Designing a new package from stock components that complements an existing product line can be a challenge. In specifying packaging for a new product from Drunk Elephant Skin Care, Pacific Packaging Components, Inc. completed the job with such skill that it was honored with Gold in the Personal Care/Beauty category in the National Association of Container Distributors 2015 Package of the Year Awards.
Explains Rob Vilencia, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for PPC, “Drunk Elephant was looking for a unique and innovative airless package that would match and be cohesive with the rest of their brand and also separate itself from competition on the shelves.”
Drunk Elephant is a Los Angeles-based natural skincare company offering eight products that use virgin Marula oil, extracted from the kernels of the African Marula tree. Explains the company’s website, “The name Drunk Elephant is rooted in a myth that says that elephants love to eat the fruit that has fallen from the Marula trees. Once eaten, fermentation occurs inside their very large tummies and the elephants become drunk!”
When Drunk Elephant approached PPC in July 2014, they were looking for packaging for their new Shaba Complex Eye Serum, which they hoped to launch within the year. Their existing product line uses several packaging formats, including bottles and soapboxes, with a blocky, square-edged design. The graphic design for the packaging is simple, with a white background, black type, and a stylized line drawing of an elephant. Bottles use square caps in bright, solid colors.
To provide convenient product dispensing and a complementary look to the line, PPC specified an airless pen from Aptar that provides a 15-mL measured dosage (70-cL per pump). Says Vilencia, “The package offers an intuitive-gesture, one-touch dispensing feature. The exact dosing and dispensing features ensure that only the desired amount of high-end serum is used, and none is left to waste. This is important to both the company and the consumer with respect to an expensive product like this.” (The serum is priced at $85 per 0.5-oz package on Drunk Elephant’s website.)
As for aesthetics, Vilencia says the package is custom decorated to match the existing family of Drunk Elephant products. “There were some challenges required with the custom decoration required and the custom-color overcap and applicator button,” he says. “But we were able to resolve the challenges and create the exact look our customer was aiming for.” The polypropylene base, while cylindrical in shape has squared-off edges. The overcap is printed in a light blue shade.
The new product was launched in December 2014 on the Drunk Elephant website as well as by other online retailers, at Sephora stores worldwide, and in high-end skincare boutiques.
