are Key - Bruna Seals

Written by Marie Redding, Associate Editor
The fragrance Bon Chic ‘BCBGMaxAzria,’ by Elizabeth Arden. Lombardi
Design & Manufacturing produced its complex cap, for N2O2 Branding.
Caps
are Key
A package’s cap or closure is an integral part of
a consumer’s experience when using a product,
and it’s often designed to attract attention—even
becoming the focal point of a package design.
F
orget being an afterthought—caps and closures
are the “star” of a package’s design, for many fragrance, skin care and body care products. A uniquely decorated cap, with a bold color or bright finish—or
one that’s molded into a unique shape—will help create
shelf presence, as well as convey the feeling of luxury.
Plastic caps and closures are still the most popular form,
and are expected to reach 106 billion units by 2016. Plastic closures for beauty and home care products accounted
for 7% of global retail closure consumption in 2012, with
a CAGR of 3% between 2012 and 2016. (Source: Euromonitor International’s 2012 State of the Industry report:
Packaging: Identifying Growth Opportunities for Plastic
Closures in Beauty and Home Care.)
Convenient designs, such as dispensing closures, are
18 • Beauty Packaging
most in demand according to Euromonitor International’s stats. Plastic dispensing closures grew at a CAGR of
almost 4% between 2007 and 2012, gaining significant
shares in hair care, as well as bath and shower categories.
Aside from plastic, other materials are being utilized
for caps as well, especially metal—and even wood. No
matter what material you choose, suppliers say that using
various design techniques to differentiate is key.
Materials and Complex Shapes
Some suppliers, such as Coverpla, a French manufacturer
of caps for fine fragrances, say that “material diversification” has been a trend, because beauty marketers have
been demanding lots of options when creating caps—especially for fragrances.
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Caps Are Key
“Last year we introduced natural wood
caps, but this was not enough. This year we
are adding custom-colored wood varnishes
to our ever-growing variety of shapes,” says
Dave Desai, national sales manager, Coverpla.
Also on the horizon is a glass lookalike
cap. Desai tells Beauty Packaging: “We are
also about to launch our first cap molded in
Eastman’s Glass Polymer. It won’t be available until September, but the trials have been
quite impressive.”
Nathalie Nowak, vice president of marketing, Albéa Group, agrees that having the
Indigena skin care worked with Cospack America to custom color the shiny purple shade
ability to use different materials is key for a
of this cap, which was inspired by the hue of the Northern Lights.
cap supplier right now.
Nowak says that Albéa customers have
come to expect a skilled level of expertise in
injection molding, which includes the ability to use difMany of the uniquely shaped caps that Lombardi Deferent materials, including Surlyn.
sign & Manufacturing has recently created certainly re“Surlyn is renowned for its transparency and compat- semble art.
ibility with fragrances, as well as for its ability to withThe supplier has experience using Surlyn, PCTA and
stand demanding production processes,” Nowak explains. Tenite. These advanced resins often enable the company’s
“A superior closure, with a design expertly executed, team of engineers to achieve more complex designs, accan help elevate a premium consumer product to an art cording to Jack Albanese, sales engineer, Lombardi Deform,” she adds.
sign & Manufacturing.
Nivea Invites Consumers to Create Custom Caps
The brand’s fans can design a lip balm package at the new website Style, Uncapped.
Consumers get to play “package designer” by choosing from one of the 400 patterns
on Nivea’s website, styleUncapped.com—or even make their own pattern using one of
the symbols in the design tool.
The design tool has many customizable options. Colors can be changed and text can
be added to create a unique design. Nivea also partnered with fashion designer Rebecca
Minkoff to offer a stylish pattern based on one of her runway looks.
Designs can be shared through social media—or, ordered. Nivea will print a consumer’s unique label design, apply it to a lip balm package, and ship it within two weeks.
The team at Beiersdorf worked with Rosetta, a consumer engagement agency, to
turn this idea into a reality.
More about this partnership, and how it is helping Nivea increase its brand awareness and engage consumers through social media can be found in an Online Exclusive
Custom caps at Nivea
story at Beautypackaging.com.
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Caps Are Key
“We’ve been seeing a trend towards organic shapes,
and floral-inspired looks for caps, for a while now. And,
they are often designed as very complex shapes, which
require engineering multiple parts,” explains Albanese.
Lombardi recently created an oversized cap inspired by
a flower for the BCBGMaxAzria fragrance by Elizabeth
Arden. Explaining the critical parts that consumers don’t
see, which are required to execute this shape, Albanese
says, “This cap was engineered with two geometric petals
that come together, due to a mechanical snap underneath
a decorative icon.”
