Metal Containers: Metal Madness
Reusable tins, such as these for Bourjois’s Wish You Were Here palettes, are a new trend in packaging makeup kits.
Beauty brands take a shine to metal packaging.
by Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorA lot of innovation has been happening in metal packaging, even for the most common types of metal packages such as aerosol cans. Developments include a range of trendy new brand designs and a growing popularity for metal secondary packages.
The Versatility of Metal
In terms of looks, metal packaging is versatile. It can be minimalist, vintage, upscale, and colorful. A few companies discuss their latest product launches and how they made metal work for their brand.
“Metal can be fun and funky when decorated, or clean and sophisticated when lacquered and embossed,” says Hana Zalzal, founder and president of Cargo Cosmetics. From the brand’s inception in 1996, Cargo has used streamlined tins—decorated only with lacquering and an embossed logo—to house its eye shadows, blushes, and lip glosses. “It’s minimalist, yet edgy. We kept it clean and simple,” says Zalzal. “The tins have become a signature item,” she adds.
In particular, Cargo’s large-sized tins have gained a lot of fans. “[The tin provides] a large surface area so that you can easily use our professional brushes with it,” says Zalzal. “I always hated getting a small rectangle of blush from other companies and then trying to use my big blush brush with it.” In February, Cargo launched its Matte Bronzer in this large-sized tin.
Body & Soul’s talc powder tins were inspired by the look of old-fashioned packaging.
Cosmetics brand Body & Soul uses metal to convey the brand’s vintage image. Its most popular package has been a 0.7-oz art deco talc powder tin supplied by J.L. Clark (Rockford, IL). “In the 1930s and 1940s, people carried tins of talcum powder around with them when they traveled,” says Angela Lim, representative for Body & Soul. “Most packaging wasn’t made from plastic at that time.”
“I think what’s old becomes new again,” says Todd Waxgiser, national accounts manager for J.L. Clark. “There’s a nostalgia when it comes to metal.”
Body & Soul used the tin in green for its loose face powder and in pink for its Glitz face and body shimmer powder. The firm recently launched a redesigned Glitz powder tin in purple. A new version in yellow will debut this summer.
Body Bistro’s redesigned Green Apple + Neem Eye Jelly packaging features metal elements for upscale appeal.
In addition to being streamlined and vintage, metal can also be upscale. Even a metal cap can help add a feeling of luxury. “Metal creates a luxurious look,” says Carina Chatlani, president of Body Bistro. “In Singapore, which is one of our distribution points, customers look at a metal lid as being 100% more upscale than a plastic lid.”
In February, Body Bistro launched redesigned, more luxurious packaging for its Green Apple + Neem Eye Jelly. The new primary package is a frosted glass jar topped with a silver embossed metal cap that was supplied by Roberts Metal Packaging. The secondary package, supplied by Custom Paper Tubes, is a paper tube with rust-resistant, tin-plated silver steel caps.
The weight of a metal cap lends a feeling of luxuriousness that customers tend to like, comments Anthony Di Maio, vice president of operations, Cameo Metal Products. He says that this trend of adding weights to caps has become popular in recent years.
Metal can also be made fun when decorated with labels and tinted coatings.
For Sugar Cosmetics, a colorful label helped tie in the look of its The Perfect Day metal compact—scheduled to launch this summer—with the rest of the brand’s youthful, trendy packages.
This summer, Sugar Cosmetics will launch The Perfect Day eye shadow palette in a compact-style metal tin. A large, colorful label decorates the tin’s hinged lid. Carisa Janes, founder of ISA Design LLC, which oversees design development for Sugar, says that paired with the label’s colorful, youthful graphics, the tin stands out among other, more-typical compacts on the shelf.
“Right now, the big trend for palettes is using paper compacts, and I thought this metal compact would be a different approach,” says Janes. “The large square lid allowed us to prominently display the label’s graphics. The metal makes this compact more modern, and the label was consistent with the fun, whimsical feeling of Sugar.”
For a very unique effect, supplier Ashfield Extrusion Ltd. has introduced a line of metal dispensers and canisters that can be decorated with a colorful, glittery polyester coating. “The glitter coating can be supplied in the shade of a customer’s choice, within reason,” says Ashfield’s Glenn Tyers. Because it’s unusual to see colored metal, Ashfield’s packages are sure to catch a customer’s eye.
