Little Lilac Book
Several of the compact's features were inspired by the fashion accessory industry. Lilac-colored leatherette adorns the outside of the compact. A dark purple leather belt with a buckle wraps around the compact's middle and snaps closed in the front.
Tarte's owner and CEO Maureen Kelly says that the compact's fashionable feeling was intentional. "I wanted a compact that was pretty enough to look like an accessory," she says. "I felt like [designs for cosmetic] kits had become very boring and rigid. It seems like only handbag and shoe companies have fun with texture, fabric, and detailing. Yet, cosmetic packages are used just as often as these types of accessories, so why should they look any less luxurious? Our compact has personality; it's not just a hard plastic case."
Functionality was also an important part of the design. One of Tarte's goals is travel-friendly, easy-to-use packaging. To this end, the compact is small in size, yet holds full-sized versions of the products. Supplier Qualipac (Whippany, NJ) produced the compact using Tarte's design.
The compact was created for two palettes: Social Butterfly, which features more-playful shades, and Goody Two-Shoes, which contains more-neutral colors. Both launched in September. All of the eye shadow shades are new.
The result is a compact that's small in size and big on style, which is just what Kelly had in mind. "The upscale package doubles as an accessory," she says. "This is a product that you'd be excited to pull out of your bag."
Warming Trend
Stacked Style's packaging is designed to light up a store shelf. The brand's debut fragrance, Scentarettes, featured slim, cigarette-sized fragrance vials housed in a cigarette-box-style carton. To complement the Scentarettes packaging, vials of the brand's newest fragrances, Empress Lily and Fuji Flower, are packaged in a matchbox-style carton.
Sourcing the vials was easy. The company was able to use the same vials used for Scentarettes. The vials were supplied by ABA Packaging Corp. (Holtsville, NY) and were silk-screened with Stacked Style's logo. Filling and assembly were done by Le Papillon (New Brunswick, NJ).
Finding an appropriate matchbox-style carton, however, proved more difficult. "At first, I tried to find a ready-made matchbox from a company on the Internet," explains Sivrican. "However, the supplier didn't have a box with the correct dimensions to fit my vials. Then I tried to go with a setup box, but it was too small."
Sivrican finally found the answer from supplier Royal Paper Box (Montebello, CA). The supplier provided a small-sized white paperboard tray with an outer sleeve, both the approximate size of a matchbox. The outer sleeve was printed, embossed, and protected with a UV coating. To make the sleeve look like the sleeve of a matchbox, a dark strip was printed on one of the carton's sides, emulating the look of the matchbox strip on which a match is struck.
Once the carton was found, one of the challenges was figuring out how to keep the vials from falling out if the sleeve were slid off. "We tried shrink-wrapping the entire box, but that didn't look good," says Sivrican. "Then we tried shrink-wrapping just the inner tray, but the tray collapsed under the pressure. We ended up using a clear band around the inner tray, and it worked out beautifully."
For a more-classic look, Stacked Style also launched the Empress Lily and Fuji Flower fragrances in full-sized bottles. "The Scentarettes gave our brand an edgy and risqué identity with its cigarette-style packaging," says Sivrican. "This time, I wanted to show a prettier, softer side of Stacked Style."
Sivrican sought a bottle that would look modern and elegant, yet also appeal to Stacked Style's fun and trendy target customers. She chose a clear, square glass bottle. "The cube-shaped bottle reminded me of a square wooden sake cup," she says. The stock bottle was supplied by ABA Packaging, and the clear Surlyn stock cap came from Le Gift/Codiplas (Newtown, PA).
The graphics on the labels were inspired by Asian culture. "My love for the Asian culture inspired me to develop fragrances using Fuji apple, kumquat, lychee, and Asian pear," says Sivrican. "For the logo, we designed a silhouette that looks like a Japanese geisha. We also added the image of cherry blossoms, or sakura, Japan's most-beloved plant, that symbolizes life."
The Empress Lily and Fuji Flower matchboxes launched in Sephora in October. The bottle versions launched in September. Both packages are sure to spark customers' interest.
Radiant New Look
When prestige skincare company Prai (New Canaan, CT) decided to repackage two products in its Radiant Skin Collection line of antiaging products, the brand turned to packaging distributor Brad-Pak Enterprises Inc. (Garwood, NJ) for help.
The new packages look more distinct and coherent. Both are made from acrylic and sport a frosted pink shade. For the Radiant Day Caviar, Brad-Pak helped Prai find a 30-ml bottle with a PET liner. For the Radiant Skin Creme, Brad-Pak sourced a 30-ml jar with a polypropylene cap. The components are stock and supplied by a Korean-based firm.
For decoration, Prai's logo was hot stamped in gold. Additional graphics were screen printed.
"We're delighted with the look Brad-Pak helped us achieve for these products," says Cathy Kangas, CEO of Prai. "This new packaging better portrays the combination of elegance and cutting-edge technology that is the basis of Prai skin care. We know women will love not only the feel and result of using the products, but will also love having the bottle and jar on their dressing tables."
Team Effort
For the first time, a limited-edition fragrance was created to launch at the Luxe Pack Monaco trade show, which took place October 20-23 at the Grimaldi Forum in the Principality of Monaco. The concept for the Moon Dust fragrance and its packaging was conceived by design firm QSLD New World Inc. (QSLD is the United States branch of design company Qu'On Se Le Dise.) QSLD New World devoted six months to the project. The firm recruited 12 different suppliers to participate in producing the fragrance and its packaging.
The bottle's design marries glass and metal. The half-moon-shaped glass bottle was created by supplier Heinz Flaconnage. The bottle's heavy curved base was decorated with a gridlike texture. The Zamac cap was produced by Electropoli in a dark-colored metal. A decorative ring on top of the cap makes it easy to remove from the bottle.
The black carton was created by converter LGR Emballages's Nortier division. The carton's soft-touch varnish was produced by paperboard supplier M-Real. The inside of the carton was applied with decorative holographic film, supplied by two firms, Cartae and API GRP HLS Laminates.
Bags were provided by Cosfibel Creative Packaging. Additional secondary packaging was also contributed by Priplak.
"The Moon Dust project was a unique opportunity to express [the suppliers'] personal visions of perfection," says Denis Boudard, president of QSLD New World Inc. Boudard served as art director and initiated the project, along with QSLD's Christophe Guichard and Gael Ollard.
Photography firm Clozup was charged with taking promotional photos of the product, while magazine Formes De Luxe ran the advertisements.
Clearly Stunning
"We required a packaging solution that expressed the core values of the Alexander McQueen label—luxury, elegance, and originality," says Charles Pileur, a packaging professional for YSL Beauté. YSL Beauté is the licensee of the Alexander McQueen label. "At the same time, it was equally important that the package not break if dropped."
The Glass Polymer resin simulates the look of glass, even if a container's walls are thick, as they were for the Alexander McQueen tube. It is also shatterproof. In addition, the Glass Polymer resists chemicals. The shower gel tube was molded as a double-layered construction by PRP Creation (Oyonnax, France). The tube's clear inner layer prevented the red pigment of the outer layer from coming into contact with the product.
"The unique combination of sturdiness and clarity offered by Eastman's Glass Polymer has met our expectations admirably and has made an important contribution to a successful product launch," says Pileur.
