Inside Design: Spotlight on Sticks
Transparent plastic shows off the shade of Lulu Beauty's Crème Rouge stick Details can make a simple stick stand out.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorThirty years ago, a stick was considered a novel package for foundation, blush, and eye shadow. Today, however, stick products are typical in many cosmetic lines.
"Sticks for facial cosmetics have been common for at least 50 years, if not longer," says Julio Russ, senior vice president of global color cosmetics for Revlon's R&D headquarters in New Jersey. "Revlon introduced the first blush stick, Face Gleamer, about 40 years ago."
Sticks have stuck around mainly because of their convenience. "Women want fuss-free products to accommodate today's hectic lifestyles," says Lisa Lupinski, director of global marketing for Stila Cosmetics (New York City). "Stick packaging will always be relevant because it is just simple to use."
Sticks and their streamlined shapes haven't changed much over the years. However, through decoration, a product's color, and other details, companies can make their packages stick out.
Showing Your Colors
Clear sticks put a product's color at the center of attention. Also practical, transparent sticks make it easy to identify a product's shade.
Lulu Beauty's Crème Rouge stick is transparent, including its dial-style base. Customers can view the rouge's color, as well as the base's mechanisms working as the product is elevated.
Stila's redesigned Color Push-Ups stick features silver components for a more elegant look. Julie Merriman, founder of Lulu Beauty (Seattle), says that she wanted the Crème Rouge stick and the rest of the line to reflect 1930s fashions. One of the big trends of that decade, she says, was using clear acrylic resin for various applications. "I love the 1930s art deco look of clear Lucite, which was used for tables, lamps, and chairs," says Merriman. "I wanted a package that reflected that look."
The stock plastic stick was supplied by Cosmetica Laboratories Inc. (Toronto, ON, Canada), which also formulated the Crème Rouge product. Though cosmetic stick packages weren't in fashion in the 1930s, Merriman says she felt the Crème Rouge stick would be easy for modern women to use. "Crème rouge in a pot always gets dusty and is very unsanitary," she says.
Stila Cosmetics has also chosen clear finishes for its blush sticks. This June, the brand introduced its redesigned Color Push-Ups stick, which was originally launched in 2000 as part of Stila's Sport line in a frosted oval stick. The new Color Push-Ups stick, supplied by World Wide Packaging Inc. (Florham Park, NJ), has a clear plastic middle decorated with silver hot-stamping and UV coating.
"The new sticks have the same silhouette [as the Sport stick]," says Lupinski. "The stick's base and cap are now sprayed in sleek, modern silver. The package is also now clear in the middle, so that the shades can be easily seen, making this great package even more convenient."
The upscale Color Push-Ups stick is meant to match Stila's original packages. Though Color Push-Ups has an elegant new look, the stick offers customers the same convenience as its original version.
Sheer Style
Pinkie Swear markets its opaque plastic Glisten to Me sticks to teens, tweens, and adults. The pocket-sized sticks are convenient to carry and easy to use.Opaque white sticks that allow a product's color to be seen are also popular.
Shu Uemura's Luminizer highlighter stick is translucent white, a look that complements both brand and product image.
"Translucency is part of the Shu Uemura philosophy, which is that every product in the brand is designed not only for consumer usage, but also to be makeup artist friendly," says Michelle Kwok, marketing manager for Shu Uemura (New York City). "A package that is white and translucent allows a makeup artist to immediately identify the product shade in his or her makeup box."
The Luminizer stick was originally launched in a black PET package, but was later switched to opaque white so that the product's pearly color is visible through the package. In addition, "the color white complements the product's summer positioning, when makeup is usually lighter in color and sheer in texture," says Kwok.
Pinkie Swear (New York City) is also finding success with opaque white sticks. The brand's Eye Swear and Glisten to Me sticks, launched last winter, are slim, pocket sized, and easy for teens, tweens, and adults to use. "It's almost like a crayon," says Stephen Robinson, the company's cofounder. "It's very easy for young girls to use because it doesn't require any applicators or brushes."
Sourced from stock, the minimalist stick's most decorative feature, apart from the Pinkie Swear logo, is its opaque white plastic. This makes it easy for Pinkie Swear to save on decorating costs and to pass those savings on to its customers.
Candy Colors
Tinting a stick in juicy colors is another way to add instant appeal.
