Opening Lines
Entertainment Awards
We editors had fun with this year's Editors' Choice Awards. In our search for 2002's best beauty packages, we found a lot of wonderfully executed designs as we browsed stores and the Internet. We also received a lot of samples directly from beauty products companies. (For coverage of the awards, please turn to page 24.)
As our offices filled with all the candidates, we felt almost giddy. The newest fragrances and shades were certainly intoxicating, but it was the packaging that fascinated us. We enjoyed opening and reopening packages for Baldessarini Hugo Boss and Nothing But Happiness--we couldn't get enough of their carefully contained surprises. We loved posing Roberto Cavalli's Profumo boa and Donna Karan's Black Cashmere; being flat, they looked perfect on our desks. We kept stacking up Estée Lauder's Pure Color EyeShadows, since the more you have, the better they look. And I was very tempted to break open Calvin Klein's Crave just to see exactly how it works.
These experiences took me back to the age of 13, when my best friend Tina and I fell in love with Revlon's Custom Eyes. These refillable eyeshadow cases allowed us to mix and match a wide assortment of colors, which we rushed to buy every chance we got. It wasn't the colors as much as the act of collecting and combining them that held our attention. My compacts, themselves offered in an array of colors, quickly filled up. So I kept buying more.
My teen insatiability for eyeshadow wasn't unique to me, or to youth. Consumers love novelty and variety. We love shopping for beauty items we think we need.
And we love items we can interact with and display, especially those that evoke
an emotion.
That's where packaging comes in. Packaging helps Donna Karan convey an
earthy sensualism meant to appeal to our most basic senses. Packaging gives male technophiles another gadget with Crave. And packaging makes postparty teeth whitening with GoSMILE almost as fun as the party itself.
I no longer wear pink and purple eyeshadow like I did at 13—at least not together. But I still enjoy products whose packages I can tinker with, or at least customize,
like Custom Eyes. Too bad Baldessarini isn't for women.
Daphne Allen
Group Editor