A floral-inspired complex cap design was also recently
requested by Bath & Body Works for its Sweet Pea Eau
de Toilette fragrance. “This cap required engineering four
pieces—incorporating three flat petals with a mechanical
snap ring,” explains Albanese.
Lombardi also recently created a skull-shaped cap for
Ed Hardy’s fragrance Skull & Roses.
Brilliant Hues Make Metal Shine
Differentiating your brand by designing a uniquely shaped cap is one design route to take. Choosing a
straight-walled cap that has a “clean” look is another design direction, which is popular for skin care and body
care products.
Color is even more important when a cap is made
in a simple shape, and many skin care brands are choosing metal caps. Lisa Walsh, founder of Indigena, a prestige
skin care, bath and body care brand, says she chose to use
metal because its “vivid shine” was so appealing.
The cap Walsh chose for the brand’s jars (including
its Blueberry Bliss Body Scrub, shown) has an aluminum
over-shell and a polypropylene inner closure. Cospack
America supplies this cap, which is a custom color—
bright purple.
Walsh says they decided on the unique shade of purple
in order to stand out. “The color looks enticing, and it’s
Sealing It
Bruna Seals has created new looks for inner seals designed for cosmetic products.
a cap has some ability to keep a product’s formulation fresh—but an inner
seal offers more. and we don’t typically see them being used under caps on
prestige products because they often look generic, and plain white—just like
one you might find on your yogurt container after lifting the lid. That wouldn’t
be a good look for a prestige skin care product.
Bruna seals has developed a new type of inner seal, however, and it is
designed for the personal care market. It’s called the Luxeseal and it can be
made in custom colors, and decorated with an embossed logo.
Bruna’s luxe inner seal
“It’s our ‘Luxe’ induction seal—an innovative, functional seal that protects
the product, and enhances your brand’s image,” says Juan Bruna, president,
Brunaseals. “It’s perfect for hair and skin care products,” he adds.
There are numerous benefits to using an inner seal. It helps keep a product fresh, and can be especially useful if your
formulation contains a lot of essential oils that are sensitive to light and air. an inner seal also helps to discourage shoppers
from tampering with your product on store shelves.
plus, consumers will no doubt equate a seal with “freshness” and value. Germ-sensitive consumers will feel reassured
that no one else has touched the product.
“In addition to the practical benefits of having the seal, our ‘Luxe’ seal also extends your branding, and enhances the
consumer’s experience of using the product,” says Bruna.
He suggests using a Luxeseal with a see-through cap, for a unique look. He says, “It can add that ‘wow’ factor, when it
is decorated to match your packaging.”
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Caps Are Key
synonymous with royalty and
spirituality,” she says. “We also
wanted to choose a color that
would appeal to both men and
women,” she adds.
This shade of purple was
also chosen because it represents a “natural” landscape—if
the Northern Lights happen to
be in your backyard. Indigena is
based in the Canadian province of
Newfoundland and Labrador, and
Walsh says the color was mainly
inspired by the brilliant purple hue
that often appears in the night sky.
Indigena’s product formulations
are based on using natural and organic ingredients. Walsh worked
with package designer Deena Riggs
to make sure the line looked luxurious, and different from other natural brands.
“We always consider the ‘reach
for’ effect, when thinking about our
packaging,” Walsh explains.
She describes the ‘reach effect’ as what makes a consumer reach for your product first, whether it’s in store, at
home, or virtually online. “The packaging has to provide
this, and visually capture the consumer’s interest,” she says.
Practically, Indigena’s cap has a solid structure and durable weight that makes opening the jar easier, according
to Walsh. She says, “Our cap makes our product look and
feel expensive, which helps our customers to feel luxurious when using the brand.”
Cameo Metal Products specializes in giving metal caps
a more luxe look—and the bright shine that a lot of the
supplier’s customers have been requesting.
Anthony Di Maio, chief operating officer at Cameo, says he often hears requests for metal caps that have
“rich color.”
Di Maio explains one of its popular decorating techniques, saying, “We combine color with our transparent
lacquering technique, which enables us to utilize the
brightness of the aluminum.” He says, “Polish coating a
24 • Beauty Packaging
Anomatic used its new laser engraving technique to customize the cap on the
tube for Wrap Me Up Pink by Victoria’s Secret.
cap with a high gloss lacquer and rich color tones creates
the bright metallic finishes that our customers want, in
order to catch the consumer’s eye.”
Di Maio adds that when “real” metal is chosen for a
cap, rather than a plastic cap with a metallized finish, it
feels more luxurious. “Metal has a certain feel to it that
you can’t replicate. And the finishes that are available for
metal offer better protection against some of the most
aggressive product formulations,” he explains.
