The Importance of Attractive Packaging for Cosmetics Brands

In the highly competitive cosmetics industry, it’s the foolish brand that takes its customers’ loyalty for granted. In fact, consumers are willing to experiment, with the most active shoppers purchasing up to eight different brands on average.

Packaging, in general, should function to protect, promote, inform, and sell, but there’s a greater onus on cosmetic companies to attract customers. You need to stand out on crowded department store shelves and convey beauty in digital spaces.

But how do you accomplish that when, as the cliche goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

Packaging structure should be sleek and limit negative space and decorative effects should elevate your brand and catch viewers’ eyes. Simply put, pay attention to every detail of your packaging. Your message should also come through, whether it’s to promote elegance, speak to sustainable efforts, or appeal to a particular demographic.

It all starts with having clear goals from the beginning, and working with an experienced packaging partner who can deliver a custom packaging solution that’s right for you.

Cosmetics Packaging Structure

We tend to think of the graphic design elements of packaging as the attractive portion, but there’s something to be said for the overall structure. While a prominent logo, fancy script, or chic coating can go a long way in selling your brand, the right physical design complements the decorative effects with sleekness and precision.

After all, your customers put care into choosing their products (and using them). You should place similar care in the details of packaging them.

Cosmetics packaging design structure includes primary and secondary packaging, both playing vital roles in attracting customers.

Primary Cosmetics Packaging

This is your beauty product’s first line of protection and the final piece of packaging consumers interact with when unboxing your cosmetics. Primary packaging directly contacts your products, including the trays holding beauty kits together and bottles your moisturizers come in.

When considering which type of primary packaging suits your beauty products, don’t overlook the opportunity it has to leave a lasting impression on consumers.

You’ll also find airless jars, airless bottles, lip gloss containers, cosmetic jars, and polypropylene airless bottles are commonly employed in cosmetic design packaging.

Secondary Cosmetics Packaging

Keeping individual product units bound together, secondary packaging makes transportation and storage easier. It’s the outer packaging layer consumers encounter when perusing retail shelves for cosmetics.

But it’s also a marketing opportunity.

Secondary packaging is the canvas where you can communicate important things about your brand, product, or company. And folding cartons are the most ubiquitous type of secondary packaging in the beauty industry.

Regarding folding carton design, you should leave plenty of room for intricate patterns but also reduce negative space. Everything should fit neatly, suggesting a level of attention to the product as a whole.

Choosing the right packaging material can attract consumers, as well.

For instance, while you have various paperboard options, if you want to embrace other sustainable packaging strategies, you could try renewable substrates, such as hemp, cotton, or post-consumer recycled paperboard. They minimize your environmental impact.

Sustainable packaging is becoming increasingly important to a growing number of consumers, as well, and this trend is unlikely to fade. Plus, it’s easy to find sustainable and local packaging partners by identifying those who have the right certifications (including those from SFI and FSC).

As far as structure goes, you may also consider what goes into your unboxing experience. What elements in your secondary or primary packaging can be modified to make opening up your product so much more memorable?

Connected packaging, for instance, bridges the physical and digital, encouraging consumers to continue their experience with you online in the form of videos, websites, games, and other compelling content. You could provide instructions or ideas on how to best utilize your product.

Decorative Effects for Beauty Brands

There’s a balance cosmetic companies must find when it comes to decorative effects for their packaging. They need to elevate their brand and advertise their beauty products, while leaving some room for inspiration to the consumer.

That’s one of the reasons more and more companies are moving to simpler designs. A strong design element can leave a more powerful impression than several, especially when combined with the right background and/or coating.

Companies with larger budgets looking to project luxury and high-end beauty might consider foil with embossing or debossing.

Those seeking cost-effective solutions should experiment with a range of metallic inks to add luster, matte coating for a soft-touch finish, spot UV gloss to give the packaging a shine, inline cold-foil, or high sheen effects that create liquid imagery.

Extended gamut printing will help you achieve nearly exact color matching with decorative effects.

A combination of design elements that speaks to your brand will help differentiate your products on the crowded shelves.

Don’t forget that consistent messaging across labels and marketing collateral—such as brochures, inserts, catalogs, flyers, or shelf talkers—creates powerful synergy, establishing your cosmetic brand as reliable.

Plus, it reinforces your brand.

Cosmetic Packaging Designs

As you ideate over what modifications you want to make to a present product line’s packaging or what to integrate into a new item, here are some cosmetic packaging examples to spark your creativity.

If your brand leans toward the more organic or earthy, then you’ll appreciate the floral design of LilyAna Naturals skincare products. They utilize folding cartons derived from SBS C1S .020 FSC Mix Certified Stock paperboard finished with a soft touch and matte UV varnish coating.

Beauty company Rahua employs a smart blend of foil and aqueous matte to ensure its hair products really shine. Their attractive packaging design uses 18pt SBS C1s Stock for its substrate material.

Edgier beauty brands such as Pulp Riot rely on loud imagery and a combination of gloss UV coating and reticulating varnish to grab consumer attention. Its folding cartons scream confidence.

Cultivating an Attractive Beauty Brand

There’s another factor in featuring attractive packaging: promoting a brand that’s already attractive. More than in other industries, cosmetic companies can connect their marketing efforts to everything they do to establish a clear brand identity.

This includes showcasing what you value.

Companies can create attractive brands by committing to causes they and their customers believe in. Consider Garnier. In an industry that’s long struggled with its large environmental impact, Garnier launched “Green Beauty,” a series of initiatives to improve its sustainability measures.

Green Beauty dominates Garnier’s website and is reflected in the natural images that appear on its packaging and presentations. Renewable alternatives have also emerged to give packaging an elevated feel without sacrificing quality.

It all goes back to your goals. Find a printing and packaging partner that can help you achieve not only your sustainability goals but also deliver on design quality.

When you nail down what you hope to accomplish—in appearance and messaging—you can deliver packaging that speaks to your current customers and attracts new ones. If they like the results, they’ll be keen to share them, as well.

Oliver is a printing and packaging manufacturer that has worked with some of the biggest names in cosmetics to help them create attractive and unforgettable packaging designs, powered by cutting-edge printing presses. To elevate your brand, contact us today.