Absolutely flawless

Kevin Rozario, Packaging News, 04 April 2007

 

When celebrated fashion designer Giorgio Armani takes a personal interest in the packaging of his cosmetics lines, and foundations in particular, it’s time for the packaging business in general to sit up and take notice. Armani himself is reported to have designed the packaging for Designer Shaping Cream Foundation SPF20, priced at £50, (¤70). The product is part of the L’Oreal-owned Giorgio Armani Cosmetics range and the brush applicator is sold separately.

 

Foundations are probably the highest selling beauty products in the sector, and “foundations and mascaras are the two colouring cosmetics products that engender the most loyalty in consumers,” says Nadia Miller, vice president of brand development at La Prairie, one of the most expensive skin care brands on the market.

 

Consumer research carried out by La Prairie last year indicated that, while foundation products attracted the most attention, customers wanted a single pack that contained both the brand’s Skin Caviar concealer cream as well as an SPF15 foundation in one.

 

“Our objective was to make women’s foundation application easy, but also to give them the best we had to offer in technology,” says Miller. “We also knew that using a concealer remained an issue for many women: how to best match it with their foundation? So we’ve offered it in one application.”

 

Sophisticated sector

The Caviar foundation illustrates just how far the market has moved in sophistication and how packaging manufacturers are having to move along with it.

 

“The formula was certainly a breakthrough, but then so was the packaging,” says Miller. Tucked into the silver cap of the product is the colour-coordinated Caviar concealer and a magnifying mirror. The product is presented on its own silver stand with a special moulded extension to hold the application brush in a vertical position.

 

Other brands are communicating a premium image in different ways. Mac’s Mineralize Satin Finish SPF15 foundation gives the appearance of being a make-up artist’s product. It is presented in an opaque, screen-printed glass bottle with a matt black top, where the pump is neatly hidden within the casing, and uses a twist-and-press action.

 

Issues of practicality, convenience or functionality can be important selling points. For example, Canadian brand Cargo offers its Liquid Foundation in a flexible pouch.

 

“We wanted to offer something more practical than what was already out there,” says Cargo Cosmetics marketing manager Jaye Campbell. “The pouch is lightweight and collapsible which makes it highly portable.”

 

Cargo’s foundation sales more than doubled in the nine months following the launch of the flexible laminate film pouch with a plastic spout and cap.

 

Cargo used existing technology but customised the shape and decoration to suit its needs. A clear space is left in the printed surface so consumers can see the colour they are choosing. “Our foundation provides a natural, professional finish,” says Campbell. “This practical approach is well-reflected in the packaging.” It all helps in marketing a brand, in this case as an innovative and cutting edge company.

 

Alcan Packaging has taken note of the demand for metallised finishes from brand owners wanting to produce a prestigious looking pack. At Cosmopack Bologna, it exhibited a new brushed aluminium-look plastic tube and the Artist Tube, which Alcan describes as a fashionable packaging solution for any type of liquid product. The consumer just squeezes the tube lightly and the product flows directly onto an applicator brush – a technique that could be adopted for foundations and concealers.

 

Application factors

Japanese beauty house SK-II, part of P&G Beauté, went all out for a technical solution to foundation application and ended up with the Air Touch system. The packaging contains a motor to ionise foundation particles before delivery. A dispensing pump, as used in Age-Defying Liquid Make-Up for sister brand Cover Girl, would not have worked.

 

Wendy Kennedy, SK-II western world and North America external relations manager, says: “We go to a lot of effort to ensure our packaging supports our prestige positioning. In the case of Air Touch, compared to the first generation product, we wanted to make it more portable and also more like a compact; more feminine, something that could easily be carried around in a purse or a clutch.”

 

The ethnic market is also having an effect on the cosmetics business. Black Up, the biggest high-end ethnic brand in France and due to be launched in the UK later this year, cites its Fluid Foundation and Cream to Powder foundation as its best sellers. The Fluid product uses styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) plastic and a pearlescent airless pump together with simple mono-colour screen-printed branding. The Cream to Powder foundation is presented in a SAN and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) pack with black screen printing.

 

Design harmony

Product manager Aurélie Joulain says: “In the past, products used to be in heavier square-shaped glass whereas now the round shape evokes harmony and femininity. The packaging is simple and sober to let the colours be the real stars.” Black Up introduced an airless pump to Fluid Foundation after customers said they wanted to use up all the packaged liquid and to carry a lighter pack around.

 

At the mass-market end of the ethnic cosmetics sector, Sleek International, which supplies Superdrug with its pump action New Skin Foundation for £5.99, opted for convenience in its packaging design.

Product development and marketing executive Sacha Yemoh says: “Components are extremely important in determining how a product is priced. They are usually the most expensive constituents.” This is especially true in the mass segment so for New Skin, Sleek chose a PP container where the clear part is frosted, the cap is clear, the front is stamp-printed and the reverse is screen-printed.

 

It seems that the old idea of foundation, simply as a liquid in a tube, doesn’t pass muster today. Consumer demands for functionality and practical dispensing are being taken more seriously by the brand owners and more solutions are at hand to service these needs. But, overlying these requirements, packaging presentations that allow the consumer to immediately identify a brand’s place in the market continue to drive the design.