In Closing
Among the suppliers that contributed to the Olay Vitamins packaging are: Bert-Co Graphics (Los Angeles) for the carton and the line's graphics; Cospack America
(Edison, NJ) for the clear, UV-inhibited polyethylene bottle; Paradigm (Carlstadt, NJ) and Setco (Anaheim, CA) for bottles; Weatherchem (Beachwood, OH) for the caps; Tape & Label Engineering (St. Petersburg, FL); and Superfos (Cumberland, MD) for the travel-sized containers. Inner Beauty - Maybe it does come from within.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorThere's a new remedy in the cosmeceuticals category: ingestible products—in the form of pills, powders, or beverages—which promise everything from clear skin to a suntan. There is even an oxygenated beverage on sale in a few New York delicatessens called SkinCola. (Besides oxygen, it also contains vitamins B, C, E, and zinc.) SkinCola touts itself as the first "beauty beverage."
Inventors of SkinCola Adam Zizmor and Jason Hirsch began the company because they saw the emphasis women place on looking good from the outside, especially in New York City. "Our mission is to promote the fact that beauty starts from within," says Zizmor.
"Beauty from within" is also the message that the new Olay Vitamins brand is promoting. Launched in August, it consists of two lines, Beauty Nutrients and Wellness Nutrients.
Although there are many vitamin lines for women and other beverages promoting good health, these products are the first of their kind because they are being marketed as beauty products.
SkinCola, the first "beauty beverage."Procter & Gamble approached vitamin manufacturer Pharmavite LLC (Northridge, CA) to work together on the Olay launch. Licensing the Olay name, Pharmavite took on the duties of packaging, product development, and marketing.
"We are paving new ground in terms of skin care," says Barbara Lindquist, senior product manager for Olay Vitamins, Pharmavite. "The Olay Vitamins line is linking inner health with outer beauty. Looking good and feeling good are equally important to women today."
Pharmavite had to work with its suppliers to figure out how to incorporate cosmetic attributes into the technical details of the packaging, so that it would look more like a cosmetic line than a vitamin line. One example is the induction inner seal used on the cosmetic closure.
Daniel Murphy, manager of packaging development at Pharmavite, explains, "Cosmetic closures traditionally use expanded-foam inner seals that do not adhere to the jar. For vitamins, to maintain product freshness, an induction inner seal is fused to the container. The cosmetic closure that is used on the Olay line was the first induction inner seal that the closure supplier had used in its manufacturing operations."
How these new forms of cosmeceuticals will affect the skin, compared with topically applied beauty products, remains to be seen. The buzz surrounding them, however, definitely means that consumers are interested, which may make this a growing category. If your company decides to branch out in this direction, you may be turning to the food and drug industries for packaging ideas in the near future.