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Testers’ Opinions Inspire Package Development
The Sliding Brush by Alcan Packaging Beauty is a portable powder case that is part of the supplier’s stock line of cosmetic packages. It is available with either synthetic brush hair or with five different grades of goat hair.
Michel Limongi, creative director at Alcan Packaging Beauty, describes how much he relies on feedback from consumers when developing new packaging concepts.
Michel Limongi, creative director at Alcan Packaging Beauty (New York City), is responsible for coming up with new packaging ideas. Extensive testing and research support his concepts.
Alcan Packaging Beauty has an innovation and development center in Paris where Limongi meets with groups of women to test different types of packages and to observe how women use them. Working so closely with the end-user helps Limongi come up with package designs that are more useful to the consumer.
“I ask the testers a lot of questions. I want to find out what they like or dislike about a package. I need to know if a compact’s shape is uncomfortable to hold,” says Limongi. He also meets with women in different countries to find out if location makes a difference in terms of package preferences. “If a woman in Paris complains about a mirror being too small, and I hear the same reaction from women in New York and Hong Kong, then I know it could be an issue to address,” Limongi says.
Michel Limongi, creative director, Alcan Packaging Beauty, gave a presentation at the supplier’s booth during the HBA Global Expo show.
When Limongi presents new concepts to beauty companies, he also presents his research. “I can explain exactly why every detail of a package was designed in a certain way,” he says.
Limongi’s biggest pet peeve is when an applicator isn’t big enough to apply the product correctly. “So many brands spend a lot of money on the formulation, but the right tool is key to how well a product will work,” he says.
One new package that Limongi presented at HBA Global Expo was Alcan Packaging’s new Sliding Brush package, a portable powder package that was designed around its applicator. The package features a base and a screw-off cap. Attached to the underside of the cap is a full-sized brush. “There’s no need for the consumer to purchase a separate brush to use this product, because it’s already the right size,” says Limongi.
A pan for pressed powder is housed in the base of the package. The pans are interchangeable so that consumers can purchase refills of different types of pressed powders, such as bronzer or blush. On the bottom of the base, on the outside of the package, is a mirror so that users can flip the base over and have a mirror handy during application.
New Tube Concept
Invention company Klecher LLC (Brooklyn, NY) has designed a device meant to help consumers squeeze product out of a tube. Similar to a toothpaste squeezer, the device features a horizontal bar that fits over a collapsible tube, helping to push product upward toward the tube head.
One way that the device differs from the typical toothpaste squeezer is that it sits on a grooved track. This track attaches to the outside of one of the tube’s walls, lengthwise from the tube’s head to its base. As the bar slides up the track, the grooves keep the bar in place, preventing it from sliding back down the tube.
The company calls the patented design a Ratchetube. One of the design’s benefits, the company points out, is that it can be operated using one hand only.
New High Glass Launches Displays Division
New High Glass (Miami, FL) has opened a new point-of-purchase displays division, called Displays by NGH.
According to the company, by using the latest materials and innovative techniques, its displays will help attract optimum attention to consumer goods products.
Design & Source Awarded for Green Business
Design & Source Productions (New York City) received New York Enterprise Report magazine’s first Best Green Business Award.
The award was presented to company founder and CEO Laura Tufariello on September 26 at the magazine’s 2008 Best Practice Awards Gala. The magazine honors the best of New York’s small businesses in a variety of categories. This was the first year it included a green category.
O. Berk’s New Stock Fragrance Bottles
O. Berk’s (Union, NJ) Cosmetic Packaging Group division has introduced two new stock bottle lines for fragrances. Both lines’ bottles are made from flint glass.
The Hera collection features rectangular bottles in sizes of 30, 50, and 100 ml. The bottles have 15-mm crimp neck finishes.
Bottles in O. Berk’s other new collection, the Jason line, are trapezoidal. Like the Hera line, the Jason bottles are available in sizes of 30, 50, and 100 ml with 15-mm crimp neck finishes.
Both lines’ bottles can be enhanced with frosting, ceramic decorating, and labeling.
Dow Jones Names Sustainability Leaders
Dow Jones named several suppliers of packaging and materials to its 2008-2009 Sustainability Index. Among the companies recognized were Amcor Flexibles (Mundelein, IL), BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany), and MeadWestvaco Corp. (Richmond, VA).
The index recognizes companies based on their success in integrating environmental sustainability and social values into their core business objectives and economic performance.