Tubes continue to be a sought-after packaging choice for beauty brands. In 2012, nearly 40% of newly launched, U.S. color cosmetic and skincare products were packaged in tubes—a figure that outpaced bottles, which accounted for about 22% of the new U.S. beauty product launches in comparison (Mintel Global New Products Database).

“Tubes are convenient for the consumers, they can be decorated in many different sophisticated ways, and they are a good value for brands,” says Bruno Lebeault, North American marketing director, Viva Healthcare Packaging, Toronto, ON.

Viva used premium deco effects to produce the tube for Ocean Potion Protect & Renew Body.

Viva recently introduced in-house hot stamping on caps for its injection-molded tube with in-mold label decoration. The company also unveiled in-house cold foil printing on its in-mold labels to meet the growing demand for sophisticated metallic effects on tubes. “The premium decoration available by hot-stamping on the cap and cold foil on the label offers the premium prestige decoration with the convenience, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability of a PP tube,” says Lebeault.

Viva used this premium deco effect to produce the tube for Ocean Potion Protect & Renew Body—a 6 oz. injection-molded PP tube featuring an in-mold label accented by numerous printed silver cold foil elements for more impact on-shelf. The custom colored cap is also hot stamped with metallic accents for uniformity. Rather than outsourcing the work and creating a convoluted supply chain, all of the work—including tube/cap injection molding and in mold label extrusion and printing—was executed under one roof in Viva’s flagship plant in Toronto. “Typically a project like this one has a very complicated supply chain,” commented Lebeault. “The tube supplier would have to outsource the cap (and potentially, the label) [and] would need to get a contract manufacturer to hot stamp the cap. This would result in long lead times, high waste at each stage and an unsustainable solution with a lot of logistics and handling.”

Carol’s Daughter made use of CTL Packaging USA’s easysupplytube injection molded, in-mold decoration technology for its Sacred Tiare and Hair Butter tubes.

Improved supply chain logistics is also part of the appeal of Dallas, NC-based CTL Packaging USA’s easysupplytube injection molded, in-mold decoration technology. “By printing in the flat flexographic we are able to utilize the highest level of printing expertise and the BOPP label becomes part of the PP (polypropylene) sleeve of the tube, allowing for 100% coverage (shoulder through crimp, and 360 degrees around... no side seam),” says Anna Soden, CTL’s director sales and business development. She adds that metallic effects, four-color process printing and hot stamping are also available.

The technology proved to be a winning choice for Carol’s Daughter when the company sought packaging for its new personal care line that features strong continuity across each of the products. “With CTL Packaging easysupplytube technology we were able to meet the unique graphic intent,” Soden says. “The background on the Sacred Tiare resembles recycled paper and has a color band at the top of the tube. The Hair Milk used a clear label and color band to achieve its stylish finish.”

Metal always adds a luxe touch. The Egnite patented laminate tube from Danville, VA-based Essel Propack Americas delivers a lustrous, metallic look to help brands pop on the shelf. “It is a plastic barrier laminate with excellent ‘bounce back’ characteristics, meaning after the tube is squeezed it will regain its original shape,” explains Wendi Caraballo, the company’s marketing manager.

“The Essel Propack Egnite laminate was specifically designed for higher positioned cosmetic/personal care products,” adds Ted Sojourner, regional vice president. “With EP’s combination print capabilities, manufacturers can create their own unique branding ‘billboard’.”

Unilever’s Tresemmé Keratin Smooth shampoo and conditioner is one packaging range using the Egnite laminate. “They chose this material because of the high luster look and because it doesn’t dent as easily as other laminates on the market,” said Caraballo. “The metallic look that the Egnite laminate provides really showcases the high end look of the classic Tresemmé brand.”

The Merits of Metal

While tubes offer many unique packaging advantages, the barrier benefits of aluminum tubes and the decorative appeal of metallized finishes can often show the wear and tear of use, leaving visible dents in the package and marring a design aesthetic. It’s a challenge that’s become a point of innovation for a number of tube providers in addition to Essel.

The Egnite plastic laminate tube from Essel Propack delivers dentless barrier protection and metallic luxe appeal.

