Applications: Decorating Compacts with Special Effects
Stila’s compact was wrapped in satin, and the flower was silk-screened.
Using automated technology, Stila Cosmetics created the look of a quilted surface and a hand-painted flower.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorWhen designing its compacts for this spring, Stila Cosmetics was inspired by fashion designer Marchesa. In particular, Stila was taken with Marchesa’s silk satin dresses and a hand-painted quilted satin jacket from her spring 2007 collection.The cosmetics brand worked with supplier MG New York (New York City) to replicate this hand-painted, quilted, satiny look on an eye shadow compact.
“The compacts are injection molded and then wrapped in satin,” explains Gary Korba, chief officer of operations and innovation at MG New York. Korba developed the heat process that gave the satin a quilted look. Embossing was used to achieve the desired texture. Korba worked on the project with Jill Tomandl, vice president of global product development and package design for Stila Cosmetics.
The “hand-painted” flower graphic was actually achieved using multicolor silk-screening. “It took several rounds of testing before the artwork looked like it was hand-painted,” says Tomandl.
Although paperboard compacts covered in fabric have been used before by many brands, Korba feels there are many advantages in choosing a plastic one. “Paperboard has a tendency to warp. These [plastic compacts] can be used by the consumer long after the product is finished,” he says. And indeed, the Stila compact has a removable eye shadow tray and can be reused as a keepsake box.
More Decorating Options
The outside of this compact looks and feels like a golf ball.
Thanks to new and improved techniques, compacts can assume the look of a wood finish—or even that of a golf ball.
World Wide Packaging (Florham Park, NJ) has been experimenting with two innovative decorating techniques in the past year. So far, these processes haven’t been used for any products on the market. One technique uses a vacuum heat transfer process together with a label to achieve a certain texture. The supplier showed us one compact whose surface was decorated to look like that of a golf ball.
Once a texture is chosen, it is recreated on a thick label, which is printed on long sheets. “The sheet is transferred to the compact using a special heat and vacuum process. The part being decorated then takes on the same surface characteristics as the printed piece. It can fit around anything, including sharp edges or rounded sides,” says Bob Reinhardt, executive vice president/global strategic development for World Wide Packaging. The end results look great, but the drawbacks to this process are that its production rate can be very slow and its price fairly high.
Metal disks can be anodized and engraved for special effect.
Another one of World Wide Packaging’s decorating techniques involves inserting a metal disk in the cover of a compact. The design remains silver, but the rest of the metal can be anodized to achieve a variety of colors. Any design can be engraved on this metal part. “This process creates a very dramatic three-dimensional effect,” says Reinhardt.
3C Inc. (Hawthorne, NJ) has been decorating compacts by hot stamping with foils for many more of its customers lately. “This process has been around for well over 10 years, but it has been updated. Its cost has come down, making it more affordable now for many more companies,” says Lou Della Pesca, president of 3C Inc. He showed us a matte silver compact that had been decorated with copper-brown foils in a pattern that resembled grain lines in wood. “There is a much wider assortment of decorative foils available today. They can be used to hot stamp any type of design,” Della Pesca adds.