In order to attract the attention of consumers, in recent years, businesses in cosmetics packaging up and down more and more efforts, all kinds of novelty and exquisite packaging endless, an excellent packaging and bottle design seems to have become an essential factor in the sale of products. However, the role of cosmetic packaging is by no means only to attract consumers, for the material body, packaging provides an essential storage space and protection. Cosmetic packaging is divided into two kinds of internal and external packaging materials, this article mainly introduces the direct contact with the material body of the internal packaging materials.
Common Cosmetic Packaging
Plastic Bottles
Plastic bottles are made of a variety of materials, including ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene), PP (polypropylene), PE (polyethylene), PET (polyethylene terephthalate), AS (styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer) and acrylic. Among them, PP, PE and PET are environmentally friendly materials that can be in direct contact with the contents. PP and PE are semi-transparent, whitish in nature, and can be made into a wide range of hardness; while PET is transparent, lightweight, and soft in material.
Glass bottles
Glass bottles are mainly used in skin care products for creams, pastes, lotions, essences, essential oils, and other products with smaller volumes. From the type of bottle mouth, glass bottles can be categorized into wide-mouth bottles and narrow-mouth bottles. Wide-mouth bottles are mostly used for creams, applicator masks, and other solid pastes, while narrow-mouth bottles are generally used for aqueous and lotions. Glass bottles are usually paired with caps, pump heads, or used with droppers in order to keep them clean. Glass bottles can be frosted, painted or silk-screened.
The advantages of glass bottles are their low cost, but the disadvantages are their high weight and fragility. Generally, glass bottles are preferred for perfume products to better prevent evaporation of the liquid and maintain the perfume odor.
Flexible Tube
Flexible tube according to the number of layers of single-layer, double-layer, five-layer points, according to the material of plastic tubes and metal tubes, etc., the most common is the plastic tube, that is, ordinary facial cleansing milk will be used in the packaging, generally using PE plastic. Flexible tube packaging has a good airtight, can isolate the penetration of external air, while preventing the contents from leaking out. Different layers of tubes vary in their impermeability. Tubes can be silk-screened and other processes, usually with a swivel cap or flip cap.
Special Packaging for Special Ingredients
Dark Glass Bottle
Some photosensitive ingredients in cosmetics are oxidized by ultraviolet light, which may not only lose their activity and efficacy, but also produce sensitization and toxicity, for example, ascorbic acid and ferulic acid are easy to be photolysed and oxidized, and vitexin and its derivatives and furanocoumarin are photosensitive and phototoxic. In order to avoid UV photolysis and oxidation of these ingredients, the packaging must be protected from light, and dark opaque glass bottles are usually used as the packaging material, with dark brown glass bottles being the most common. In order to maintain the convenience and hygiene, these opaque glass bottles are often used with droppers.
Some brands that specialize in efficacious ingredients are particularly fond of this type of design. After all, sufficient quantity and effectiveness is the brand's signature, and the appropriate packaging design is the basis for the ingredients to work.
Although the main reason for using dark glass bottles is to avoid light, we can't rule out the use of dark glass bottles purely for traditional or cosmetic reasons. The use of dark opaque glass bottles for products that do not contain photosensitive ingredients in their ingredient lists may be due to the traditional use of such dark-colored dropper glass bottles in pharmaceuticals.
Airless Pumps
PA101 Airelss Lotion Bottle Empty Airless Bottle Solution
Although dark glass bottles have good shading properties, they can only achieve complete air isolation before use, and are not suitable for ingredients that require higher air isolation (e.g. ubiquinone and ascorbic acid, which are used as antioxidants in their own right), or for some fat ingredients that are easily oxidized (e.g. shea butter).
If the product ingredients have higher requirements for airtightness, a airless pump can be used. Airless pumps are usually made of AS material, and the biggest advantage of this type of packaging is that it can well isolate the material from the outside air. Airless pump packaging has a piston at the bottom of the bottle. When the pump head is pressed, the piston at the bottom of the bottle moves upward, the material flows out, and the space of the bottle is reduced without air entering.
Metal Flexible Tube
Dark glass air isolation performance is general, the airless pump is made of plastic, it is difficult to achieve good light shielding, if the product composition of both light shielding and air isolation requirements are very high (such as Vitamin A alcohols), you need to seek a better packaging materials.
Metal hoses can fulfill both air and light barrier requirements. Highly concentrated Vitamin A alcohols are usually stored in aluminum tubes, which are more airtight than plastic, and are able to shield the contents from light and moisture to protect their activity.
Ampoules
Ampoules are one of the popular packaging materials in the cosmetics industry in recent years, and their airtightness and safety are truly remarkable. The idea of ampoules for the cosmetics industry came from the ampoule in the medical industry. Ampoules can keep the active ingredients airtight and are single-use, which ensures product hygiene and safety, and the ability to isolate air and pollutants is top-notch. Moreover, the ampoule made of glass can be mediated to a dark color, which has a good effect of avoiding light. In addition, the product is aseptically filled, single-use ampoules can be used without added preservatives, which is a good choice for consumers with heavily sensitive skin and unwilling to use preservatives.
Storage of cosmetics
Before cosmetics are delivered to everyone, formulators go to great lengths to keep the ingredients active and ensure product stability. After receiving the cosmetics, consumers need to store them according to the package instructions. Cosmetics with special needs, such as avoiding direct sunlight and keeping in a dry place, are clearly labeled on the outer package.
Cosmetics have a lot of active ingredients are not very stable, in the high temperature or low temperature conditions of the product properties are prone to change, such as Vitamin A, peptides, enzymes and other active substances, in the high temperature may be discoloration and failure, more suitable for low-temperature storage. However, unstable active ingredients do not mean unstable products. Before the product is produced, the formulator has already taken various situations into consideration and ensured the stability of the product through formulations and packaging materials. In this case, looking at the ingredients in isolation without considering the overall formulation and taking it upon yourself to refrigerate or heat the product may be counterproductive.
Of course, if the room temperature is too low, some water-based cosmetics or pure oil products may freeze or crystallize, and if the formulation itself has a low emulsifier content, there will be delamination at low temperatures. In this case, one can either heat the product appropriately to help recovery, or store the product at the right temperature.