Polyfoil, a product of Plastube, Montreal, QC, is an inner-seamed, over-extruded high-barrier tube that includes an aluminum substrate, a material that provides the stiff, attractiveness of a seamless tube and a metallic surface showing through a natural polyethylene surface layer. It also affords the ability to be offset printed.

Polyfoil proved to be the tube material of choice for the recent additions to celebrity hair stylist Mitch Stone’s range of Mitch Stone Essentials professional styling products. On the aluminum cans of his collection, the image’s transition from red to gold is subtle and truly evocative of a California sunset. But when 456-Lustre Shampoo and 457-Lustre Conditioner were added to the line in the spring of 2013, replicating that subtle yet dynamic brand image on plastic tubes presented a challenge which was solved through the teamwork of TricorBraun, St. Louis, MO, and Plastube.

“Traditional silk screening on a plastic tube couldn’t capture the subtle changes within the image,” says Chris Pelt, CEO of Mitchell Stone Essentials. “So we sent TricorBraun on a mission to find a tube solution with a substrate that would allow Malibu Sunset to truly shine.”

Following an exhaustive search, TricorBraun selected Polyfoil tubes. “The Polyfoil technology enables the marketer to differentiate and create a package that’s appealing on so many levels,” says Becky Donner, TricorBraun’s vice president of corporate business development.

“This was not an inexpensive choice,” says Pelt, “but a premium brand requires a premium brand image. The unique look that Malibu Sunset gives to the package had to shine.”

The Polyfoil packaging partnership between TricorBraun and Plastube has also been fruitful for other recently launched personal care and beauty projects. The tube selected by Immanence Dermo-Correction for its Cell-Élite product required high barrier properties and opacity.

Bonfoil technology is an inner-seamed, over-extruded tube that includes an aluminum and PET substrate to provide protective barrier properties to active ingredients.

Marie-Claude Ménard, Plastube’s business development director, explains that the objective was to maintain the same high-end dermo-pharma aesthetic currently on the facial products, while adding a differentiation feature. “This was achieved by adding a dotted gradient circle around the product’s identification on the front panel,” she says, noting that a metal overshell cap and multiple deco processes were also used to complete the high-end look.

Polyfoil was also the solution for BG Beauté’s Misencil tube needs. According to Ménard, Polyfoil delivered a quality, luxury appearance as well as barrier properties. The tube went through multiple screening processes to render the signature “rosy matte” background effect pattern. “Plastube was able to match exactly the pink color we wanted to achieve (our brand’s main Pantone color),” says BG Beauté’s Misencil’s Michèle Jutras, marketing and communications. “The silver foil stamping enabled us to highlight just the right elements on our packaging; in this case, our logo and our main active ingredient, fruit cell culture extract.”

Irene Yan, project management, Yuan Harng Co., Ltd., Taiwan, says her company’s cosmetic clients are increasingly finding success with their Bonfoil tube for premium products like eye treatments, tinted moisturizers, BB creams and sunscreens because of its excellent barrier properties of an aluminum tube and metallic aesthetics.

“Bonfoil technology is an inner-seamed, over-extruded tube that includes an aluminum and PET substrate, providing superior barrier properties to protect active ingredients, thus highly compatible with various formulas including aggressive ones like sunscreen, makeup and hair removal,” she says. “Its PE substrate allows all kinds of printing effects, such as offset printing, silkscreen printing and hot stamping.”

Polyfoil was the tube material of choice for Mitch Stone Essentials professional styling products.

For Vinay Upasani, president, Global Packaging Inc., La Habra, CA, the future of tubes is oval, dentless and airless. When a Chinese firm sought an oval tube to house its BB cream range, Global Packaging provided a tube with a key point of differentiation: a special “dentless” aluminum barrier laminate (ABL) which helps the package maintain an upscale, luxury profile.

“Normal ABL will dent but this tube has a dent memory after it is squeezed,” he says. “Dentless ABL tubes have an aluminum layer for barrier protection but they also have three layers of polyethylene and other plastic materials to support the aluminum layer, giving the special dentless quality.”

Oval was also an option for an 11SKU line for International Beauty Haus LLC, Beverly Hills, CA. “Oval tubes are easy to hold and handle,” says IBH’s Mark Freeman. “They distinguish your products from other competitors and have more space on front and back panels for decoration.”

