Color Cosmetic Packaging: Creative Color Components
Sheer ribbons and floral patterns make Benefit's Shangri-La packages exotic and playful. By Jennifer Kwok, Managing Editor and Marie Redding, Senior Editor
Originality seems to be the theme lately for color cosmetics packaging. Airbrushing has already inspired spray-on makeup and concealer pens, and now an artist's flat charcoal pencil seems to have been the model for a flat eyeliner/shadow pencil by Styli-Style.
Brands such as Benefit and Too Faced, are both adopting even-more-creative looks, using faraway places and dessert, respectively, as inspirations. Choosing unique packaging sets them apart from the competition.
HCT Packaging's Tim Thorpe, who is now based in the United States and works out of his new Los Angeles showroom, says, "Brands are much more willing to take risks lately, especially in the California market. It has become sort of a testing ground for new ideas. New componentry is first launched in the United States, especially by smaller, California-based brands. If the ideas take off, then they will hit Europe."
Other suppliers, such as Alcan Packaging Techpack and World Wide Packaging, are launching new components that are not only unique, but also meant for portability and ease of use—which are both definitely high on a consumer's list of priorities.
Exotic Elements
Benefit Cosmetics' new Shangri-La makeup collection is a treasure to behold. Sheer green ribbon and exotic floral patterns give the black lipstick containers and compacts a whimsical touch.
"The inspiration for Benefit's Spring 2004 collection, Shangri-La Sheers, was a faraway place, an exotic land of paradise—a beauty 'Shangri-La,' " says Megan Fletcher, senior graphic designer, Benefit Cosmetics. "The green color scheme was inspired by the idea of a lush paradise island, with a black background to showcase the color of the products." Other points of inspiration were the bright colors seen recently in the fashion industry, adds Alison Haljun, Benefit's associate director of public relations.
In addition to being whimsical, the sheer ribbon is also meant to convey the nature of the products to customers. "The sheer ribbon attached to each product represents the sheerness of the three lipsticks and face colors," says Haljun. "The ribbon is brightly colored like the actual makeup contained in each compact, yet the [ribbon's] overall look and feel is softened by its sheer quality."
The ribbons were hand-tied to the compacts and lipstick containers. The containers were made from shiny black plastic with a lacquered look and feel. The exotic floral pattern was created by silk-screening.
"The Shangri-La Sheers are the first cosmetic products to be adorned with ribbon in this fashion," says Haljun. "Our customers love the fact that Benefit continues to surprise and delight with innovative products and packaging, and this product is no exception."
Too Faced's new compact resembles French pastry. Trading Up
Too Faced Cosmetics has a new Couture line, designed to look fancy enough to be used by celebrities at the most upscale events. "We're bridging up and doing the opposite of what's been going on in fashion," says Jerrod Blandino, president of Too Faced. The formulations in the Couture line are all "over-the-top, super-rich pigments, for the woman who knows how to use color," says Blandino.
To convey this message, Blandino chose a unique component for the Couture compact. Inspired by a French pastry, it looks "elegant, luscious, and decadently indulgent," he says."For this line, I was really inspired by the colors and the lushness of the pastries in French shops, and how they all look like artwork."
HCT Packaging's head designer Rebecca Goswell transformed a pastry into a compact for Blandino. "It was a very difficult mold," says Blandino. The iridescent compact contains eight parts, three of which are vacuum metallized. Its base is metallized silver, and the button is a pink crystal.
Styli-Style's flat pencil is a first for the cosmetics industry. A Revolutionary Pencil
Grant Berry, founder of Intermark's Styli-Style brand, designed the first flat pencil in cosmetics. Resembling an artist's charcoal pencil, it can be used as both a liner and a shadow. It enables users to draw either a very fine line or a thicker one, by flipping the pencil on its side. The flat surface gives users extra control when gripping it. The Styli-Style pencil launched in mass-market stores in March, and it is also a CEW Beauty Awards finalist. Jeanine Caterina, marketing director, Intermark, says, "The sharpener was even more difficult. It took our manufacturer in Germany three years to develop one that allows users to sharpen the flat pencil to a fine point."
Portable Designs
Too Faced's new compact resembles French pastry. At the Cosmoprof show in Bologna, Italy, World Wide Packaging debuted a compact similar to a slim CD case. The palette slides open to reveal six wells perfect for eye or lip colors. At the Alcan Packaging Techpack booth, one of the highlights was called Eureka and was described as "the smart nomad solution for loose powders." Up until now, carrying around a loose powder was usually either very bulky in your bag or just a complete mess. Eureka is a loose-powder case perfectly designed for travel. It has an ABS base, a polypropylene sieve, and an integrated applicator attached to the SAN cap. The applicator blocks the sieve, preventing powder leakage. Its handle was designed to feel ergonomic—and looks futuristic, to us.
What's Next?
According to Jeanine Recckio, beauty futurologist of the Mirror Mirror Imagination Group (New York City), current cosmetic launches, such as Styli-Style's flat pencil, the Couture compact by Too Faced, and Benefit's Shangri-La line, are all great examples of translating recent trend inspirations into actual products. Recckio's current Crystal Ball Beauty & Lifestyle trend report predicts the worlds of art, food fusion, and global exploration will be very influential inspirations in design. Looking ahead, three areas are described in detail in Recckio's new Super- Trends lifestyle report: high-tech, travel and automotive, and furniture and appliance design.
"The high-tech world is very inspiring," says Recckio. "It's all about sleek forms combined with function and improved ergonomics. And the thumb is very important—actually, both thumbs—to open, close, and interact with the package and the product."
She continues, "Think about taking a high-tech item and making it pink, or customizing it with gems and sparkles to make it look less masculine. I love the new cell phones from Japan that incorporate makeup right in the phone!" She also believes that the new, sleeker shape of cars, jets, and super trains are inspirational right now, as well as monochromatic paint colors for cars.
Recckio adds one last bit of advice and a look into her crystal ball of future trend predictions: "Mirrored surfaces are so very important. And the mixture of surface textures—texture is the new color!"