Lip Color Packaging: The Kiss of Innovation
HCT Packaging's trendy new lip palette compact houses colorful liquid in its lid. Today's lipsticks and lip glosses have something in common—a resurgence of innovative packaging.
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing Editor
Innovation has been the keyword of late for lip color packaging. For both lip glosses and lipsticks, packaging has become more creative than the standard container or tube. Whether or not the target customer is younger or more mature, one thing is clear—ordinary lip color packages are getting a run for their money.
Gloss Gets Young
Of all the types of lip color makeup on the market, lip gloss has perhaps seen the sharpest surge in popularity. Recent issues of beauty and fashion magazines have featured numerous pages devoted entirely to lip glosses. Cosmetic companies across the board, from classic names like Lancôme to boutique brands, have recently launched new lines of lip glosses to meet demand.
Many of today's lip glosses are aimed toward a younger clientele. "Traditional lipstick containers are typically sought after by more-mature customers, not younger ones," says Tim Thorpe, West Coast president for HCT Packaging Inc. (Santa Monica, CA), a supplier of color packaging. For these younger customers, packaging is being revamped to be more fun, trendy, and innovative.
HCT Packaging has created lip gloss packages for some of the most prominent boutique brands on the market today. Its specialty is devising new packaging ideas. One of HCT Packaging's designs that hasn't hit the market yet is a clear, slim PMMA compact that can house liquid in its lid. When colorful liquids are used, the effect is extremely eye-catching. For further decoration, confetti can be added to float around in the liquid. The compact would be well suited for young customers and tweens.
Clear components like the HCT Packaging compact are the ideal choice for lip glosses. "Most brands use clear packaging so that customers can see the product colors without having to open the package," says Lou Della Pesca, president of supplier 3C Inc. (Hawthorne, NJ). "Even with decoration, lip gloss packaging should be mostly clear to leave enough space to see the product color."
Brands like Cargo Cosmetics are innovating new ways of dispensing lip gloss. Cargo's DailyGloss provides lip gloss in unit doses. Beauty brands are also working on developing more innovative, attention-getting components for lip gloss. Companies like Cargo Cosmetics are already launching lip gloss products in unique new packaging. In September, Cargo Cosmetics introduced its DailyGloss lip gloss package. The package provides customers with 30 doses of lip gloss. Each dose is housed in an individual tear-away blister pack.
Though lip glosses are often housed in blisters for sample packages, DailyGloss may be the first lip gloss to be marketed for retail in unit-dose blisters. The inspiration for the packaging came not from the sample packaging industry, but from the confectionary and pharmaceutical industries. "We looked at items like gum, for which blister packaging is becoming popular right now," says Amber Meredith, corporate communications and public relations director for Cargo Cosmetics. "And blisters are traditional packages for pharmaceuticals."
The biggest benefit of such a package is convenience, especially for the modern woman on the go. "We were looking for a way to make our lip gloss even more portable," says Meredith. "Our philosophy at Cargo is that makeup is a woman's cargo, and it goes wherever she goes. We wanted to take that idea to the next level so that women could customize the amount of product they travel with."
The disposability of the package also held real appeal, says Meredith. The unit-dose size allows customers to dispense of the packaging once they've used up the product, like they would with travel-sized products.
Two is better than one: Crown Risdon's double-ended lipstick package, the Lip Duo, houses two lipstick containers. HCT Packaging also designs its packages with customer convenience in mind. One lip gloss compact designed by the supplier allows customers to attach a credit card to a lip gloss case. The compact includes a very slim plastic tray with wells for six lip glosses and one applicator. A flexible PCTA card slides on top of the tray, acting as a lid. A credit card can be slid in place of the PCTA card, forming an all-in-one makeup and credit card holder.
Thorpe says that another growing trend for convenient lip gloss packaging is marrying lip gloss containers with jewelry and clothing so that customers can wear their lip gloss packages. He says that rings housing lip gloss are already becoming popular again.
Creative designs like these are what will help lip gloss companies stay in the forefront. "The cosmetics arena is becoming more and more crowded with offerings from a lot of brands, large and small," says Meredith. "Anything that we can do as a brand to differentiate our product from another on the shelf is going to give us a competitive advantage."
New Looks for Lipstick
To keep lip gloss's popularity from eclipsing demand for lipstick, suppliers and cosmetic brands are redesigning lipstick packaging. The newest styles in lipstick packages are departures from the standard lipstick container.
For instance, the trend toward double-ended lipstick packages is gearing up. Several suppliers now offer them.
"Considering the popularity of lip gloss right now, if you're going to sell a lipstick, I think it's a great idea to offer a combination of a lip gloss and a lipstick," says Pamela Strickland, vice president of sales for supplier World Wide Packaging Inc. (Florham Park, NJ). "Offering a double-ended container for lipstick and lip gloss may help to bring back demand for lipstick."
Strickland says that World Wide Packaging is getting a lot of requests for double-ended packages, especially those that feature a bottle for lip gloss on one end and a component for lipstick on the other.
A double-ended package doesn't have to include lip gloss, however. Double-ended containers can house two shades of lipstick. For instance, last year Stila Cosmetics launched its Convertible Lip Color package, which has two lipstick bullets in a double-ended pen.
This year, supplier Crown Risdon (Watertown, CT) introduced its version of a double-ended lipstick package, called the Lip Duo. Each end of the double-ended package houses a lipstick container, for which users can rotate the swivel assembly to raise the lipstick bullet.
Innovation is also happening in the single-ended lipstick container category. In particular, features that add to a package's convenience are appealing to customers. In May, Lola Cosmetics launched its H.E.L.P. Lip Crème package. The black lipstick container includes a mirror in its lid that swings out, enabling easy application.
Such unique designs for lipstick packaging bode well for the lipstick market. "I do predict that in the future, the lipstick business will pick up," says HCT Packaging's Thorpe. "HCT is preparing for it now by designing new lipstick packages, just as we are for lip gloss."