Global Packaging supplied IBH with custom colored oval tubes—a colored tube was gradient printed, darker at the bottom closest to the custom colored flip-top cap, and lighter progressing toward the top. Each tube was then accented with a combination of offset, silkscreen and hot stamp printing.

Global Packaging supplied a Chinese firm with a dentless ABL oval tube to house its BB cream range.

Just as special formulations deserve special packaging, special tubes deserve special closures. Global Packaging is in the process of developing an oval tube with airless pump dispensing—a feat Upasani believes is an industry first.“After a product is dispensed from an ordinary tube, air gets sucked back into the tube prior to recapping,” he says. “Airless dispensers utilize a unidirectional valve, eliminating ‘suckback’ and eventually flattening the tube as product is dispensed.”

With a 95-96% product evacuation rate, not only would airless dispensing make tubes an economical packaging choice for brands, it also makes sense when it comes to formula preservation. “Preserving the product without chemical preservatives is also important, that’s why airless dispensing is becoming so important,” Upasani says, noting the benefit for high-end skincare serums and crèmes comprised of sensitive ingredients and formulas free of chemical preservatives.

Machinery that Makes the Difference Sometimes a unique tube requires custom tooling to speed up the process of making the concept a reality, especially when it comes to tubes that require unique filling, sealing and trimming work.

“Customers want shorter and shorter lead-times on new product launches, meaning the entire product lifecycle needs shortening,” says Kevin DePasquale, president, The Whole Package, Oak Ridge, NJ. “Tube suppliers are being pushed to deliver tubes quicker; in turn, everybody involved with the project needs to speed up their deliverables.”

The Whole Package is an aftermarket parts supplier specializing in changeover tooling and machinery technical support services. After a customer decides on their tube size and cap combination, about a dozen empty, undecorated tube samples are sent to The Whole Package. The company then creates unique tube filling machine tooling called size parts or change parts using 3D CAD modeling software and 3D printing machinery to engineer the new tooling. “It’s just a matter of the product designers innovating and we will be ready to make the custom change part tooling to enable those products to run in existing packaging equipment such as tube filling machines,” DePasquale says. “The more complex and unique the shape of the container (tube, bottle, jar) the more we like it; it gives us a challenge which we are always open to solving.”

New Tube Innovations in Brief

• Express Tubes has developed a new Twist Click technology for its 25-, 39- and 50mm tubes, which allow for more dispensing option flexibility. The company has also designed a new PE tube with head style neck threads to accommodate the popular octagon and hexagon shaped caps that have only been available on the metal and laminate tubes.

• Lageen Tuboplast Ltd. is now using a new plastic tube and sleeve printing technology, which applies multiple printing processes, such as CMYK flexo, offset, hot stamp and silkscreen, in up to nine decorating stations that are easily re-assembled in any order needed, all in a single decorating platform. The technology enables printing directly-to-the-tube, virtually any design, without the need for labels, offering endless possibilities including realistic photo imaging on top of light reflective metallic colors with 360-degree graphics on a seamless, supple PE tube. The technology also reduces lead-time as the tube remains on a single machine until pack out.

• Norden Machinery Inc. is offering a new twist on multi-color tube filling with “swirl filling.” The technology utilizes specially designed filling nozzles and servo technology to rotate the tube during the filling operation to create amazing effects with two or three different fill products.

Skinn Cosmetics chose in-stock tubes from East Hill for its Love & Lotus Milky Protein Cleanser.

In-Stock Options for Smaller Run Situations

East Hill Industries, Inc., Richardson, TX, has expanded its supply of in-stock tubes to accommodate a wider range of ready-made multi-layer COEX tubes for fast-turnaround orders to small and large customers alike.

Chris James, the company’s vice president, explained that in-stock expansion was inspired by several needs, including catering to companies that don’t meet minimum order requirements for custom runs, soft launches and urgent turnaround needs.

Skinn Cosmetics, Torrance, CA, was a recent East Hill in-stock tube customer in search of 6oz. Natural tubes. “They wanted to test launch a new product, the Love & Lotus Milky Protein Cleanser, and were under a tight deadline to get it done,” recalls James. “After a quick conversation, they purchased 20,000 of our Natural 6oz multi-layer tubes, and we silkscreened them two colors.

“They are very pleased with the final product and assuming the product does well, they will begin running them with East Hill as a custom tube,” he says.