Packaging Bath and Body Products
For its three flower-themed bath and body collections, Fruits & Passion uses both glass and plastic packaging. Foaming Bath is in a glass bottle, while Body Milk is in plastic.
How customers use a product should influence packaging decisions.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorChoosing packaging for bath and body products can sometimes be difficult because there are so many options. In addition, various bath and body products require different types of packages and dispensing systems. The three companies profiled below offer unique packaging that appeals to their specific customers.
Mixing Materials
Whenever Fruits & Passion launches a new bath and body collection, the line often mixes glass and plastic packages. Even with both glass and plastic, however, the collection is visually united by the use of graphics.
“Many of our customers purchase our products to give as gifts. This is why we always offer a bath product in a heavy glass bottle whenever we develop a new product line. Glass looks and feels more prestige,” says Severine Mathe, marketing and product development group manager at Fruits & Passion.
Fruits & Passion has three collections based on flowers—rose, jasmine, and orchid. All three collections contain an eau de toilette, a Foaming Bath, and a Velvety Body Milk. The Foaming Bath and eau de toilette are packaged in glass, while the Body Milk is in a plastic bottle.
The Body Milk moisturizer is housed in a tall, oval-shaped plastic bottle molded with a soft-touch resin—a choice made with the user in mind. When a product is meant to be used every day, the team at Fruits & Passion chooses plastic for easier handling. The pump dispenser resembles a flower petal shape.
The tall, rectangular glass bottle containing the Foaming Bath is supplied by Vetronaviglio (Italy). It has a Surlyn cap modeled after a cork.
The Fruits & Passion brand is known for its unique scents based on natural ingredients and organic oils. The company develops its formulations in its own on-site labs. To convey the natural aspect of its formula, the Foaming Bath product is transparent.
An illustration of a stem is used as the main graphic on both the glass and plastic bottles. According to Mathe, a flower isn’t part of the graphic because the design concept is intended to convey that the essence of the flower can be found “inside” the bottle. The graphics were screen printed on the glass bottle using a process called “decalcomania,” according to Mathe. “It is a type of tracing done by hand,” she says. A clear label was printed and then applied to the plastic bottle.
“Printing and decorating the packages were big challenges for us,” says Mathe. “Many experts advised us on the technical aspects, including preparing the artwork to be printed. It took some trial and error, but we were able to achieve the results we wanted.”
Fruits & Passion’s Aromachologie bottles are sprayed with gradations of color.
Fruits & Passion offers another line called Aromachologie, which contains a Foaming Bath and bath oils, both in glass bottles with screw-on caps. The 200-ml round bottle is a stock shape supplied and decorated by Saint-Gobain Desjonquères (New York City). It feels heavy and has an old-fashioned, apothecary feel.
The Aromachologie bottles are sprayed using two different shades of blue. A gradiated effect was achieved near the bottom of the bottle, where the color changes from light to dark. A combination of screen printing and small, self-adhesive labels was used on the bottles.
Moisturizing Mousse
Too Faced’s Frozen Lotion Moisturizing Body Mousse is housed in an aerosol can.
The Too Faced Cosmetics customer expects the trendiest, cutting-edge beauty products. The brand’s latest creation doesn’t disappoint. Frozen Lotion Moisturizing Body Mousse is packaged in an aluminum aerosol can and is dispensed through a plastic nozzle and cap. The product dispenses into the palm of the hand and should then be rubbed into the skin. The way it is used is similar to a hair-styling mousse. Labeling information and a graphic illustration were printed on the can using the Pantone Matching System.
The product is formulated to have a cooling effect on the skin and should be used after customers have been in the sun. “The combination of alcohol, propellant, and other ingredients in the formula cause the product to have a cooling, crackling effect on the skin,” says Jules Laird, production manager, Too Faced Cosmetics. Besides providing moisturizing benefits, the product also provides a subtle shimmer effect.
Too Faced has received very positive feedback from its customers about the product. Perhaps this product will inspire other companies to come up with new ways for moisturizers to be formulated, packaged, and applied.
Elemental Changes
Primal Elements is a brand that appeals to customers who enjoy purchasing soap by the bar. Its customers also like to try different scents of the brand’s Body Whip Moisturizing Lotion and Sugar Whip
Exfoliating Scrub, which salespeople scoop out like ice cream. Although Primal Elements has been selling its products this way, with a minimal amount of packaging, for the past 10 years, it recently realized the need for a few changes.
“Some stores just didn’t have the sales force necessary to sell our products in this way. Also, we are finding that some customers prefer the convenience of prepackaged items,” says Faith Freeman, founder and chief creative officer, Primal Elements. For these reasons, the company recently decided to prepackage its soap in clear acetate outer cartons called pillow packs.
