Special Delivery Skin Care

Innovative delivery systems—among other packaging strategies— allow brands to differentiate their products, as well as meet consumers’ growing demands.

By Leah Genuario, Contributing Editor

Toly offers an airless jar to brands.

In the beginning, there was the end. This skin care packaging story starts with its delivery—the way in which the product leaves the packaging. For most of packaging history, skin care products were dispensed with a squeeze out of a simple orifice and onto a hand. Not anymore.

The consumers’ lust for packaging that offers more—more convenience, more style or more control—has ushered in a new era of skin care packaging that includes myriad new applicator tips and overall growth in technologically advanced delivery systems.

For many skin care brands, packaging must marry beauty and brains. It needs to perform.

“Today, what brands are doing is not just selling the performance of the formulation— they are selling the performance of packaging and formulation together,” says Walter Dwyer, president, Cosmopak, Port Washington, NY.

Formulations continue to push earlier limits, and packaging is following suit—oftentimes, requiring special delivery systems. “This is evident with the increase in skin care packaging systems other than typical bottles, jars and tubes,” explains Terence R. Sweeney, director of sales for Mega Pumps, Eatontown, NJ. “Consumers expect these new, state-of-the-art skin care formulations to have delivery systems that have the most innovative features and benefits as well.”

Applicator Tips

The choice of applicator tips available today can be dizzying. A strategically chosen applicator can offer numerous benefits.

Sometimes an applicator provides a solution. Hair removal creams utilize strong formulations many consumers don’t wish to get on their hands. Johnson & Johnson Carefree Hair Removal Totally Smooth Leg Créme resolves the challenge with a custom-molded applicator from HandsFree Marketing, Inc., Huntington Beach, CA, which conforms to the roundness of legs. The applicator— used with a 50ml tube—dispenses and spreads product without having to use hands.

Getting product to a targeted area can also be a challenge when the only application tool available is a hand. Again, the new age of applicators comes to the rescue. For example, Elizabeth Arden Prevage teamed with HCT Packaging, Inc., London, to create a custom-molded, elongated spatula tip. The tip “ensures accurate application of concentrated serum targeting fine lines around the eyes,” states Rebecca Goswell, HCT’s global creative director.

Applicators also add value, imbue a prestige image or accomplish both. Also working with HCT Packaging, the Garnier Nutritioniste Caffeine Eye Roller taps into an existing applicator technology, “but reworked in a modern way, the pack and product are really effective, and essentially it played a pivotal role in propelling L’Oréal’s crossover to challenge the prestige brands,” comments Goswell.

Airless Systems

While airless dispensing systems are infiltrating most areas of beauty, they have particularly captured skin care.

“Airless dispensing is still very popular for skin care packaging for the same reasons it became popular in the first place: its ability to protect more sensitive formulas from outside elements and to dispense 99.9% of the product within,” says Lesley Gadomski, sales manager, Fusion Packaging, Dallas, TX.

Fusion Packaging introduced a square twist-up package at HBA this year.

“Airless packaging helps to keep air and other contaminants out of the formulations, thus extending shelf life and reducing preservatives,” adds Dorien Bianco, head of Toly’s marketing group, which has U.S. offices in Waterbury, CT.

Manufacturers and marketers are not the only ones to sing the praises of airless dispensing. Consumers continue to recognize its performance and added value, helping to drive the trend.

“The popularity of airless dispensing for skin care products will continue to grow as its benefits become more recognizable. In this difficult economic climate, consumers want to be one hundred percent certain that they are getting out ever last drop of serum or dollop of cream. The mechanics behind airless dispensers ensure that the product is being completely delivered, so consumers can rest assured they are getting the most for their money,” says Hui Herskovitz, vice president, Qosmedix, Edgewood, NY.

