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Sheathed in White
A white sleeve encases the bottles for Calvin Klein’s newest fragrances, ck IN2U Him and Her. Supplier Qualipac America (Wayne, NJ) fabricated a proprietary new material for the soft-touch sleeve, which has a slightly rubbery feel.
The material is made from polypropylene and a Santoprene additive. This material was also used to wrap the sides of the fragrance caps, which Qualipac also supplied.
Eric Vanin, vice president of sales for Qualipac, says that the semirubbery material is similar to the soft-touch rubber used for the black cap Qualipac supplied for Calvin Klein’s CK Be fragrance. “The material for ck IN2U is a different grade of that material, but it still has a bit of the soft-touch, rubbery feel,” he says.
Vanin says that one of the challenges was injection molding the sleeve to fit perfectly on the glass bottle, without being loose. “The problem is that glass has a bigger tolerance than plastic does,” he says. “The tolerance of glass can be as large as 1 mm. We had to make sure that the sleeve could accommodate this.”
The CK logo was die-cut on the sleeve, allowing the orange color of the women’s glass bottle and the blue color of the men’s to show through. To die-cut the letters, Qualipac used special tools whose moving parts make it possible to cut out intricate patterns. The letters were not die-cut during a secondary process, but rather, at the same time as the molding process.
Transparent discs, orange for women and blue for men, were welded onto the tops of the caps during molding. The cap fits flush with the sleeve, creating a smooth, continuous silhouette.
The glass bottle was supplied by Heinz Glas (Linden, NJ), and the pump by Rexam Dispensing Systems (Purchase, NY).
Soothing Green
Kaufman Container Co. (Cleveland) provided all the packaging components for Great Clips’ Tea Tree personal care line. The line includes tubes, an airless dispenser, a pomade jar, a lip balm tube, custom-colored closures, and a rectangular bottle with a utilitarian look.
Kaufman created a custom mold for the 12-oz rectangular bottle. “At times, our customers will come to us with an interest in creating a unique bottle for their personal use. If we feel that there are multiple applications for the package, we can assist with the tooling costs,” says Jeff Gross, Kaufman’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We can offer exclusivity for a period of time. Then it becomes a stock offering for any of our customers to use. In the end, it benefits both parties.”
Now officially a stock offering from Kaufman Container, the high-density polyethylene bottle has been named the Metric Oval and is available with a variety of closures.
Another notable container in the line is Kaufman’s exclusive 3-oz Keltec Star airless dispenser. The all-plastic dispenser features rolling-bellows technology and features fewer parts to make the dispenser more cost-efficient.
The Tea Tree packaging features screen printing on the majority of the components. Pressure-sensitive labels were used on the lip balm and jar lid. “Our in-house screen printing capabilities really offer a high-end look to these packaging components,” says Gross.