Tarte Cosmetics' (New York City) founder, Maureen Kelly, chose a stick for her brand's Cheek Stain gel because it matched Tarte's philosophy. "Tarte is all about no-frills, travel-friendly, goof-proof makeup," she says.
The look of Tarte's jam-colored Cheek Stain sticks has been compared to Jolly Rancher candies. Lombardi Design & Manufacturing custom colormatched the sticks' plastic to each Cheek Stain shade. Kelly says that she wanted the stick's look to match the consistency of the fruity-scented gel. "I wanted the package to look translucent and sheer, like the product itself," says Kelly. She describes the colorfully tinted Cheek Stain stick as looking like a giant Jolly Rancher candy.
Prior to production, Tarte provided samples of each product shade so that supplier Lombardi Design & Manufacturing (Freeport, NY) could color-match each stick's plastic as closely as possible to each of the products. Lombardi then tinted the stick that Tarte chose, Lombardi's stock 8100 series bottom-filled push-up stick. "The colorant is added to the plastic resin itself," says Jack Albanese, sales engineer for Lombardi.
Lombardi also sprayed the stick's screw-on cap with Tarte's signature color, a metallic light-purple finish. To increase the cap's scratch resistance, UV ink was applied. The Tarte graphics were silk-screened onto the stick's body.
Since launching in 2000, Cheek Stain has become Tarte's flagship product. This fall, the company will debut another shade of Cheek Stain and the first minisized Cheek Stain sticks. A set of ministicks will be launched this holiday season.
Packaging suppliers like Rexam Makeup (Purchase, NY) are now offering similar mini, stock plastic sticks, as well as standard plastic and metal sticks in airtight and nonairtight designs.
For companies looking for colorful sticks that aren't translucent, packaging supplier DieterBakicEnterprises (Munich) offers a stock dial-style SAN stick which, like most DieterBakic packages, matches the look of the brand's other components. The Dave stick is available with top or bottom filling and can hold 8 ml of blush, foundation, or sunscreen.
Future Trends
Michael Kors' Leg Shine package features the same stick model used for the brand's men's deodorant. The wide stick is well suited for gliding on a woman's leg. Some packaging suppliers predict that what will get customers' attention most is not only how a stick is decorated, but what's inside the stick.
Michel Limongi, creative director for Techpack's Innovation Center in Paris, mentions two stick package concepts that Techpack is developing. The first is a larger package which holds three sticks for solid or creamy skincare products. "A package that can hold a stick of makeup remover, face scrub, and moisturizer would be very convenient for women to use when they are traveling, instead of carrying separate bottles, jars, and tubes," says Limongi.
The second trend that Limongi predicts is using large-diameter sticks for body-care products like sunscreens and lotions.
The Michael Kors Leg Shine stick, launched last year, is a good example. The solid-gel stick has pearlescent and metallic pigments to add shine to a woman's leg.
The 2.7-oz polypropylene stock stick, supplied by VPI (Orgelet, France), is the same model that holds Michael Kors men's deodorant. "The reason for packaging the Leg Shine in the deodorant stick was to bring innovation to the product category and to utilize existing stock packaging," says Tom Butkiewicz, former director of operations for LVMH Perfumes and Cosmetics (New York City). "Since this was the same stick used for the Michael Kors deodorant, we knew that the stick felt ergonomic and we thought that it would lend itself well to use on a woman's leg."
American Designer Fragrances, a division of LVMH, owned the Michael Kors Fragrances license until Estée Lauder acquired it this March. Butkiewicz now serves as vice president of operations and product development for Zirh, a division of Shiseido.
Unlike the men's deodorant stick, which is black, the Leg Shine stick and its cap were sprayed with a soft-touch camel-colored finish to give them upscale appeal. The white logo was silk-screened on the stick.
"To our knowledge, we have not seen competitive products used in a deodorant-style container," says Butkiewicz. "The innovation the package has brought in regards to product application--a gliding effect--has been well received by the consumer. In the field, we are commonly being asked for other moisturizing formulas to be offered in a similar-style package."
Sticking Around
Though sticks were once offered as trendy alternatives to more classic packages like compacts, as Vanessa Gerold, marketing manager for Rexam Makeup, points out, "In the packaging industry, the stick has become its own category."
With the large number of sticks now in the market, the ones that make an impression on customers, either by decoration or by the products they hold, remain competitive. "Sticks are still a big business," says Revlon's Russ. "I think they'll always be around."