Within the airless category, brand marketers are snapping up the latest innovations from manufacturers. Dwyer of Cosmopak recognizes increased use of twin chamber applications, as well as a new trend in utilizing dial systems to “change the balance between two or three chambers,” he adds. The company also offers a touch jar, an airless dispenser for a jar featuring a plastic pump and small orifice in the middle.

Toly Group has recently introduced a number of new airless products, including an airless jar, as well as a mini airless package with a dual chamber. The two chambers in the mini package keep ingredients separate until the first press of the pump mixes the two formulations together. Designed for testers, the mini airless package is offered in several size capacities.

There has also been a trend in skin care toward non-metal contact airless dispensers. “By eliminating all metal componentry within the pump mechanism, you’ve eliminated a potential source of concern for compatibility issues. This non-metal contact technology also allows for increased freedom with development of formulations,” comments Benny Calderone, sales director, PKG Group, Somerset, NJ.

PKG Group in partnership with Yonwoo Korea has leveraged CV pump technology as its primary dispensing engine in skin care packaging. Featuring a new, patented check valve system, which eliminates a traditional metal ball valve as well as taking the metal spring outside of the fluid path, the pump is capable of handling highly viscous and sensitive formulations.

Fusion Packaging has also noticed demand for non-metal, offering “an airless bottle, for example, that does not utilize a metal sprint in the pump engine as most airless packages do.”

Duffy & Partners worked with Thymes to discover a unique brand voice.

Differentiating Through Packaging

The skin care market is highly fragmented with the largest brand capturing merely a 7% sliver of market share, according to a 2007 Professional Skin Care U.S. market analysis report by Kline & Company. As competition increases and brands jockey for a larger portion of market share, packaging and branding offer an opportunity to differentiate.

In addition to leveraging delivery systems, there are multiple ways for skin care brands to discover a unique voice.

“The opportunity with packaging, or a component of marketing or the retail experience, is to tell the unique story of your brand,” comments Tricia Davidson, principal and managing partner of Duffy & Partners, Minneapolis, MN. “The challenge is to determine what makes you most unique. Define what people are looking for in their skin care that competitors can’t deliver. Everyone wants beautiful skin, so illustrate what else your product offers.”

For example, the Aveda Men brand, working in tandem with Duffy & Partners, discovered its uniqueness in a formulation for men and its concern for the environment.

Environmental Sentiments Sell

Strong consumer sentiments toward the environment have been a selling point for many brands. In addition to natural and organic ingredients, eco-conscious marketers have looked toward packaging to convey uniqueness.

In response to this trend, Fusion Packaging has received a spectrum of requests. The company is seeing “more requests for single-wall containers as opposed to the formerly, more popular, double-wall products. Single-wall packages require less plastic during production. Our customers are also considering packages that include locking pumps, eliminating the need for a superfluous over-cap,” states Gadomski.

Lombardi Design and Manufacturing (LDM), Freeport, NY, has launched stock treatment dispensers. Termed the Mask Series, “it can be offered as a refill system allowing for multiple uses of the outer bottle,” states Jack Albanese, sales engineer.

Clinical Looks

Uniqueness can also be derived from associations with the medical industry. Many skin care brands originate or are endorsed by dermatologists. Others tout quasi-medical results (i.e., reduction of fine lines), therefore aligning themselves with a more clinical image.

“There will always be skin care brands that enhance their credibility through their associations with the pharmaceutical industry or medical community,” adds Herskovitz. “Skin care brands may choose to design their packaging to look more clinical so that the brand message and medical influence is more easily recognizable to the consumer.”

This clinical image can be effectively communicated in package design and decoration— most often through the use of simple, straightforward straightforward designs.

“This is still a strong category as marketers look to expand into the quasi-drug space. The packaging does tend to be more user-friendly and looks the part with minimal decoration and value-added steps. Even the cartons tend to be more pharma than cosmetic,” observes John M. Lamie, managing partner for Asia Dispensing, LLC in Old Greenwich, CT. He cites E.T. Browne Co.’s Palmer-brand scar serum as an example of this approach.