Metal Secondary Packaging: Distinctive and Reusable
In the beauty industry, metal isn’t a common choice for secondary packaging. One reason is that metal can be expensive, so companies may avoid investing in a metal secondary package that customers are likely to discard. However, a metal secondary package can be a smart choice. It stands out on a shelf full of paperboard cartons. In addition, metal is durable, so if a customer does take a liking to a well-designed secondary container, he or she may reuse it to hold other items—and be reminded of the brand each time he or she looks at it.
For Cargo Cosmetics, streamlined aluminum tins have become a signature look. The large-sized tins were designed to accommodate large cosmetic brushes.
In the area of outer packaging, one trend gaining popularity is using tins to hold makeup kits. Both Bourjois and Cargo Cosmetics recently launched travel-sized tins. Coincidentally, both brands’ kits were designed with jet-setting themes.
Bourjois’s limited-edition Wish You Were Here kits retailed exclusively at Sephora through the end of January. Kits were designed in honor of four vacation destinations—Paris, St. Tropez, Tahiti, and Bordeaux. The packaging was supplied by China-based supplier Baruch.
“The kits were meant to capture the postholiday feeling of ‘Let’s escape the horrible winter weather and get away to beautiful places,’” says Maiken Erstad, design director for Dragon Rouge, which developed the packaging. “We were inspired by the look of an old-fashioned suitcase, which people would decorate with souvenir stickers they got from around the world. The graphics are designed to be slightly retro to evoke that old-fashioned style.”
Because the metal tin is so durable, customers can reuse it to hold other items—an added benefit that could help make the sale. Bourjois and Dragon Rouge kept this in mind and decided to make the vacuum-formed tray that holds the products removable. “Since palettes aren’t a new idea, we wanted to have a point of difference and give the consumer something she can reuse,” says Nancy Tarantola, Bourjois’s director of marketing.
Erstad adds, “In the beginning, we were considering using the paperboard-style compacts that have become so popular for makeup palettes. But the tin added a high-end value. It became a piece that you’d want to hang on to, whether it’s to hold jewelry or trinkets. With the tin, I felt that we took it a step further than what the competition was doing.”
The Bourjois kits were displayed in the window of Sephora when the retailer did a travel-themed product display. To promote the kits, Bourjois sponsored a sweepstakes trip to Tahiti.
Sephora also selected Cargo Cosmetics’ limited-edition Vacation Makeup Box tins to be part of the travel-themed display. The tin houses many of Cargo’s travel-friendly products, including a full-sized BeachBlush, a mini tube of mascara, single-dose blisters of Cargo’s DailyGloss lip gloss, and single-dose ColorCards eye shadows. The tin’s lid was decorated with vintage-style travel graphics, which Cargo’s Zalzal says were inspired by the look of a vintage postcard.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s holiday fragrance canisters can be reused as candle holders. Small holes perforate the canisters to allow a candle’s light to shine through.
Jean Paul Gaultier also thought about reusability when the brand designed the metal canisters to house its 2005 holiday fragrance gift sets.
The canisters featured a unique decorating effect—small-sized holes that were arranged to form decorative patterns. Supplier Crown Speciality Packaging, a subsidiary of Crown Holdings Inc., perforated the canister with holes in four sizes, ranging from 0.7 to 1.5 mm in diameter. “We were challenged to find a method of piercing that met M. Gaultier’s exacting standards,” says Jonathan Leacock, associate manager of public relations for Beauté Prestige International, licensor of the Gaultier beauty brand. The cylindrical tin was produced in four different matte-metallic colors—blue, gold, pink, and silver.
Leacock says that the inspiration behind the perforation was the look of old-fashioned lanterns. “M. Gaultier loves the idea of light, especially during the holidays,” he says. “He wanted us to build a theme around the concept of bringing light into the home. With the addition of a votive candle, the emptied canisters can be used as lanterns for holiday decoration.”
Leacock adds, “We use metal for secondary packaging because for M. Gaultier, metal has a much more qualitative feel than cardboard or plastic. We have found that metal packaging is reusable, durable, has a feeling of permanency, and has a very good perceived value with customers. It is also fairly unique in our industry.”
Aerosols Shape Up
Aerosol cans have long been standard in the beauty market, especially in the area of hair care. In the past few years, however, the look of aerosol cans has gone from standard to extraordinary. Driven by the growth of niche product categories such as body sprays and aerosol sunscreens, aerosol can shapes are being revamped.
