2018-09-17 09:54:54

Caps That Make the Cut

2018-09-17 09:54:54

Think about how a consumer uses any type of beauty product or fragrance—the cap is the first part of the package they touch. Whether or not it works properly throughout the entire life of a product will greatly affect the experience of using the product.

“The package—and especially the cap—is the first point of contact the user has with a product,” says Rosa Porras Mansilla, marketing and communications manager, Virospack.

Jing Santos, regional sales manager, Compax, also emphasizes the importance of caps and closures, saying, “If a brand is developing a custom bottle, it is typical to design it based on what the closure looks like, not the other way around.”

Package development teams take the time to consider how a product will be used when designing and engineering caps and closures. Different cap styles accommodate different types of products and formulations, from oily serums to thick creams. There are threaded caps, and closures that offer dispensing features, such as dropper caps.

The rise of e-commerce brands brings new challenges, suppliers say. Beauty fans on social media are quick to call out issues, such as caps arriving broken or not working well, especially if they are messy when dispensing a product, for example.

Robert Randall, vice president of dispensing closures, Silgan Dispensing, says his team always considers this question: “Will the closure hold up to shipping, without compromising on design—or the dispensing experience? We are constantly tracking how well our products stand up to rigorous e-commerce testing,” he says.

What’s in Demand?

Prestige brands are always on the hunt for caps, collars and accessories for bottles, jars and tubes that will help ensure a product gets noticed. “I see a quest for more complex designs and originality, especially in fragrances—that ‘wow effect,’ ” says Boris Schaefer, vice president of sales, USA, TNT Global Manufacturing. “Our customers are looking for a design that conveys luxury, and that means using quality materials. They also want a shape that is pleasant to hold,” he says.

Metapack’s commercial director, Isaure de la Noue, also says brands are paying more attention to caps. “We see an increasing complexity in our customers’ designs for caps and closures. Some brands no longer want to use the same cap across different products,” she says.

De la Noue says that she has seen one brand incorporate individual marketing messages into a cap’s design, individualized for each SKU. “This is a trend that we feel will continue to grow,” she notes. 

Anthony Di Maio, chief operating officer, Cameo Metal Products, says their customers are requesting more advanced features. “I’m seeing a big push in the market for child-resistance features and tamper-evident closures,” says Di Maio. “We often hear requests from brands with cannabis skincare product lines, and they want to upgrade their packaging with caps that have CR features. But at the same time, they want their caps to look upscale,” he explains.

Compax offers caps with specialized features. The company just launched new bi-injection molded closures, available with airtight seals and CR features. 

Coverpla has a new stylish cap design that looks inspired by fashion trends—the Corset Cap. The supplier says that mixing materials, such as metal and fabrics, will create a memorable look. The Corset Cap is zamac, wrapped in faux leather. “We offer it in two colors, with a low MOQ,” says Gilda Cutri, vice president of operations and business development, Coverpla Inc.

A wood cap will convey a specific message about a product—and is often chosen by natural brands. Coverpla has a new collection of caps and closures in wood. “Since we introduced our wood closures in different colors, we are receiving a higher number of requests for wood caps,” says Cutri.

Metallic Looks Convey Luxury

One sure way to make a plastic cap look more upscale is with a metallic finish. There is no shortage of requests for metallic looks this year, especially for cosmetics. “We see a move back toward metallics, again,” says Compax’s Santos. “More requests are coming in for aluminum overshells. We can ‘dress up’ a cap using vacuum metallizing techniques,” he says.

Santos describes one project that involved a flip-top cap for a tube. “The brand wanted something a little more ‘luxe,’ so we added aluminum inserts on the top of the cap and along the sides. It added weight, and made it feel more luxurious,” he explains.

Mini packages have been popular for a while now, whether sold as stand-alone travel-size products or luxe samples, and Compax recently worked with Urban Decay to supply a square cap for its mini fragrance. “It gave the package a more upscale look,” says Santos.

Virospack offers custom colors for its metallized bulbs in custom colors, as well as texturized droppers. “Differentiation is more than a desire—it is a need, due to increased competition in beauty. More brands are requesting customized looks, and they are personalizing our dropper caps in different ways,” she says.

Coverpla’s Cutri also mentions metallics, saying the demand for metallic looks hasn’t slowed. “We continually hear requests for both aluminum caps and metallized finishes, because they have a high-end look and feel,” she says.

Di Maio says Cameo’s team hears lots of requests for rose gold and matte rose gold finishes. “These shades make a metal cap look like jewelry, and have been popular for quite a while,” he explains.

Karin Gran, co-founder of the Kari Gran beauty line, says she just redesigned the company’s Lip Whip collection. The new packaging features rose gold caps. “We wanted a more ‘luxe image,’ ” says Gran.

Lip Whip by Kari Gran is a cross between a balm and a lipstick, and it is available in numerous colors. The collection is housed in a low-profile clear frosted pot paired with screw-top caps in rose gold. The caps are plastic with a metal overshell. The caps’ rose gold hue coordinates with the line’s lip colors, which are mainly pinks with a touch of metallic shimmer.

Gran, explains, “Finding the right cap for Lip Whip was extremely challenging. As a brand, we had a vision for what we wanted our new packaging to look and feel like, but finding a vendor that could execute the exact materials and colors was difficult.”

Delivering a Positive User Experience

Whether it is designed to pull off, push in, or unscrew, a cap’s functionality is key. Brands enlist design and engineering teams to ensure that caps and closures will help contribute to a positive user experience with a product, not cause issues. Styles vary from basic designs to caps that offer added-value features, such as closing with a magnetic “click” or a locking mechanism.

“Luxury brands equate quality with sound, and feel,” says Metapack’s de la Noue. “Not only must a cap meet all functional requirements, but we evaluate the ‘feel’ of the force during application and removal. Package designers are going so far as to request a specific sound or tone when the cap is applied or removed,” she explains.