No longer limited to the holidays, cosmetic, personal care and fragrance gift sets are produced to mark a variety of special occasions throughout the year. And whether it’s purchased as a gift for someone else (or even for themselves), consumers love boxes that are pre-filled with fun products. 

“Gift sets really deliver delight to the receiver as they’re packaged to feel like little luxuries, and often include a bonus product or premium that feels like a splurge,” says Suzan Kerston, executive vice president, Bert-Co, Los Angeles, CA. “They also encourage the shopper to buy an entire set—something they might not normally do.”

Because gift sets often need to flexibly accommodate a family of products in tubes, cartons and glass bottles, packaging configurations can sometimes push packaging suppliers to think outside of the proverbial box. “Gift sets can be a challenge in the design of the structure, since everything needs to be seen yet still look like a gift,” Kerston says, adding that gift set packaging must entice the shopper to buy by delivering a peek inside the set, which also helps to drive sales. “A windowed box, or a two-piece box with a dust cover, are common solutions.”

Bert-Co recently produced a hair care gift set package for Inspired Beauty Brands for the upcoming holiday season. The set includes a full-sized shampoo, conditioner and a deep conditioner packet for the company’s Repairing Argan Oil and Smoothing Keratin Protein formulations. “The structure was a real challenge as the products are heavy, and the packet was easily hidden or pushed out of shape,” Kerston recalls. “A great solution was a 24 pt. SBS carton with a 12 pt. APET clear wraparound window, putting the products on full display, enticing the shopper and delighting the receiver.”

She said that while these types of clear wraparound windows can be expensive, automated pick-and-place equipment can help keep the costs down. “Bert-Co is able to die-cut the window and automatically affix the window in house,” she says. “Aside from the structure, the set is decorated with a fun pattern that’s playful and modern, making it even more ‘gifty.’ 

Adding Brand Value

As prized as gift sets are to consumers, they are even more important to the brands that sell them at retail.

“For the brands, [gift sets are] an added value that helps to put the product on a pedestal to be seen as more than just a simple bottle,” says David Jacquet, national sales manager, DAPY America, New York. “It is also a support vehicle that makes the brand more visual.”

Patrick McGee, vice president of marketing, HLP Klearfold, New York, agrees, pointing to the appeal of “visual packaging” and its unique effectiveness as a packaging medium for cosmetic, personal care and fragrance products. “Marketers spend a great deal of time and money developing primary packages to support brand image, and that evokes emotional responses from consumers,” he says. “It makes sense that these marketers would want these primary packages to be very visible and well-presented within the gift set. 

“Not to mention, consumers want to see what they’re getting, especially for gift sets or gift-with-purchase packaging promotions,” McGee adds. “Clear visual packaging showcases primary packaging beautifully, to accomplish both of these objectives. In addition to showcasing products and allowing consumers’ to see exactly what they’re getting, well-executed visual packaging creates eye-catching aesthetics and helps to create a value-added perception.”

HLP Klearfold recently worked with The Art of Shaving to develop a Klearfold gift set made of sturdy .018” APET, which McGee says gives the carton a robust feel in the consumer’s hand. “It was manufactured using proprietary Soft Crease RF energy scoring to provide uniform creases, clean lines and a crisp shape,” he explains. “Each carton was offset printed in five colors, plus gold foil stamping. A thermoformed tray holds the products securely in place, while the unprinted area of the carton provides shoppers with an unencumbered view of the contents.”

HLP Klearfold recently debuted Duofold combination packaging, which combines the best attributes of clear, box-grade plastic with paperboard to produce a distinctive visual package. “Duofold provides product visibility and, as compared to standard plastic folding cartons, can offer additional visual and textural interest by combining these two dissimilar materials,” McGee says. “And combining materials also allows some very unique structural designs, many not possible in paperboard or plastic alone.”

The company’s Soft Creased scored rigid film can also be used to create multiple plastic carton panels or to make windows that wrap around multiple score lines, permitting far greater visibility than conventional windowed cartons. 

Boosting Ancillary Product Visibility

A consumer might be drawn to a gift set with interest in one product, but gift sets represent a value to the consumer because they often include multiple ancillary products that consumers may not have tried before.

“Most often consumers will be more interested in buying a kit with a known product, then will try the additional products provided in the kit,” says Kristen O’Connell, director of sales and marketing, Roberts Packaging, Chatsworth, CA. “For a brand, it’s much easier to get a customer engaged with multiple items from their brand by presenting kit offers, as there can be a hesitation in the consumer’s mind to try something different or replace a current product in their already established beauty routine.”

Crafting a gift set that melds a variety of packaged products into one aesthetically pleasing, standout package must be approached with a creative mindset. “Now, more than ever, the bar is high to preserve the packaging elegance that consumers have come to expect,” O’Connell says. “Even though a kit may present a value, the customer doesn’t want to feel like they are buying a value set.”

