Cosmetics industry reimagines packaging for interactive engagement and circular economy

03 Aug 2022 --- Cosmetic packaging is experiencing a shift toward more interactive and environmentally sustainable packaging solutions amid increasingly stringent legislative and consumer pressure. PackagingInsights explores the latest trends in cosmetics packaging with experts from L’Oréal, The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health and Kao. 

L’Oréal is one company driving the development of a more circular economy for cosmetics packaging in a bid to reduce waste and overcome depleting natural resources. Here, Erik Troost, corporate communication and engagement director at L’Oréal Benelux, says communication technologies can play a vital role.

“QR codes offer more transparency when it comes to materials and ingredients but are also effective for improving recyclability and education,” he explains.

Cosmetic companies are creating interactive packaging solutions to enhance consumer engagement.Connective packaging technologies are also effective in driving brand-consumer engagement with new experiences. For example, L’Oréal’s Maybelline New York and NYX recently introduced virtual try-on tools for its make-up collection. Consumers can upload a photo of themselves or activate their live camera mode and then browse and select all the shades from the catalog. 

Daniel Ramos Day, senior VP of global packaging at ELC, agrees that there has been an increasing focus on interactive packaging to enhance consumer engagement. “Interactive packaging enables consumers to develop a deeper, more rewarding relationship with a brand through a higher level of interaction with a product,” he says.

ELC brands M·A·C, Clinique and Dr.Jart+ have all recently piloted solutions that create dynamic content journeys across multiple time points, offering consumers unique experiences.

The environmental sustainability shift
Meanwhile, brands are increasingly launching beauty products using recycled and recyclable materials and redesigning packaging to lower material impact and emissions footprint.

“Another major development comes from the increased number of refillable product options. Also, more solid formats are being launched with a lower impact on packaging material,” adds Troost. Rigid packaging is typically recycled at higher rates than flexible alternatives.

In 2020, the company launched L’Oréal for the Future, a ten-year sustainability roadmap reflecting its ambition to take greater responsibility “by further transforming ourselves to ensure that our activities stay within the limits of what the planet can withstand according to environmental science.”

Beauty products are increasingly using recycled and recyclable materials to support the budding circular economy.“Over the past years, we’ve seen trends shift toward more [environmentally] sustainable and renewable packaging options,” echoes Meghan Harding, manager for global issues management and media relations at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health.

“We’re staying close to numerous trends within prestige beauty packaging, but in particular, we’re seeing an increasing focus on sustainability, interactivity and authentication,” adds Ramos Day from ELC.

ELC has various sustainability packaging goals that it claims to be making strong progress against. The company aims to use responsibly-sourced paper products whenever possible so that 100% of its forest-based fiber cartons are FSC-certified by 2025. In fiscal 2022, 95% of its forest-based fiber cartons were already FSC-certified, increasing from 28% in fiscal 2019.

Circular economy upgrades
Meanwhile, Caroline Tillett, global head of R&D at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, says that the company is upgrading the packaging for some of its iconic brands to more environmentally sustainable formats. 

Johnson & Johnson says it is upgrading its packaging to more environmentally sustainable formats. “We’re focused on eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging, such as eradicating black plastics from our global portfolio, removing non-recyclable pumps, and launching refillable formats,” explains Katie Decker, president of global essential health, healthy lives and global customer development at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health.

Johnson & Johnson’s Healthy Lives Mission is part of its strategy to approach health in an integrated, [environmentally] sustainable way.

“This strategy goes from our actual products to the way they are packaged. This is our unique responsibility as part of the world’s largest care company, and as such, we publicly committed to investing US$800 million by 2030 to ensure that our brands are increasingly recognized as healthy choices for people and the planet,” says Harding.

“We observe trends in decorating technologies that enhance the products’ appearance and support environmentally friendly materials” adds Yukio Otsuka, product development VP of prestige cosmetics business at Kao.

Kao designs packages from the perspective of the four Rs (Recycle, Replace, Reduce, and Reuse). Each year the number of packages designed in this way is increasing, says Otsuka.

“In particular, refill products that allow customers to use the main container multiple times and products that utilize chemical recycled PET are becoming more common. In addition, we are conducting a field test to collect used cosmetics PET bottles from consumers at some of our outlets with the aim of recycling cosmetics PET bottles horizontally,” he adds.

Cosmetic companies are working toward eliminating excess material and volume.Minimizing material
ELC is also focused on selecting more responsible options and eliminating excess material and volume, “helping to improve sustainability while maintaining a luxurious experience throughout the consumer journey,” describes Ramos Day.

“In collaboration with our suppliers, we’re creating more responsible shipping packaging, which has yielded significant improvements. In the US, some of our brands have switched from plastic to paper mailers that help reduce packaging weight by 79% and have begun using 100% recycled-content boxes.”

He adds: “As part of delivering on ELC’s high-touch promise in the digital environment, we have taken extra measures to help ensure our products arrive damage-free, frustration-free, and in the most [environmentally] sustainable packaging possible.”

“Additionally, [the company’s] brands are implementing initiatives to minimize the impact of their packaging by exploring alternative models that can deliver a luxurious experience while encouraging circular behaviors like packaging reusability.”

The cosmetics industry experienced increased demand for e-commerce solutions during the pandemic.E-commerce considerations 
The “dramatic” shift to e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic has further elevated the importance of designing packaging specifically for the online environment, continues Ramos Day.

“Today, it’s more important than ever to use packaging to stand out and help entice trial,” he says. 

Kao has also monitored an increase in e-commerce purchases during the pandemic and developed more packages in sizes that can fit into the postbox, confirms Otsuka.

Another noticeable pandemic-related change was that companies’ supply chains were more rigorously tested. 

“We used this experience to invest heavily in digital capabilities, working closely with our customers to uncover new data to better understand how consumers are buying, what they want and how they want it packaged,” says Meri Stevens, worldwide VP supply chain, Consumer Health & Deliver at Johnson & Johnson.

“We know over a billion people use our products worldwide, and it’s important that the product is packaged appropriately and readily available on the shelf or at their fingertips when they need it.”

“Supply chain sustainability and the safety of our products are our priority and a vital part of our strategy. We are accelerating our sustainable packaging work by reducing virgin plastics, moving to plastic-free and recyclable packaging across the world, and enhancing the tamper-proof protection for our products,” she concludes.

By Natalie Schwertheim

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