Beauty packaging digitalization advances alongside material innovation

Packaging companies serving the beauty and personal care sector are adopting digital technologies and innovative materials to address evolving industry challenges, including growing consumer expectations for high performance and strong environmental credentials. 

Packaging Insights speaks with Aptar Beauty, Sidel, and Bormioli Luigi about their latest R&D innovations and why digitalization is becoming essential to maintaining a competitive edge.

“Technology is fundamentally reshaping beauty packaging by making it possible to handle greater complexity with more precision and predictability,” a Sidel spokesperson tells us.

“The integration of advanced automation, process control, and digital intelligence across packaging lines is enabling beauty and personal care manufacturers to manage a growing number of stock keeping units, formats, and design variations without sacrificing efficiency or quality.”

Sidel says that technology is shifting packaging development from trial and error toward data-driven decision making, allowing brands to innovate faster while reducing waste and operational risk.

Beyond improving production efficiency, Simone Baratta, beauty business unit director at Bormioli Luigi, highlights digitalization as a means of enhancing the environmental sustainability of beauty packaging by reinforcing the credibility of sustainability claims and building consumer trust.

“To make packaging portfolios truly future-proof, brands must first and foremost integrate sustainability right from the design stage, adopting a native eco-design approach based on sustainable and recyclable materials, lightweight structures, and full life cycle assessment.”

“They must invest in credible refillable solutions that are intuitive for the consumer, consistent with premium positioning, and scalable for industrial production. Transparency and traceability are becoming essential, requiring measurable data and clear information integrated into the packaging.”

AI-powered consumer insight

Aptar Beauty says AI can help design sustainable and user‑experience‑driven solutions.Aptar Beauty tells us about the process of integrating AI into its beauty packaging processes, arguing that it acts as a “catalyst for innovation, feeding strategic thinking and guiding development paths to design solutions that meet real needs and unspoken desires.”

“In the world of dispensing and beauty packaging, this complementarity between algorithmic analysis and creative sensitivity is essential to help design desirable, sustainable, and user‑experience‑driven solutions.”

The spokesperson argues that AI can support gathering valuable consumer insights through social media “listening”, for example, or act as a lever for risk reduction when integrated into the industrial process.

“With AI, predictive algorithms can now anticipate compatibility results based on parameters such as viscosity and rheology [the deformation of matter].”

The model analyzes the data and recommends the best-suited pump and actuator combination, particularly in terms of actuation and suction force, the company details.

“This approach reduces the number of physical tests, limits material waste, and optimizes resource allocation.”

Shifting material expectations

Beyond digitalization, the R&D efforts of packaging companies in the beauty space continue to advance material science to enhance formula protection and delivery.

Sidel says a key shift is the growing move away from traditional materials and toward PET, even in segments such as professional haircare, where high-density PE has long been the norm.

Beauty companies are demanding packaging that accommodates increasingly complex formulations, according to Sidel.“Brands like Farmavita are reassessing material choices not only for recyclability reasons, but also for the operational advantages PET offers, including lower blowing temperatures, improved energy efficiency, and simplified logistics through in-house production,” the spokesperson elaborates.

“At the same time, expectations around packaging aesthetics remain high, particularly in professional and premium beauty environments, where the visual and tactile experience of the bottle plays a critical role in brand perception.”

Another important shift, according to Sidel, is the demand for packaging solutions that can accommodate increasingly complex formulations. “Products containing active ingredients, pressurizing agents, or stabilizing gases place greater demands on bottle resistance and material distribution, particularly at the base.”

“This is pushing beauty brands to work more closely with packaging and equipment experts to ensure that sustainability and design ambitions are supported by robust engineering rather than surface-level changes.”

The greatest tension for personal care packaging lies in maintaining premium aesthetics and functional performance while delivering sustainability improvements that stand up to scrutiny, Sidel’s spokesperson asserts.

At the same time, Bormioli Luigi’s Baratta points out that “many” major brands are converting their “iconic” bottles into refillable versions. Meanwhile, niche brands are focusing exclusively on refillable solutions, he adds.

“Lightweighting is also a key priority, as is the environmental impact of decoration. Bormioli Luigi’s decoration division is innovating with more eco-friendly finishes, such as internal lacquering, sputtering — a technique with a lower environmental impact than metallization — and the widespread use of volatile organic compound-free lacquers.”

Sidel’s spokesperson concludes: “Brands looking to future‑proof their packaging portfolios should prioritize circularity by design and be ready for evolving regulations and consumer expectations by anticipating stricter packaging and waste rules rather than reacting to them.”