Windowed gift sets present the challenge of orienting all of the products to face front and center. “This creates a problem for the designers to get enough information on the front panel to get the logo and brand colors and the gift message on the main selling panel,” says Mike Simko, vice president of sales, Curtis Packaging, Sandy Hook, CT. “We are seeing people create dead space inside to assume the image of a larger box, and space for more graphics on the front of the carton. This gives the packaging people the challenge of how to hold the product within that dead space area.”

Curtis Packaging recently completed production of a range of “cracker” style boxes for Estée Lauder’s Origins, Tory Burch, and Estée Lauder fragrance brands. “The challenge of the cracker box is [getting] the cutting and geometry [to] all work out,” Simko says. “If a score is off in the geometry, the cracker box when twisted closed could go askew and the box does not look fresh and new. So between our design, cutting and glue departments we tried to set up a series of tests to ensure we could execute the same situations over and over in the processes.”

O’Connell says Roberts Packaging works to find cohesive packaging that looks like it belongs together as a unit to prevent the customer from the feeling of a “value” kit, but rather feel it’s a special limited edition experience offered by the brand. The company’s Triple Kit packaging concept is meant to eliminate the need for an actual kit, making the products, themselves, the kit.

“It’s a very sleek connection that groups products together in an easy-to-use and on-the-go friendly way,” O’Connell says. “In keeping all products in the same packaging style, the look remains very elegant.”

The Triple Kit can be configured to hold bullets for lip, eye and concealer products as well as mascaras and eyeliners. It can be positioned as promotional, or refillable and reusable. It keeps all the products together, but is still small enough to fit in a handbag.

Upscale (Re-)Introductions

For many brands, a singular challenge associated with gift sets is how to improve upon previous years’ designs. Other packaging challenges include material lead times, product assembly and fulfillment. According to Dennis Bacchetta, director of marketing, Diamond Packaging, Rochester, NY, working with a supplier with experience in all of these areas can mitigate these potential issues and help contribute to the success of the project through shorter lead times and reduced costs.

Five Star Fragrance Company turned to Diamond Packaging when it sought to create a unique gift set to showcase its renowned Pierre Cardin men’s fragrance, which was introduced by the Design House of Pierre Cardin in 1972. The goal was a package design that could contain and display a 2.8-oz and a 1.0-oz Cologne Spray, and a 3.4-oz After Shave Balm.

Diamond converted its QuikSet gift set carton, utilizing FSC-certified metallized polyester board and offset printed with brown, red, blue, and opaque white inks, in-line with UV matte varnish and UV high gloss coating. The package’s lid features a matte varnished red and blue ribbon to provide a striking contrast to the high gloss finished logo and embossed pattern surrounding it.

“Through the use of metallized board, intricate embossing, and sophisticated branding cues (e.g., embossed red and blue ribbon), an upscale presentation was created,” says Bacchetta. “The exquisite multi-level embossed patterns (interwoven ribbon/red and blue ribbon) on the lid adds distinction and reinforces Pierre Cardin as a prestige brand.”

John Rebecchi, senior vice president, marketing and new business development, Disc, Hauppauge, NY, says, “Several of our clients report using gift sets as a way of incentivizing consumers to try new products by including ‘trial size’ packages.” He says, “Package engineering is key and we utilize a number of materials and structures including vacuum formed trays, internal partitions or corrugated inserts.”

Disc just completed work on gift set packaging for Doll 10’s Bare to Bold collection of anti-aging cosmetics, which will be sold in November on QVC in Europe as part of the company’s Holiday Collection. “The gift sets make a great ‘Today’s Special Value’ item for QVC network sales,” Rebecchi says.

The packaging subtly integrates aspects of the line’s traditional look targeted at women in the 40-70-year-old age group. According to Disc, the specifications include 18 pt. SBS, three-colors (two pinks and black), textured reticulating UV varnish, and matte and gloss spot UV.

“The package’s light pink color was inspired by the company’s transformative signature blush for enhanced beauty, and creates the look of porcelain skin,” Rebecchi says. “The embossed pebbled texture pattern was inspired by the leather of their brush bag that makes it easy for women to organize and carry the professional style brushes. The pebbled texture is visually enhanced by using a matte UV on the raised surface and gloss UV in the creases.” 

Rose gold accents coordinate with the holiday lipstick case, drawing focused attention to the Doll 10 logo and filigree that surrounds it. “The look was accomplished using cold foil tinted with a matching rose gold color and enhanced with registered embossing and gloss UV,” Rebecchi says.

  The package was designed to present Doll 10’s Bare to Bold 7 Piece Collection, Perfect Nude Lip Wardrobe, Perfect Date Lip & Cheek Collection and three versions of Perfect Pair Lip & Cheek (in Scandalous Bombshell, Ah Natural/Beautify and Paparazzi/Dolled Up).

Gift set packages aren’t just for holidays and specialty sales events anymore. Brands are taking advantage of this unique type of product positioning year-round. A well-crafted gift set package has the power to beckon from the shelf and invites consumers to explore all of its contents. Upscale design choices and eye-catching decorative effects such as specialty coatings, foil stamping and embossing or debossing not only communicate high-end positioning, but also promote product awareness and command that all-important brand appeal.