Gerresheimer at Luxe Pack in Greater Variety than Ever Before

27/10/06 At Luxe Pack 2006 in Monaco (24 to 27 October), the Gerresheimer Group impressively demonstrates that glass is an extraordinarily versatile material for cosmetics design and can display widely varying characteristics. In its international display of trends and ideas, the Group illustrates the weightlessness of glass transparency and displays undreamt-of colouring and finishing highlights such as mysterious black glass and the aristocratic aura of ivory. Marketing and design experts from all segments of the cosmetics industry will find much to interest them in Halle Ravel (Stand RC 14).

This year again the extremely attractive display is staged primarily by the Gerresheimer plants in Momignies in Belgium and Tettau in Southern Germany, its leading European glass production centres for cosmetics. The Gerresheimer Group operates globally, with production plants not only in Europe but also in the USA and China, and is without doubt one of the most multi-facetted suppliers in this field. Very few manufacturers serve both the select sector and the broader mass market – and very few have the know-how and technical repertoire from development through to production to enable them to exploit really all the possibilities of shape, colour and finishing. Asked about the objectives of this year’s presentation, Burkhard Lingenberg, Director of Corporate PR and Marketing for the Gerresheimer Group says: "Glass packaging is the most important marketing instrument of all for cosmetics and at the same time an ideal protection factor for the product. We want to communicate really new ideas from both these viewpoints – to show everything that is actually achievable with this material.”

Visitors to the Gerresheimer stand can indeed expect a thoroughly absorbing tour d'horizon. The glass spectrum covers the entire range of exclusive perfumes and fragrances, skincare cosmetics and body-care products. In addition, it caters for health and beauty products such as aromatherapy and nail varnish, and extends even to samplers. And it is no longer the world of fine fragrances and decorative cosmetics alone which adorns itself with aesthetic appeal: the trend towards individual marketing through the packaging has further increased right across all care sectors and generally in the field of men’s cosmetics. It may be a striking glass texture or perhaps a subtle veil of frosting on smooth glass, alluring colouring or elaborate appliqués which make cosmetics glass a real experience – the fascination lies in the wide range of variations between transparency and opacity.

From several hundred exhibits just three very different examples may be taken here. One of the most striking new appearances in the Gerresheimer show cases is certainly MUM Deo Roll-on (Doetsch Grether). This deodorant brand with a very rich tradition has its roots in the Philadelphia of the nineteenth century. In 2006 it launched a revival with six products in interestingly textured and alluringly shaped miniature bottles – five in clear glass and one in pitch black. The flacon for the men’s fragrance Flyback (Jacques Evard) is characterised by an unusual combination of lightness and satisfying optical weight: the complete transparency of a clear, half rounded pillar is united in elegant harmony with the chrome gleam of an opulent closure system which covers the entire upper area of the flacon like a heavy setting. Façonnable femme (Nordstrom) is also characterised by contrasts – although in a spellbinding feminine way with gossamer delicacy: partial acid etching of the otherwise gleaming glass, cheeky little details in the otherwise simply designed shape and the delicate tint of the perfume itself make this flacon a real feast for connoisseurs.

A particularly surprising highlight is presented by the Gerresheimer Cosmetic Group this year with opal glass. Anyone who in the past may have doubted (possibly correctly) the emotionality of this opaque glass type will have the pleasure in Monte Carlo of finding out how wrong they were. As a magical contrast to the customary blinding snowy white, the Group is presenting for the first time flacons and jars in OpalNuance, a natural-coloured variant in a delicate ivory tone. The alluring possibilities opened up by this glass are demonstrated by unique high-gloss and acid-etched prototypes created by Gerresheimer especially for Luxe Pack in Nouvelles Verreries de Momignies, where the Group operates the largest opal glass furnace in the world.

The extremely aristocratic and feminine appearance of OpalNuance is likely to set a sustained new trend particularly in the more up-market skincare segments – although its unique aura may well arouse enthusiasm among perfume designers as well. From a purely rational viewpoint, opal glass offers – in addition to the imperviousness and neutrality characteristic of glass – protection against light for sensitive ingredients, which makes colour coating unnecessary in many cases.

It doesn’t take the foresight of a prophet to predict that the trend towards high-value individual glass packaging will accelerate even more in the future, says Lingenberg. In practically every segment of the cosmetics market an attractive product get-up as a minimum is a fundamental requirement for credibility, he adds. And a more beautiful strongroom than glass simply doesn’t exist.