“Since we made the change, we have been getting great feedback from many stores that are in favor of the prepackaged soaps. But we still have a loyal customer who will always enjoy the experience of buying a freshly cut slice at other stores,” explains Freeman.
Freeman first saw the pillow pack being used for accessories. “We tried the pillow shape made out of paper first. It went through several incarnations before we settled on the clear acetate one. It was a big move for us because we haven’t changed the way we sell soap in a very long time,” she says.
Another major change for the company was packaging its Body Whip and Sugar Scrub in a new 3.5-oz oval polypropylene cup with a snap-on lid, sourced from the food industry. It is called the Ellipso cup and is supplied by Newspring Packaging (Kearney, NJ). It allows customers to purchase trial size “scoops” of the products and is a convenient size for travel.
“I wanted something simple that still resembled a food container, but finding ones that were compatible with our products took some research,” says Freeman. “There are always issues with fragrance and sugar coming into contact with plastic. We had to do a lot of compatibility testing.”
Primal Elements’ Kid At Heart line features four kid-friendly product lines. The lines are themed after a rubber duck, a green frog, a silhouette of a girl, and a silhouette of a boy.
Primal Elements also has a collection of bath and body products designed for all ages, called Kid At Heart. The four Kid At Heart product lines are themed after a yellow rubber duck, a green frog, a silhouette of a girl, and a silhouette of a boy. Each collection consists of hand soap, hand lotion, bar soap, and bubble bath.
The hand soap and hand lotion are packaged in a bell-shaped jar supplied by Berlin Packaging (Chicago). The bubble bath is packaged in a 16-oz Boston Round bottle supplied by Silgan Plastics Corp. (Chesterfield, MO). All of the pumps are supplied by Calmar Inc., a MeadWestvaco Co. (Grandview, MO). Labels are supplied by Label Impressions (Orange, CA) and are applied in house.
“I always try to use as many stock packages as possible. I liked the practical squat shape of the bottles we chose because they are definitely a more kid-friendly shape. They won’t tip over in the bathroom,” says Freeman.
Letting the Customer Decide
The experts at the companies profiled do a lot of research before any packaging decisions are made. This includes the small companies. In a large company, marketing teams know how important it is to find out which types of packages customers would like to use and how those packages should look and feel. This research might then be passed on to a packaging team, a design firm, or a technical engineer, who all work with suppliers to create something tangible.
A package will truly be a success when it doesn’t lose sight of its purpose, which is to meet all the expectations of its user. Knowing your customer allows you to create packaging that will be loved and used often.
Tips & Trends
It is important for bath and body products to stand out, especially on mass-market shelves. Using various types of decorating techniques is one way to make this possible.
“A mediocre package just does not cut it anymore,” says Cammie Shreve, district manger, Berlin Packaging (Chicago). “Everyone wants a package that will really wow the consumer, or your product will just be lost in the mix. Even existing lines are trying to dress up packaging more now by adding hot stamping or more vibrantly colored labels.” For instance, a simple way to spruce up a package is to use a custom color on a closure or pump, Shreve suggests.
Liza Beyer, sales and marketing expert at Custom Bottle (Naugatuck, CT), says that there are many decorating and molding options available that her customers often use on plastic bottles. “A simple stock bottle shape can look different if you change the look of the resin by adding flecks of color or give the bottle a soft-touch feel,” she says.
Beyer says she has been seeing more metallic inks and foils being used for decorating. “Since adding a hot-stamping machine to our in-house decorating production line, we’ve been able to do a lot more hot stamping for both upscale and mass-market brands at a reasonable cost,” Beyer says.
Amit Gupta, CEO of Mahika Packaging (Cleveland), agrees. “Hot stamping continues to be extremely popular. It can definitely help you to gain a competitive edge, especially on mass-market shelves,” he says. Gupta adds that he has noticed a lot of companies now placing huge emphasis on decorating both bottles and tubes. “We are using a much more enhanced silk-screening process on tubes, usually with six to eight colors, which is more unusual, rather than dry offset printing,” he adds.
Another interesting design trend Shreve has noticed is that bath and body collections are taking cues from clinical skin care lines. “The antiaging trend is crossing over to the bath and body category, and designers are responding with more simple and clean looks that will appeal more to a slightly older consumer,” Shreve says. More minimalist decorating techniques might be used on these types of lines, depending upon the type of customer a company is targeting.
The overall consensus seems to be that investing the time and effort into more-interesting types of decorations is no longer an option, but a necessity. Luxury looks for packages can be found at all price points. A simple decorative element can make all the difference to the consumer at the point of sale.