Essential Cosmetic Containers For Skincare & Beauty Packaging There are few industries out there with as much potential to develop loyal, die-hard customers as beauty and cosmetics. Beauty products are a staple in bathroom cabinets around the world; whether a person is going for an “I woke up like this” look or the avant garde “makeup is art you wear on your face” feel, just about every woman (not to mention tons of men!) use beauty products on the daily. Which means if you own a beauty or cosmetics line, the potential for some serious business is there. But it also means if you want to grab that business and take it for yourself, you’re going to need to find a way to break through the clutter, jump off the shelf at Sephora, and tell your ideal customer “THIS is the lipstick for you!” And the best way to do that is your packaging. Your packaging is the first thing the beauty die-hards you want to turn into customers are going to see. If your packaging grabs their attention and speaks to what they’re looking for, they’re likely to take your product home and give it a try. If not? It’s likely to gather dust on the shelf. But how, exactly, do you design the kind of packaging that makes your ideal customer scream “I need that blush yesterday?” Never fear, 99designs is here with all the information you need to design packaging that stands out on the shelf and gets your product into your customer’s bag (and, eventually, on their face). Just as important as your customer’s identity is your identity. What’s your branding? Are you dark and edgy (like Urban Decay)? Simple and classic (like Bobbi Brown)? Luxurious (like Dior)? Accessible (like Wet n Wild)? Who you are as a brand—and the personality you want to portray to your customers—is going to determine what design elements you use in your packaging. Define how your ideal customers are buying your product You’ll also want to consider how you’re going to sell your products. Are you selling online or in store? In small boutiques or in large retailers? Your design strategy might change depending on where you’re shelling your goods. Create a mood board for your brand A great thing to do before you start designing is to create a mood board for your brand. Pull together images, colors, advertisements and whatever else you feel embodies your brand personality; these will act as inspiration as you go through the design process. Let cosmetics packaging trends inspire you — If you need a little inspiration for your packaging design there’s no better place to start than looking at the latest cosmetics packaging trends. Once you know what’s currently trending, you can create packaging that caters to what’s important to your customers right now and that speaks to them in the right way. Remember that you want to pick a look that’s both modern and on trend, but also timeless and universally appealing, so your packaging design looks up-to-date for as long as possible. Makeup containers expand to a range of jars, bottles, pots, tubes, pens, compacts and liquid dispensing solutions. Each container offers a different design and solution; however, in the world of ‘cosmetic containers’, each product sits under the skincare, hair and beauty categories. This article will explore the different types of cosmetic containers available in the packaging industry. Raepak offers an extensive range of distinctive packaging products that enable us to explore innovations and keep an eye on exciting designs that are beneficial to the current market cycle. Cosmetic Jar Containers Lipstick containers in the form of jars are perfect for skin care and beauty products. Jars can contain gels, creams, lotions and deep skin cleansing products. Most jar containers come with a shive (a flat plastic shelf that fits inside the jar) used to keep the contents free from foreign debris (dust & germs). Moreover, jars are designed with airtight lids, which keep the contents fresh and ready for future use. Bottle containers can be produced as an airless recyclable container or a high-end luxury acrylic bottle. Acrylic bottles look fantastic with a matching jar and can store nourishing body lotions or face creams. PP airless bottles can also store creams and lotions. However, they are cheaper to produce and lighter in raw plastic material. Acrylic airless bottles are seen as a hybrid between both full acrylic and pp airless containers. Lip gloss containers in the form of pots can be funky, stylish, trendy or sophisticated. Small pots for cosmetic packaging tend to be perfect for eye serums, aromatherapy oils, lip balm, hand creams or hair products. Moreover, small plastic pots tend to be made with a wide range of different plastic types; PMMA/PETG/PP/AS & ABS. Using these plastic combinations helps with the shape and aesthetics of the final jar design. Cosmetic tube packaging containers come in different shapes, colours, materials and profiles. Cosmetic tubes are manufactured from high-quality materials, including AS, ABS, PETG, and PCTG. Each item is designed to work with makeup for the beauty & cosmetics industry. Furthermore, mascara containers are manufactured to have an excellent quality finish and be competitively priced. Cosmetic pen containers come in a beautiful range of styles and design. Each pen gives off a trendy vibe, is easy to use and fits perfectly into any purse or handbag. Cosmetic pen packaging is manufactured from high-quality materials and can be used for eyebrow, lip gloss, concealer, highlighters or liquid blushers. Compact containers are manufactured to be used with beauty and makeup products. Makeup powder is available in a vast range of colour palettes, and it helps give the wearer a look they desire. Compacts can be produced in a range of different styles included; square, round, rectangle and bespoke finishes. Cosmetic liquid dispensing containers come in different shapes, colours, materials and profiles. Furthermore, they can work well with other eyeshadow containers to offer brands a set of makeup and beauty products – offering a collection of different makeup and beauty product solutions that can help target a wider audience.  