.

MWV has also seen “a trend toward hiding dispensers to allow the packaging to stand out,” says Gerard Perrin, vice president of global innovation—MWV Personal & Beauty Care, Glen Allen, VA. The company attributes this popularity to the success of its NoC invisible dip tube, which provides a transparent look, as well as its ultra-low-profile Melodie pump.

For brands looking to customize their low profiles, MWV has recently launched the Melodie Clikit pump. The capsule and actuator sheath are resin injected, enabling brands to create innovative decorating effects and colors.

In addition to fine mist sprayer looks, fine mist sprayer performance is another area of focus within the fragrance category, says Perrin. “In the fine mist category, MWV is engineering new ways of spraying to deliver at a higher predictable velocity and therefore deliver a consistent spray pattern with finer particle size,” he adds.

Found

The beauty industry is diverse in its tastes. While some brands minimize the presence of a dispenser, others showboat it. Depending on the category, states David Snyder, design director for TricorBraun Design in Chicago, personal care leaders do both.

Loréal’s Biotherm owes its gentle application to Seaquist Closure’s Pinpoint dispenser.

Stock closures can be “flush fit and camouflaged into the bottle’s surface. This presents a ‘cleaner’ look,” says Snyder. On the other end, he adds that the advantage of using a larger closure is “to gain shelf impression” and elements such as metallization and the use of a clear acrylic snap over promote a “higher end impression of the product.”

Others have also noted the dispenser’s ability to differentiate on shelf. “The pump has been a much stronger element in branding the product,” states De Jong of Rexam, “It is becoming more and more important to offer customized design, shape, color and decoration.”

De Jong notes the key role dispensers play in specific age groups. Senior-friendly “packaging and pumps require specific features, such as easy-to-open, easy-to-use and easy-to-close,” he states. With kid-specific items, “the fun factor of products is key,” which has created demand for character pumps or other kid-centric designs. He cites Rexam’s collaboration with P&G in 2005 for the frog pump used in its Pampers Kandoo line as an example of using the pump for branding appeal.

Dispensers can enhance a brand not only by the way they look, but also by the way they feel. Seaquist Closures, Mukwongago, WI, has launched its Pinpoint dispensing closure for tubes, featuring a conical-shaped silicone valve.

The soft-touch valve enables gentle application and offers a way for products in small diameter tubes to “differentiate,” says Brenda Chamuluk, director of strategic innovation. Pinpoint has been leveraged successfully in several recent launches, including L’Oréal’s Biotherm and Neutrogena’s Lift and Strengthen.

Environment Breeds Innovation

Pro-environment sentiment is another driver for dispensing systems. “Environmental consideration is not only a trend but a basic requirement,” states Christian Hauger, marketing director from Pfeiffer Beauty Division, Radolfzell, Germany.

“The strongest trend right now is a desire to focus on sustainability and to make formulations more pure. This means developing dispensers that eliminate product contact with metal components,” says Perrin.

Other brands are interested in utilizing post-consumer recycled resins to make a dispenser environmentally friendly. Although interest is there, some suppliers argue that this is not always feasible given today’s pump technology and the limitations of plastic.

Crown Aerosol Packaging announced a dispensing system that supports greenhouse gas emission reduction.

“It’s a smaller segment for the reasons it’s very difficult to realize,” says De Jong. “This is in particular valid if you refer to recyclable plastics. A pump contains parts with very precise dimensions. And with recycled plastics it is at the moment still difficult to reach these precise dimensions with extremely small tolerances. We still need ‘virgin’ resins to stay within the dimensions.” he states.

Aside from creating packaging that’s either recyclable, or made from post-consumer recycled resins, there are other ways that dispensers can aid in sustainability.

In the aerosol category, one company has recently launched a dispensing product that is purported to support greenhouse gas reduction. Crown Aerosol Packaging, Philadelphia, in cooperation with Vermont-based Ultramotive, introduced its Earthsafe Dispensing System to market this past spring.

The innovative valve and piston technology allow product to be dispensed fully without any loss of pressure. The container can be powered using carbon dioxide or nitrogen, rather than the traditionally used butane.

According to Michael Dunleavy, vice president of corporate affairs and public relations for Crown Aerosol Packaging, the innovation was developed in response to the California Air Resources Board, which has championed strict future limits on Volatile Organic Compound emissions in certain personal care packages, “reducing to less than three-tenths percent of the total volume of the package,” he states. The company has also stated that the directives are “on track to become law by January 1, 2010.”

The product offers several other advantages. “With the new Earthsafe can, there is nothing in there that can explode,” says Dunleavy, adding “you have also reduced environmental impact and made it easier to recycle. Aerosol cans today need special recycling procedures.”

Convenience Factor

Last but certainly not least, today’s busy consumers are still smitten with convenient packaging.

“The ‘pick it up and use it’ train of thought plays into everyday products,” says Snyder of TricorBraun Design, adding that consumers prefer items they can use “quickly and easily.”

TricorBraun Design teamed with the Depth Body brand to develop its pump bottle and tottle. The primary containers utilize 50% post-consumer recycled materials and the shape is inspired by the gas-filled bladder of Pacific Ocean native giant kelp. Preserving marine life is a cause heralded by its founders.

Aside from its pro-environment stance, the brand was also mindful of consumers’ need for convenience, as evidenced by its mode of dispensing. The inverted tottle ensures “the product is always ready to dispense when squeezed” and the “large flip top allows for easy, one-handed use,” comments Snyder.

Staying Power

No matter which current trend is capitalized on in a product’s creation, dispensers can help ensure staying power and enhance a brand’s message.

Dispenser design is one way to strengthen brand appeal. “The role of the pump has been a much stronger element of branding the product. The design is getting more and more key. The dispenser with all of its features really contributes to the branding,” says De Jong.

A dispenser’s ability to function can also have a major impact on product success. “Consumers view the full primary package—bottle, formulation and dispenser—as the full responsibility of the brand. They don’t see the dispenser as a separate entity, so how it performs is just as integral to the consumer experience as the product itself. If a product cannot be dispensed properly, it can impact the overall performance of the formula and ultimately brand loyalty,” says Perrin of MWV.

Despite a slowdown in other industries, the U.S. market for dispensing systems is “at a growth stage” and there is “an increase in demand for dispensing closures due to consumer convenience” and “continuous growth in end user industries such as personal care,” according to Mountain View, California-corporation Frost & Sullivan and its October 2007 report “U.S. Market for Dispensing Systems Sustaining Itself.”

Expect further innovations from this dynamic packaging segment, as well as increased growth—a steady 4.3% annual increase until 2013, states Frost & Sullivan.