Inside Design: Spring Packaging Shows Its True Colors
The packaging for Cover Girl's Color-Amazed line is a window on color. The season's cosmetics packages are designed to support a vibrant palette.
By Lori Bryan, EditorFrom mass-market to luxury brands, the look of cosmetics this spring is intense color. Replacing the more traditional passive pastels are such assertive hues as reds, purples, yellows, and greens that make a statement to consumers and also encourage them to make their own.
Such power-color formulations require just the right packaging for retail presentation. Read on to find out how some companies are springing into action.
Cover Girl's Kaleidoscope
Mass-market cosmetics brand Cover Girl, a division of Procter & Gamble (Cincinnati), introduces its Color-Amazed collection this spring. "The glossy colors and vibrant shades for eyes, lips, and nails are inspired by the season's freshest flowers and most exotic fruits," says Cheryl Hudgins, manager, external relations for Procter & Gamble Cosmetics. "To keep the focus on the season's newest shades," she says, "the packaging is beautiful and simple and [incorporates] clear caps and panels that display the colors."
The clear cylindrical containers for the limited-edition Liquid LipSlicks are an example of this. Moreover, silver accents on the clear containers don't distract from the colors of the formulations: Violet Glaze, Rosy Glaze, Aqua Glaze, Spring Glaze, and Pure Glaze. The package's angled brush is designed for ease of application.
The packaging for Liquid LipSlicks had to be exactly right, as Cover Girl expects the product to drive sales of the Color-Amazed line this spring. "Last year, [our] In the Mod collection featured Lava LipGloss, which helped generate 38% of total sales," says Anne Martin, manager of global cosmetics marketing for Procter & Gamble Cosmetics.
Other packages sure to get consumers' attention are silver eye pencils called EyeSlicks Gel EyeColor, with color-coded caps and in shades reminiscent of springtime flowers and fruits: Sheer Tangerine, Sheer Raspberry, and Sheer Lime.
"The brand's Easy, Breezy, Beautiful positioning is reinforced through the packaging," adds Hudgins. "Products are packaged so that it's easy to select the right shade."
Lancôme's Luminous Lineup
Clear plastic tubes and black compacts with clear windows are some of the packages showcasing the Lancôme Paris Spring Colour Collection. . Color is also playing a major role in high-end cosmetics this spring. On the counter at Lancôme Paris through April is the Spring Colour Collection 2002—an array of fairytale-like shades the company calls a dreamy color fantasy.
Packaging for the Collection puts the emphasis on the colorful formulations and does nothing to divert consumers' attention from them. The look is designed to take consumers to a place where they can "paint life as [they] imagine it to be."
Transparent plastic tubes for Juicy Tubes Ultra Shiny Lip Gloss allow consumers an in-store preview of the formulations, ones with flavor-oriented names like Orange, Violette, and Kiwi, in orange, purple, and green hues, respectively. "Each is a fruity cocktail that's a real treat for the lips," according to representatives at Lancôme.
Subtle packages with classic lines deliver the treat. Round, black compacts with clear windows show off blues and pinks and yellows. Clear 0.40-oz nail-polish bottles reveal Vernis Magnétic Unfailing Nail Lacquer in shimmering colors, like Lollipop, Bluebird, and Oz. And Le Lipstique LipColouring Stick with Brush comes in a sleek package that is designed for convenience, with its soft pencil on one end and a brush for blending on the other.
Yves Saint Laurent's New Purple
Gold packages put the spotlight on Yves Saint Laurent's shades of purple. New Spring Look 2002 cosmetics from Yves Saint Laurent are all about purple.
"For spring, a veil of violet is cast against the skin," says the company. "From the deepest orchid to a matte, muted lavender, violet delivers pure, focused color. But it is also charged with mystery. Sexy, slightly audacious, its effect is more evocative than explicit."
The cosmetics' packaging helps put the color purple—in contemporary shades and balanced with understated nudes—center stage. Gold containers, compacts, and caps with the signature Yves Saint Laurent logo distinguish each product, calling attention to the brand and its latest makeup shades for spring.
The see-through bottle for Premier Teint No 7 reveals a Rose Pearl color. The clear bottle for Vernis Laque Pur No 3 puts the spotlight on Ultraviolet.
Super Natural Love, by Sexy Hair Concepts
Red cartons for Sex Symbol not only reveal the primary packages and their contents, but also add color all their own. Part of the Sexy Hair Concepts (Chatsworth, CA) collection, the spring 2002 Sex Symbol makeup line called Super Natural Love features color-cosmetics enhancers that "depict the pure sensuality and innocence that comes from life's firsts." First kisses and first loves, for example, is the message that the products convey. Blushful packaging helps to communicate the concept.
"Red is a passionate color," says Donna Federici, senior vice president of marketing for Sexy Hair Concepts. "We followed our passions with this collection."
Metallic-red secondary packages for products like Lip Lacquer and Peep Show say love is in the air. Windows in the cartons give consumers a sneak preview of their cosmetics purchase.
Lip Lacquer, a lip-gloss duo, includes Sugar, a soft vanilla-frosting-like glaze with a hint of color, and Rush, a sheer, golden-fused pink. The two different shades, contained separately at opposite ends of a dual-compartment container decorated with stars, are visible through the secondary carton. The double-barreled lip-gloss package is supplied by World Wide Packaging Inc. (Livingston, NJ).
The Lip Lacquer package and others in the collection communicate the products' message to consumers by incorporating components that hold multiple shades of product, like the clear lip-gloss barrels, says Federici. Similarly, the eye-shadow trio Peep Show provides romantic colors for wear anytime, day or night, in one package. Three colors—Allure (pale shimmer), Coy (soft caramel), and Envy (sparkling jade)—are visible through the carton and the three-welled compact's clear lid.
Federici adds, "More than ever, color is playing an extremely important role in packaging. It's the first thing that differentiates you from other brands."
Super Natural Love cosmetics are available in professional salons in more than 20 countries this spring.
Packaging the Colors of Spring
Cosmetics in a broad spectrum of hot colors presented a challenge for beauty packagers this season. Companies had to find the most suitable package designs for their products—ones that would attract but not distract from their colorful formulations. The companies discussed in this article are among those that struck the balance. Consequently, spring is not only in the air, but also at the retail counter.