Sustainability reigns in the packaging sector. Aesthetic preferences have been put on the back burner. Today, packaging is governed by social awareness of issues such as climate change, pollution and the reduction of plastics, among others. The move towards environmentally friendly packaging is no longer an emergency but a reality. Here are the trends for this year.
1- Ecological packaging
Eco-friendly packaging is undoubtedly the main trend in our sector. A trend that has not only helped the environment, but also changed the image of many brands and/or products.
This type of packaging is characterized by its production based on ecological, organic, or biodegradable materials. For example, chitin, from shells of crustaceans, which is similar to cellulose. Or the mango shell, which is a resistant and flexible biopolymer. Other examples are also the use of corn or cassava.
Among the most used resources in the world of cosmetics is glass, since it is the material that most resembles the appearance of plastic and is reusable, although it is the easiest option to adapt to different possibilities and its cost is high. Secondly, we find wood, thanks to the possibilities it offers. Wood is a simple and easy to customize material, economical and multi-use, as it can often be reused as a decorative element, for example.
2- Minimalism packaging
The term minimalism is defined, by its more general scope, as being “the tendency to reduce to the essential, to strip of leftover elements”. The same definition refers to minimalist packaging.
Minimalist packaging is more than just a design. It is to analyze in depth what is essential about a brand or product, and find the key elements to transmit through the packaging. In short, know how to transmit the substance of the product in a pagkaging. That is why it is a profound reflection on what is really necessary and what is not.
Minimalist packaging is one of the most widely used trends in the cosmetics sector. It tends to avoid the use of multicolor, predominating the use of one or two colors and of neutral character. The use of a single range of neutral colors reinforces the image of the same brand, added to the care of the smallest detail. The use of white also predominates, as it symbolizes goodness, elegance and integrity. Essential values in luxury cosmetics packaging.
On the other hand, minimalist packaging also means optimising production costs, leading to a reduction in pollution. Ink is one of the most polluting elements of packaging due to its high composition in chemicals that pollute the soil or water and are harmful to the environment. Therefore, the minimalist trend, being a simple design and using a smaller number of inks, means a reduction of damage to the environment.
3- Holographic effects
We mentioned it recently, and we repeated it without hesitation. Holographic packaging will be a trend in the coming years, giving rise to a risky and breaking packaging. Although holographic use was already common in other sectors, in the cosmetics sector it is a recent trend. In the beginning, iridescent effects were used mainly in the industrial sector, for example in safety issues (banknotes). In recent years, however, technological developments have made it possible to improve the precision of the technique, resulting in its application in the cosmetics sector.
The packaging with the use of holographic effects coexist first hand with minimalist packaging, since the holographic resource is a very powerful trend that allows to attract the consumer in a visual and direct way. A striking technique, strong, but elegant in turn.
4- Techno
The technology in our sector is essential. But it is not only fundamental in our industry and in the packaging production process. The integration of technology and digitization by companies is increasingly present. The consumer has become an informed and much more demanding technological consumer. Thus, the use of artificial intelligence or augmented reality by brands, as well as the personalization of products, is already an essential in cosmetics.
In this context, we find a new technological trend in the sector: Perfume Tech, the first smart touch in cosmetics. A new concept where the consumer is the one who designs his own perfume by choosing, through an app, what proportion of ingredients he wants and when he wants to apply it.
5- “Wild glass”
We find ourselves in a context of revelation versus perfection. This trend of commitment to the natural has been observed not only in the image of big brands of cosmetics, but also in the resources of their packaging materials.
In this context, we find manufacturers such as Estal, who have recently presented “Wild Glass”, a new collection based on the bet of glass imperfections as a new innovative and breaking trend. The search for the natural and the imperfections is the main philosophy of this new referent, who says yes to glass containers with orange skin, bubbles or imprecise finishes.
This new trend means, in addition to a break with the conventional, a reduction in waste (10% of discarded bottles in the first test).
Although companies are showing a further step towards sustainability, there is still a long way to go. The changes to which the cosmetics sector is undergoing are not short-term or short-term changes, but quite the opposite, since the consumer’s habits and the format of the products are at the heart of this evolution. Now, the challenge is not so much to present new innovative and groundbreaking designs that promote the environment, but to apply them so that they are not only possible solutions or alternatives to the problem, but also established in our reality.