Around one-fifth of the cosmetics market is made up of skincare products. With ￡920 million made from sales in 2018, non-medicated face care products (like moisturisers and exfoliators) were the best selling skincare cosmetics. Haircare and colour cosmetics also make up 18% and 16% of the market. Home is where the heart is, sure — but it's also where we live our beauty lives. So, we teamed up with the editors at AD to bring you tons of great design tips, trends, and tricks for making over your bathrooms, showers, and vanities. For more like this, click here. We've seen the overflowing shelfies and packed skin-care fridges, and we know firsthand how hard it can be to find the best makeup organizers to streamline your vanity. Limited space and a never-ending stream of exciting new product launches mean that our makeup and skin-care collections tend to grow much faster than the space we have to store it all. But your countertop no longer has to be a sea of beauty supplies and brushes, because we have the perfect solutions. Until the day when we all have Huda Kattan's glamorous bathroom set-up, we're opting for makeup organizers. These beauty organizers can help sort the many (many, many) products into efficient storage spaces that also happen to be easy on the eyes. The best news? Limited drawer space isn't even an issue since these gorgeous designs were made to be displayed. Not only do they provide optimal storage for your foundations, eye shadow palettes, lip products, and makeup brushes, but they're way more sanitary than throwing everything into a canvas bag and hoping nothing leaks. Next time you get that organizational itch, or are overcome by a Marie Kondo-inspired need to tidy, turn to one (or a few) of these storage solutions for your beloved beauty products. We've rounded up the best makeup organizers, including spa-like bamboo boxes, old-school Caboodles kits, clear plastic drawers, and more. There's something for every budget, every design taste, and every size bathroom. So go ahead — take the first step toward decluttering your vanity. Your beauty routine (and your countertop) will thank you. Climate change is hard to deny when we see how much change has happened in the time we’ve been practicing social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, the carbon dioxide levels in New York City were 50% lower than they were in March 2019. Environmentalists are also tracking the air pollution above Wuhan province in China; it went down significantly for two months while everyone was in isolation and is now creeping back up.   While we wrestle with these challenging times, many are starting to see what the human impact on our planet really looks like.  You’ve likely heard the statistic that less than 11% of plastic is actually recycled properly in Canada. But did you also know that every year in the U.S.A., according to the Environmental Protection Agency, over two billion razors and refill blades are sent to landfill? Even worse, that stat is actually from a 1988 report, and that number has likely gone up exponentially since then. If you do math and consider that we have similar spending habits to our neighbours to the south, Canada has about 10% the amount of people as the U.S., so it would track that we throw away about 200 million disposable razors each year, at minimum.  The above data notwithstanding, Canadian stats on how much plastic waste actually comes from the beauty and self-care sector are very elusive. Unless brands release their numbers on products sold, it’s hard to estimate the actual amount of plastic that ends up in landfills. Nonetheless, it’s safe to assume a lot of plastic gets thrown out because of our Sephora sprees.  So what does all the doom and gloom have to do with you and your beauty and personal care habits? Well, there are a few ways to make sure that you’re doing the most you can when it comes to not adding to our already massive recycling problem. “One of the best ways to make sure that change happens is to make the companies understand that you really care about this issue,” says Vito Buonsante, plastics program manager at Environmental Defence Canada. “People can only do so much. It’s not really their responsibility to control the waste; it’s more on the company.”  Buonsante recommends that we take a look at what we’re purchasing and start giving our money to brands that offer recycling programs or that use more easily recycled materials, like glass and tin, as opposed to plastic. If it’s absolutely necessary to buy plastic, check that the container has a 1 or 2 plastic rating, which can be found on bottles inside the recycle symbol. Those numbers are the most desirable for recycling programs (the system ranks up to a 7). “The problem with packaging in the beauty industry is that it is often made of mixed materials, therefore it becomes pretty difficult to recycle,” says Buonsante. In short, try not to buy cosmetic products with a plastic rating of 3 or higher.  Strongly expressing your environmental concerns to your member of parliament and local city councillor is also helpful, says Buonsante, as is signing plastics-focused petitions and supporting environmental charities (like the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ecotrust Canada or any local conservancy groups) so they can continue to help push things forward.  And now, while we’re taking social distancing measures very seriously, perhaps we can also help curb our plastic waste anxiety (because really, we don’t need another thing to fret about) by looking into the following ways to make our beauty routine a little more environmentally friendly.