Luxe Pack 2001: All Roads Meet in Monaco

Everything a marketer could need, and more, to package an upscale product was at the Grimaldi Forum. Despite some decline in attendance, overall mood was optimistic.

By Janet Herlihy, Editor

Luxe Pack 2001, the 14th edition of the luxury packaging show including cosmetics, fragrances and personal care, was bustling despite the absence of many Americans who opted to stay home. Whether the absentees were concerned about safety following the Sept. 11 attacks or the slumping economy, they missed a great show of luxury packaging components.

The show opened at the Grimaldi Forum for the second year on Wed., Oct. 24. On opening day, attendance tallied 680 by 1:00 p.m. compared to 1000 last year. By the time the show closed on Oct. 27, 4,481 visitors had perused the booths of 320 exhibitors of luxury goods packaging.

According to Luxe Pack organizer, IDICE MC, the show had healthy attendance from most European countries, especially Italy, although some of the largest French companies reduced the size of their teams.

Seminars were held each day on luxury cosmetic and fragrance packaging, covering such topics as: The New de Luxe Fragrance, Techno Luxury—Redefining Luxury for the Twenty-First Century, and Innovation in Luxe Components for the Cosmetics Industry.

Four trend displays—Natural, Non-Conventional, Discretion and Ostentation—had been created and were strategically positioned around the show highlighting innovative approaches to packaging within each category. Natural and Non-conventional were created by Promostyl, while Discretion and Ostentation were created by Peclers.

In addition to its Monaco event scheduled for Oct. 23 to 26, 2002, Luxe Pack will hold an edition in São Paulo, Brazil in April of 2002 and plans to hold a New York event in 2003.

Some of the highlights at the show for cosmetic and personal care attendees included the following.

Raw Materials

DuPont was promoting a new technique for extrusion blow molding of its Surlyn. The process includes an inner layer of a barrier resin that receives the color and a layer of Bynel, which binds the inner layer to the Surlyn. The process was developed by Cheon Kyung, based in Seoul, Korea.

Leah Derocili, packaging and industrial polymers for DuPont in Europe, said that a growing trend is “flash tubes” that are squeezable and transparent. Surlyn is being used in this application because it combines softness and transparency.

A new application for DuPont’s Tyvak is also being introduced to the personal care market. The non­woven material can be printed with metallized inks for a new look in secondary packaging, Mr. Derocili said.

BASF Coatings S.A., Cedex, France, produces colorants for plastics often used in cosmetic and personal care packaging. According to Jacque Tesse, division director, 95% of the division’s product is made for custom orders.

The company’s booth displayed of a palette of colors that ranged from bright neon shades to more muted earth tones that were all the results of taking the same basic colors and combining various additives.

Primary Packaging

Risdon-AMS showed its full line of compacts, pumps, fragrance bottles, lipstick tubes, and mascara wands.

Lumson, a broad-based supplier of glass and plastic bottles and jars as well as closures, is having the greatest success with its Romantica line of clear or frosted oval glass containers, according to Dario Moretti, sales director. Columbus, a series of ovals with a slimmer silhouette are also growing in popularity.

Aluminum Cans

Cebal’s Aerosol Cans Division has been concentrating on printing innovations for its aluminum cans. The company offers a special varnish that can create soft touch matte or glossy finishes.

Plastic Containers

Ease of use is key for Qualipac Ltd., which showed a wide range of plastic packaging organized in collections for cosmetic and personal care packaging. For example, Alaska includes small, square, clear plastic containers for products such as lip gloss and eye shadow that offer the added convenience of having the lid on a hinge for one hand use. Modulo is a bottle system that includes a minimum of two curved-on-one-side, flat-and-interlocking-on-the-other. Add­­itional flat-sided, interlocking bottles can be added—great for related products like hair care or skin care.

Tubes

Cebal was showing its two-color snap cap and airbackless tubes. Both colors of the cap are created at the same time in a bi-injection molding process which also forms the hinge at the same time.

Cebal has tubes available in Europe that feature a thin layer of plastic laminate with color over a layer of aluminum over a third layer of plastic. The whole sandwich can be embossed to mimic a variety of textures including leather, pebbles or woven looks. The company also now has a tube featuring a roller in the head for deodorant products.

Tupack, a supplier of tubes and lip balm sticks, introduced a new combination soft touch tube with embossed lacquer decoration that is applied in a silk screen process. Effects with as many as six colors are available.

Dispensing Systems

Emsar showed its extensive line of fragrance, treatment, lotion and fine mist pumps and valves. Emsar’s new PAV/U up-locking pump is recommended for facial cosmetics. Featuring clean, classic lines and easy actuation, the PAV/U has a no-mess up-locking feature that, according to Emsar, eliminates product waste and the need for a dustcover

Fragrance Bottles

Significant innovations in the use of plastics are moving plastic into use as the material for primary fragrance containers.

According to Techpack/Pechiney, which offered all plastic perfume bottles, the material is being seen less as a cost-cutting substitute for glass and more as a legitimate material to be used for specific effects.

Surface Treatments

Soft touch finishes were everywhere—bottles, compacts, tubes and jars. According to Colette Chariviere, director of communications for Techpack, the soft touch finish makes containers less slippery for use in the bath.

Secondary Packaging

Kerry Morgan, sales development executive for James Cropper, a paper supplier for secondary packaging, said that embossed textures which can be varnished are a coming trend.

Engelhard produces specialty materials from its base in New Jersey. Making news are pearl pigments and iridescent films that can be used as tissues in secondary packaging or laminated, hot stamped or embossed for great effects.

Raffypack, a division of Ileos, introduced a new type of folding box with a PET window that can be colored or transparent. The mixed material boxes can be a combination of a variety of other materials as well. The materials are put together, then printed and folded as though they are all one piece.

Alain de Mas Latrie, vice president and general director of Ileos, said innovation for differentiation to help product stand out on retail shelves is driving creativity in packaging. Various textural effects, glitter, silk screening and metallized looks are all offered.

Westvaco was spotlighting Crescendo, a bright white paper now available as packaging board, from light weight to heavy weight. “It’s the brightest packaging board available in the world,” said Kimberley Stearns, business manager, packaging-global for Westvaco. The company has set up international service by creating partnerships around the world.

Ms. Stearns added, “We’ve solved several problems. The paper is buffed so it prints well, we’re using a whitener that is more fade resistant and a coating that is flexible to avoid cracking on scores and embossing.”

Sleever International’s shrink sleeves offer 360o of decoration, eliminate the need for a box, and can provide anti-counterfeiting protection as well as tamper-resistance, according to Marina Andre, marketing manager. Sleever has a nine-color printing process for its sleeves as well as design capabilities.

Sampling

Valois, which offers a wide assortment of pumps for cosmetics, fragrance and personal care, was promoting its Click & Dream sampling system, which was awarded an Oscar de l’Emballage, the French packaging awards, in the Sales Promotion section for its original sampling concept: A small paperboard envelope, open at both ends, holds a blister pack with 0.25ml of perfume. The consumer snaps off the top of the envelope to release the fragrance. According to Valois, it enables a perfume to be tested in its actual form. The envelope also provides a space for a message on the sample. Click & Dream has been chosen by Mugler, Hugo Boss and Laura Baigiotti for sampling.

Klocke showed Touche a sentir, a scented blotter contained inside a slim vacuum sealed pillow packet that lies flat in a magazine without releasing fragrance until the consumer opens the envelope.