More Customization Options for Metal
If you have a custom color in mind for a metal cap and are in
need of color-matching expertise,Anomatic Corp. is another
supplier skilled at decorating
metal. The company offers extensive decorating capabilities—and
matches nearly 500
custom colors every
year, offering quick
turnaround times.
“Our in-house colormatching capability for anodization, which we added last
year, is unique for the industry and greatly contributes to
our short lead times,” explains Steve Rusch, director of
marketing and business development at Anomatic Corp.
“There is definitely a trend toward using all types of
decorating techniques to customize a metal cap, including embossing, debossing, or choosing a custom anodized
color. Double anodizing is another way to give a cap a
very distinct look—and this is a technique that we are
hearing requests for much more often lately,” says Rusch.
A new decorating capability that Anomatic now offers
is laser engraving. “Laser engraving is ideal for customizing a stock metal cap, and we’re very excited to offer this
decorating option now,” says Rusch.
Anomatic recently engraved the Victoria’s Secret logo
around the metal closure on the brand’s tube of body lotion. The company worked on this package in collaboration with Aptar.
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Caps Are Key
Technotraf, a Quadpack company, recently developed the
wood cap on the Guerlain Homme L’eau Boisse fragrance.
Saco Ltd. is another supplier boosting its
decorating capabilities.
The supplier will be investing $6 million in its new facilities through 2014, to
increase capacities and capabilities, in order
to offer its customers more customization
options. “We’ll be increasing our manufacturing space, anodizing capacity, decorating capabilities, and machinery,” says Peter
Philip, the agent representing Saco Ltd.
The team at Saco creates customized designs for caps
using the software program Solidworks. The supplier offers more than 1,500 different stock caps, which can all
be customized to create a unique look, without the tooling costs or extensive lead time that a custom cap requires, according to Philip.
“We have been fulfilling many requests where our
stock cap is modified by adding top stamp logos, and
screen printing to achieve a custom look,” adds Philip.
Wood—Luxurious and ‘Green’
Finding a balance between making an eco-friendly package and one that looks luxe is always a struggle for prestige brands, but choosing a wood cap solves this issue, according to Tim Eaves, CEO, Quadpack Group.Technotraf
is a Quadpack company that manufactures components
made from wood for fragrance and cosmetics packaging.
Eaves expects that wood will soon be in greater demand, and used more often for packaging for prestige
fragrance and skin care products. “We were the first to
bring wood to the prestige fragrance market 12 years ago,
when we created the wood cap for the Burberry Touch
bottle,” he says.
But wood was never the first choice for a package development team or engineer, due to the issues it presents.“Wood
is still living after it is cut off the tree, so one challenge is to
make sure it remains stable when it is used as a packaging material—throughout the life of that product,” says Eaves.
“We have perfected our manufacturing process over the
years. We have the ability to maintain the correct tolerances
26 • Beauty Packaging
when making a wood cap for a glass bottle,”
he explains.
Besides its ability to convey a look that is
both natural and elegant, choosing wood for a
cap means the cost of tooling will be relatively low, when compared to metal, says Eaves.
Wood caps are also highly customizable;
many different colors and finishes can be created by using various drying processes.“Since
wood doesn’t require a mold, adjustments to
a wooden cap’s shape can be made relatively
simply and cost-effectively,” Eaves adds.
The team at Technotraf is also able to
ensure that its wood caps have the same degree of stability
and resistance to chemicals as plastic.
The fact that wood is also a “green” material is like
the icing on the cake. The wood that Technotraf uses is
PEFC-certified, obtained from renewable sources.
“Due to all of these benefits, as well as our recent advancements in manufacturing, wood now has a place in
the luxury market,” Eaves says.
Prestige brand Guerlain recently launched a fragrance
with a wood cap made by Technotraf. “The cap had
to match the tolerances of the others in the Guerlain
Homme range, which are Surlyn,” says Eaves.
Eaves also hints that we can expect to see more new
fragrance bottles with wood caps launching soon, but
won’t reveal any details yet.
Final Tips to Keep in Mind
No matter which shape, material or decorating process
you choose, a fabulous cap can help take your package
design to the next level.
Albéa’s Nathalie Nowak sums it up by saying: “A
beauty product’s cap or closure is its ‘crowning glory.’ It
can convey a sense of exclusivity.”
Nowak adds, “An artful rendering executed with precise color printing, and choosing to use a material with
a certain weight and feel, are a few of the elements that
contribute to the creation of a fabulous cap—and a package design that will elevate your brand’s image.” b
For an Online Exclusive on demographic effects on
Caps & Closures, please go to www.beautypackaging.com
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