C&BC solutions shine at Pack Expo Las Vegas

Once again we asked Dave Hoenig, a veteran of the Cosmetics and Beauty Care industry, to report on packaging trends and developments that he found noteworthy in the aisles of Pack Expo Las Vegas.

FIGHTING COUNTERFEITS. This technology lets end users check for authenticity using standard imaging devices such as the camera in a cell phone.
FIGHTING COUNTERFEITS. This technology lets end users check for authenticity using standard imaging devices such as the camera in a cell phone.

I always look forward to seeing what’s new and intriguing in the Cosmetics & Beauty Care (C&BC) industry. Trade shows like Pack Expo Las Vegas are good venues for this kind of research, and in my visit there this past September I discovered some interesting new developments in this sector.

In addition to having some clever functional features, many of the innovative packages I saw at the show made sustainability claims, too. Zacros, a subsidiary of Fujimori Kogyo, exhibited petite cosmetics pouches with screwed-on brush or sponge applicator for thick cosmetics such as lip gloss, mascara, or concealers. Not only is less plastic used in the package, the consumer can squeeze out the last bit of product (something not possible with more traditional rigid containers). For branding, the large flat surface allows for high-impact, high-quality, colorful graphics.

Zacros also exhibited  Flowpack, a self-standing flexible pouch, which is popular in Japan for refill products. Flowpack claimed to be especially suitable for single-use liquid applications such as hand soap refills or hair treatments. Product flow is secured through a variety of spout designs, offering convenience and ease-of-use. Additionally, less material than rigid bottles makes for less environmental strain, and lighter weight translates into logistical savings.

It is interesting to note that despite the explosive growth of flexible packaging in other consumer products, and despite purported significant sustainability savings, flexibles have made few inroads into C&BC. About all I saw from the major brands in the West were small pouches with dispensing valves from Garnier (a L’Oreal brand).

A company named Soft Bottle displayed its dispensing container consisting of a thin plastic bag (containing the product) encased in a hard shell + dispenser. The thinness allows for efficient evacuation of the bag contents as the bag collapses. At the same time, the fact that the product is already in a bag allows encasement in a thin shell, thus overall less plastic is used in the package.

LiquiGlide is intriguing technology developed at MIT that provides a slippery coating for containers to improve efficiency and reduce waste. It is a “super-slippery,” non-toxic, edible but tasteless substance that can be applied to the inside of a bottle, preventing liquids and highly viscous materials such as gels and pastes from sticking to the neck and the bottom where they can’t be reached.

Fighting counterfeits
According to the non-profit International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, counterfeits and other fraudulent goods in commerce have been growing alarmingly. They cost U.S. businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually and are directly responsible for the loss of more than 750,000 American jobs. Many Cosmetics and Beauty Care products are high-value items, and there have been some efforts at anti-counterfeiting, especially with fragrances

While walking the Pack Expo aisles, I noted many suppliers of anti-counterfeiting and anti-fraud technologies. CertiRx, not having a booth at the show, caught my attention as I was informally introduced to its CEO Tom Mercolino by one of my networking friends. Mercolino explained to me how a package can be checked by end users (without any privacy concerns) using standard imaging devices such as the camera in a cell phone. The secure and unique identity is generated by a proprietary symbol printed as a background to other human- and machine-readable printing (similar in appearance to the background seen on checks and other secure documents). The resulting codes have no spatial component. Contrast this feature with bar codes, for example, which rely entirely upon spatially representing the information that they encode.

Additionally, CertiRx technology allows for direct-to-consumer interaction and marketing without any consumer-privacy concerns.

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