“Over the last few years, there has been increased interest in adding design equity to aerosol packaging,” says Ed Martin, vice president of sales and marketing for CCL Container, which supplied the aerosol can for Procter & Gamble’s TAG body spray for men. “I think you’re going to start seeing people take shapes to a new level. The personal care industry has seen a number of different product launches in these shaped aluminum containers over the last five years. Unilever, P&G, L’Oréal, Avon—all of the major brands have used shaped aluminum containers.”
Besides drawing a customer’s eye, shaped aerosol cans often provide ergonomic benefits. For instance, CCL Container’s Comfort Hold aerosol cans have slim contours that are more comfortable for female hands to hold. Recently, Unilever launched a Dove product utilizing a customized Comfort Hold design.
Crown Aerosol Packaging, a subsidiary of Crown Holdings Inc., has also added slim aerosol cans in diameters of 45 and 49 mm to its line. “Women want a container that they can put their whole hand around for better control during dispensing. That’s why some of these small-sized cans have become so popular. It’s proof positive that if you want to generate consumer interest and loyalty, you have to focus on consumers’ needs,” says Mike Dunleavy, vice president of corporate affairs and public relations for Crown. “As such, we’ve been concentrating on providing brand-building packaging solutions to our customers by enhancing the convenience and functionality of our products.”
Dunleavy adds that unique shapes for aerosol containers can even serve to protect against counterfeiting because it takes a lot of resources to produce a shaped aerosol can. “Experience and advanced technology are required to produce a quality shaped can,” he says.
Suppliers like CCL Container and Crown Aerosol Packaging now offer shaped containers as part of their standard lines, making it more affordable for a brand to use a shaped can. CCL Container is even working on enhancing its standard can shapes. The firm can now shape not only the upper half of a can, but can even shape the bottom half. “We have some new trademarked technology called Body Shapes that allows you to shape a can from its top to within 20 mm of its bottom,” says Martin.
Taking advantage of the latest shaped cans, manufacturers are developing new product categories for aerosols. Coppertone launched its Continuous-Spray sunscreens, which Business Week named one of its Best New Products of 2005. The package’s pressurized bag-on-valve system allows customers to apply sunscreen in a continuous spray and to dispense product while holding the can at any angle. Martin says he expects a lot of brands to follow Coppertone’s lead. “This summer will be a big year for aerosol barrier packaging in the sun care category,” he says. While not providing specifics, Martin says that CCL’s pressurized bag-on-valve system, known as the Advanced Barrier System, is utilized by the sun care industry.
Industry experts also predict continued growth for the body spray market. “Body sprays have always been a big product category, but not in the United States until recently. Unilever’s Axe body spray line created a huge category in the industry. Now, there are a lot of players in the game,” says Dennis Smith of aerosol packaging supplier Exal. Exal provided the custom-designed Axe can, as well as Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice Red Zone body spray can.
Steely Opponents
Aluminum and tin are two of the most common metals. According to industry experts, the luxuriousness of aluminum makes it more popular in the cosmetics industry. However, it is more expensive.
Reed McIlroy of GM Marketing, owner of packaging supplier Tin Town, says, “Aluminum is more expensive, and I’m sure it has a higher perceived value than tin.”
Besides a feeling of luxury, aluminum also offers some practical benefits. “The advantage of aluminum over tin is that it doesn’t rust—which benefits products kept in a bathroom environment,” says Benoit Ramet, sales manager for metal packaging supplier Elemental Container.
McIlroy says that part of the reason aluminum is more expensive is that it is challenging to manufacture. “Aluminum is a heavier product that is very difficult to work with,” he says. “It’s much harder to do a four-color process print on, and because it’s thicker, it’s harder to emboss.”
Despite aluminum’s higher cost, demand is growing. “The aluminum packaging market has grown tremendously in the last 10 years,” says Dennis Smith, Eastern sales manager for Exal. “As a matter of fact, it’s doubled.”
Ron Shaw, Exal’s director of special projects, agrees with Smith. “Demand for aluminum has been on the rise for a number of years,” he says. “I did a recent study based on the Consumer Specialty Products Association annual survey on aerosol packaging. What the study shows is that in a 15-year period, the growth rate for aluminum aerosol containers was 107.04%. Some of the growth in aluminum has happened because of increasing popularity of aerosol containers in the health and beauty area.”