Eye-catching elegance with Surlyn

HONG KONG – Premiumisation of beauty products can be subtle or can make such an impact that it revs up purchases. That seems to be true for the reinvented Grandi?se mascara from Lancome.

Since its launch into the Asian market in August, word has it that the Lanc?me mascara has flown off the shelves. It’s hard to ignore the eye-catching product: The Lanc?me rose suspended in the perfectly transparent cap atop the sinuous and lustrous black package.

Grandi?se redux: A special encapsulation technique suspends the black Lanc?me rose in a perfectly transparent cap made of DuPont Surlyn?. The tip of the Swan-Neck? wand is also made from Surlyn

Such elegance and luxurious  -- one normally associated with high-end perfumes -- attests to the versatility of the glass-like molding resin. In the case of Grandiose, the rheological properties of Surlyn allowed the resin to form a “skin” around the rose without deforming or displacing it from the desired position. One is able to see the rose from any angle, and the glass-like material further magnifies the effect. 

Philippe Milazzo said DuPont’s technical team in Geneva took about a year to develop the encapsulation technology for the mascara cap, using the same injection molding machines that its customers have, before transferring the technology.

“When we showed what could be done with Surlyn using new injection molding techniques at Luxe Pack, we couldn’t talk about anything else,” Mr. Milazzo, global marketing manager for DuPont Cosmetics & Perfumes Packaging, told Happi Asia while visiting Cosmoprof Asia.

DuPont China was at the three-day Cosmoprof Asia, which ended today in Hong Kong. It is the only cosmetics event in Asia that the company’s Packaging and Industrial Polymers division has joined.

A culture of development

While Surlyn has been the go-to material for iconic brands – think of the doves for L’Air du Temps by Nina Ricci or the J’Adore from Christian Dior, that has not stopped DuPont from developing novel ways to utilize the resin. What encourages the technical and development teams to keep doing so is the incredible support.
“They are allowed to fail,” Mr. Milazzo said with some anticlimax.

“They are allowed to fail, with no repercussions, preferably early on in the project,” he explained. “so that we can continue to offer new design possibilities and expand aesthetics options available to our customers.”

From the depths of a hefty briefcase, Mr Milazzo proceeded to show just how the level of success that has been achieved.

There was the “Flower in the Air”, the latest fragrance from Kenzo: the delicate petals of the poppy are magnified through both the top, bottom and even the sides of the highly transparent cap. There is no distortion, despite the magnification, owing to the special laying and overmolding process.

“We are constantly trying new things and working with other materials,” Mr Milazzo explained, as he held up a swatch of lace.

In this new technology, a cap or container wrapped in textile is overmolded with Surlyn. This innovative textile encapsulation technique, the “DuPont Surlyn? 3D textile” technology, was developed collaboration with Oriol & Fontanel, the global specialist in luxury ribbons. Fragile and ornamental textiles, such as lace are not altered by the injection molding process.

“As the association between fashion and fragrance extends the possibilities in other materials such as fabric, there has been huge interest in this technology, ” he said. 

When Happi Asia mentions British luxury brand Burberry, Mr Milazzo replied, “We shall have to wait and see.”