Aiming for game-changing brand innovation

WHAT makes one beauty package stand out from the next? The answers run the gamut—from shape to materials, decoration to dispenser. Here we look at a sampling of packaging ideas recently emerging in the marketplace.

Chloé took a feature known to nail product packaging and applied it to fragrance in a limited edition miniature version of its eau de parfum, See by Chloé ($39), which catches the eye with a bright pink brush inside the silhouette of the bottle. The packaging is intended to create a new perfume ritual, a delicate gesture thanks to the brush, which is used to gently apply fragrance to the skin.

Hard Candy says a great deal of time went into the engineering and aesthetics of its Mod Quad collection, a custom-designed compact ($6 each), which enables the customer to see all four shades of the baked eye shadow product and still have a large usable mirror plus applicators. A changeable outer fabric design was created for each shade. No small feat, the brand’s packaging and design teams worked to ensure that when positioned in store at Walmart, all four shades would be above the graphic line.

Too Faced answered the call for double-duty beauty products, creating Jingle All the Way, a cosmetic palette that not only looks like an accessory, but functions as one, too. Pop out the makeup palette and use the iPhone 5 case designed by celebrity decorator and TV personality Mary McDonald. The two-in-one iPhone case and makeup palette ($25) includes 11 shadows, a bronzer, and a blush.

MAC Cosmetics has released a new range of make-up brushes that, quite simply, look like toothbrushes. According to the company, the label’s Masterclass range of brushes, launched last November in North America, was designed with consumers, rather than make-up artists in mind, and aim to help people get closer to the mirror when applying their make-up.

Nick Gavrelis, vice president global product development for M?A?C Face and PRO, said that instead of the brushes you have to turn and pull to yourself, this new type of brush is actually designed to face yourself, because it is already facing the proper direction, whether you are left handed or right handed. “You are able to adapt the application to deliver flawless results with little difficulty,” he said.

Mr Gavrelis also explained that since these new brushes are constructed out of a synthetic cosmo-fiber, they’re five times denser than the traditional brushes yet the overall sizes are much smaller and therefore much more portable. For instance, one particular brush is designed not only for liquid foundation or cream foundation, but also for blush, contour powder or bronzers.

The brushes have been released in three sizes: Linear1, the smallest brush with a tiny line of bristles created with fine eyeliner and eyebrow work in mind; Oval3, the middle-sized brush intended for eye shadow, blending and concealers; and the largest, Oval6, which should be used for foundation, blush or powder.