Paying homage to its dermatologist origins, the Wexler skin care line utilized Mega Pumps’ white dispenser and “a clean, one-color silk screen” for its package decoration. “We do see brands that pull credibility from the pharmaceutical or medical industry,” says Sweeney. “I believe many of the brands that are using medical credibility are actually backing it up with real expertise.”

To answer the demand for pharmaceuticallook packaging, Fusion Packaging has developed its Pure product line, which “addresses this specific category” and “reflects a more simplified, more clinical image,” says Gadomski.

Olay’s Pro-X eye restoration complex utilizes a Mega Pumps dispenser in its prestige presentation..

Prestige to Masstige

Another trademark of skin care packaging is its nod toward the luxury market. “The retail price points of skin care clients are going higher and higher,” says Dwyer of Cosmopak. “It doesn’t have a price ceiling the way makeup seems to have.” This trend is not only in traditionally prestige distribution channels. As Sweeney of Mega Pumps explains, “Mass skin care brands are not only duplicating the look of prestige lines, but some are actually expanding the foothold of the category everyone is referring to as masstige.”

Sweeney cites Olay’s Pro-X. “In one of the products in this line, Olay took a standard Mega dispenser, and asked us to provide a prestige presentation using a high-gloss red lacquer finish, silk screen decoration, a fine bright silver hot stamp around the neck topped off with a cap debossed with Olay Professional.”

No matter what the channel, “skin care brands continue to strive to maintain a highend image, whether they offer mass or prestige products,” says Gadomski.

The push for luxury status has translated into a variety of secondary trends. In alignment with this move toward upscale packaging, Rexam Closures, Perrysburg, OH, has noted increased usage of secondary packages among skin care brands. “Skin care packaging tends to utilize more custom-looking packages along with secondary product packaging to help achieve a more upscale look,” says Matt Marshall, global product manager. “The use of secondary packaging can differentiate the product on counter; LDM’s stock caddies, trays and display cases are custom-run and branded, offering the added value of a reusable container to the consumer and a permanent brand presence in the household,” notes Albanese.

One brand to capitalize on a secondary package is Aveeno. “One of the nicest presentations I have seen is the Aveeno Positively Ageless dispenser,” comments Sweeney. “Most notably, the secondary package has a natural, earthy look.” A three-sided carton is wrapped in a clear outer package, enabling visibility of the primary package.

Innovative shapes and dazzling decorations also come into play when trying to differentiate through a prestige look. “The variety of decoration options—for example, offset printing, silk-screening, labeling, metallizing, hot stamping and soft touch—and the ability to combine these options on one package is a great start [toward differentiating through packaging],” says Marshall.

Sophisticated decorations are on the rise. “Where a decade ago, a clear or opaque jar with a one-pass deco was the norm, we are seeing translucent and transparent colors for the jars to be very popular as well as gradient and frosted color effects,” says Michael Warford, VP sales and marketing, Colt’s Plastics Co., Inc., Dayville, CT.

Aveeno Positively Ageless adds a secondary package that showcases a Mega Pumps dispenser.

All in the Family

For brands that find the right mix of packaging, formulations and brand appeal, there exists a strong opportunity for line extension. Skin care lines are less apt to sell as standalone products and are often purchased together as a system. For this reason, Marshall notes the existence of a “family look” among a range of package sizes.

“Skin care brands often convey a focus on lifestyle—people tend to gravitate toward purchases of a full system comprising many products that answer specific skin care needs or containing a key beneficial ingredient that remains constant throughout the product line,” says Calderone of PKG Group. “As you delve deeper into the skin care segment, you will notice a great emphasis placed on bringing continuity throughout a brand utilizing all aspects of the packaging. Eye products, moisturizers, toners, lip products, and even hand products are packaged similarly to create more of a family look and support the concept of a skin care system as well as the marketer’s brand image.”