Packaging Salutes Springtime
Vibrantly colored, freshly packaged products remind winter-weary consumers that a warming trend is on the way.
Splashes of color are beginning to dot department store counters, like spring's first flowers standing out against late-winter snow. These flowers - the season's product launches - signal that cosmetic, personal care, and fragrance marketers are set to warm up sales with a fresh take on packaging and product design.
Packaging a Natural Look
When Youngblood Natural Mineral Cosmetics (Simi Valley, CA) recently launched its natural-inspired spring palette of micronized loose-powder makeup, the company let the shades and formulas speak for themselves, through the packaging and directly to the consumer.
"Our products combine a natural theme with a high-tech vein," says Wendi Youngblood, COO and director of marketing for Youngblood. "The micronized powders are kept pure and don't require fillers." The packaging, she says, mirrors this. "We employ simple translucent jars with clean lines. The caps lend a modern touch, thanks to their silver gleam and their smooth edges. The end result is a look that's elegant and clean."
Youngblood's line comprises nine product categories and 73 stock-keeping units (SKUs). The company's Crushed Mineral Eyeshadows are packaged in tiny 2-g crystal SAN jars supplied by Colt's Plastic (Dayville, CT) and topped with silver metallized lids also from Colt's.
The fact that the new colors in the cosmetic line are visible through the packaging is key, according to Youngblood. "Not only do the colors speak for the season, the see-through jars really contribute to ease of use for our customers," she says. "We've had customers say that the packaging makes them feel like artists, because they're able to blend colors by dipping their applicator brushes into the different pots."
The jars in the Youngblood line are encased in elegant folding cartons manufactured by Five Oaks Creative Development (San Dimas, CA). The cartons are light gray with a linen texture that echoes the powder theme. "Black and silver writing [on the cartons] really makes creative use of negative space," says Youngblood. The products are natural, and their packaging exudes an elegance that is carried through the entire line, from the products themselves and the jars that contain them to the lids and the cartons.
Packages to Warm the Heart
Fragrance tokens of appreciation that were packaged and launched in time for Valentine's Day promise to heat up the spring season. They are the heartwarming, limited edition presentations of L'Eau d'Issey, L'Eau d'Issey pour Homme, Le Feu d'Issey, and Le Feu d'Issey Light by Issey Miyake. In typical Miyake style, the designer reinvented the holiday's central symbol - the heart - with a rounded interpretation nothing short of poetic.
A homage to simplicity and purity, the minimalist design of each token of appreciation intertwines traditional and state-of-the-art materials. In a modern, sophisticated move, Miyake decided against traditional flocked liners and set boxes, choosing instead to place each collectible miniature-sized fragrance into silky Gumitec rubber cushions individually encased in painted, gilded steel cases. L'Eau d'Issey is housed in an ivory case; L' Eau d'Issey pour Homme's case is blue; Le Feu d'Issey glows in a romantic deep-red case; and Le Feu d'Issey Light shines in a case that is bright white. Beginning February 1, the tokens have been offered (while supplies last) with the purchase of two products from Issey Miyake's fragrance line.
Springtime in a Bottle
A blue-tinted juice housed in an elliptical clear-centered bottle with frosted edges is breathing fresh air into the spring fragrance season. Oxygene from Parfums Lanvin Paris, termed a "liberating" fragrance, is sure to shake off the winter doldrums with its radiant bouquet of flowers, spices, and rare woods accented by a heart of blue iris and gardenia.
Crafted by Verreries Pochet (Paris, France), the bottle is capped with a dispensing closure from CMSI of the Ceica Group (Brion, France). The cap's design is a marriage of form and function - a blue, jewel-toned dispensing button set into and nearly flush with the top of the pearly white cap.
Perhaps even more interesting than the look of the bottle is the origin of its design. "We wanted a new, fresh idea, so we enlisted Pascale Morgue, a renowned French furniture designer, to design the bottle," says Gina DiNardi, Lanvin's public relations assistant. "The result was young and hip, but still in keeping with the sophisticated reputation of the house of Lanvin."
Marketing the Benefits of Milk
Almay's latest collection, Milk Plus, is a six-product facial-care regimen fortified with a patent-pending milk protein formula. According to the company, the formula reinforces skin's natural self-renewal system to reveal fresher, healthy-looking skin. The line's moisturizing benefits, which come from calcium, milk proteins, milk lipids, buttermilk, and whole cream, are the reason Almay procured packaging that clearly communicates the skin-pampering benefits of milk, benefits that won't be lost on consumers interested in shaping up their skin this spring.
"Three of the products are packaged in bottles with a milk-bottle shape, and each of the six products features a pearly white finish, to convey the wholesome, good-for-you quality of milk," says Hillary Solomon, vice president of marketing at Almay. Consumer research helped Almay see that the milk-bottle-shaped packaging, with its sea-foam-green lettering, provided a clear image of the product's benefits to the consumer.
Designed with simplicity and convenience in mind, each squeezable bottle features a flip-top closure. The line also incorporates jars. Beginning in March, the Milk Plus line is available at drugstores and mass market outlets nationwide.
Packaging Anew
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal, and nowhere is that more evident than on the retail shelf this season. From cosmetics to fragrances and personal care products, package designers are attracting consumers with the idea of a fresh start - a concept that may not be new, but never seems to wane.