Applications: Highlighting Innovation
The Easy Applicator Comb, part of Revlon's High Dimension Color Accents Highlighting Kit, allows women to apply the highlighting product as far apart or as closely together on hair
as desired.
An applicator takes Revlon's at-home highlighting kit to a new dimension.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorWhen it comes to at-home hair highlighting, women want products that provide fast, easy, and precise application. The applicator for the new Revlon High Dimension Color Accents Highlighting Kit, launched in May, is an innovative and unique tool that provides consumers with all three benefits.
"Revlon developed the High Dimension Color Accents Highlighting Kit as a salon-quality at-home system for adding highlights to hair," says Glenn Geardino, director of package development, beauty care, for Revlon Consumer Products Corp. (New York City). Knowing that women may not have the time or the resources to visit a salon to have a stylist apply highlights, Revlon developed the High Dimension Color Accents application system as a convenient way for women to apply highlights themselves. "We wanted to give women an easy but effective way to achieve an even application of the formula for a beautiful, professional look," says Geardino.
To use the product, the first step is to combine the contents of the Highlighting Powder Packet with the contents of the Highlighting Developer Bottle, which is a high-density polyethylene bottle molded by Revlon's own production facilities. The user then replaces the cap of the developer bottle and shakes the bottle to mix the contents. Once the products are mixed, the cap is removed and replaced with Revlon's patent-pending Easy Applicator Comb.
In part, it is this innovative applicator that differentiates High Dimension Color Accents from other products of its kind on the market. The Easy Applicator Comb has teeth that evenly coat selected hair strands. The highlighting formula flows through three separate openings near the tip of the comb, ensuring even distribution. By simultaneously squeezing the bottle and combing the applicator through their hair with even strokes, users can precisely apply the developer and ensure consistent and accurate application of the formula. The Easy Applicator Comb makes it possible for users to customize their highlights by allowing the highlighting product to be combed as far apart or as closely together on hair as desired. In addition to the innovative technology of the Easy Applicator Comb, the High Dimension Color Accents Highlighting Kit also includes a patent-pending Shampoo-In Toner. It provides long-lasting permanent color only to the strands that have been lightened, to achieve the natural-looking highlighted shade.
The Easy Applicator Comb,as it appears prior to sonic welding. The component's slanting planes had to meet precisely when sealed together
Though the applicator makes hair coloring easy, it wasn't easy to produce. It is a one-piece component that folds upward in the middle via two living hinges. "Revlon's Research & Development and Package Development Groups worked in conjunction with Vegla Packaging to design the Easy Applicator Comb's one-piece molded construction," says Geardino. Vegla Packaging Inc. is located in Rutherford, NJ.
In August 2002, Revlon and Rexam Sussex, a USA-based operation of Rexam Beauty & Closures (Suresnes, France), began working together to further refine the applicator's design. "The Revlon and Rexam teams planned a modification of the design that would ensure that the product formula would be dispensed successfully through it," says Jon Alexander, vice president of sales and marketing for Rexam North America.
To achieve this, Rexam suggested sonic welding the seams together. "We chose sonic welding because it was a good way to completely seal the edges," says Geardino. "Rexam is an experienced sonic welder and was able to accomplish the task." The material used for the Easy Applicator Comb is ABS, which was best for sonic welding and provided dimensional stability.
The applicator's slanting planes made sonic welding a challenge. "There were multiple parts that had to be sealed together, on both the edges and on the inside of the applicator," says Tim Giese, Rexam's senior project engineer. "All of the parts had differently angled planes that had to meet precisely when sealed together to ensure that the product flowed through the comb and was released only through the three orifices."
Inside the bottom of the applicator, an additional seal feature was added. It is a ring that extends from the applicator's dispensing channel. When the applicator is screwed onto the neck of the bottle, the ring sits flush on the bottle's neck, ensuring that the High Dimension Color Accents formula does not travel beneath the applicator's neck.
Customers are sure to be drawn to the applicator's convenience as well as to its intriguing look. High Dimension's applicator is even highlighted in the product's advertisements: "Color Accents revolutionizes home highlighting. The breakthrough? An exclusive applicator comb that regulates the right amount of color every time--so you get salon-style highlights from root to tip."