Tubes are tremendously versatile. They can be economical or opulent; they’ll be whatever you, the brand owner, wants them to be. Naturally, therefore, tube suppliers are experiencing demand from all levels of the beauty industry for their handy packaging format.
“There will always be the mass market... but now there are mid market and high end brands who all want to move upmarket and see the benefit of using tubes, because a tube is a handy and relatively low cost solution,” says Simon Dix, Sales Director at UK-based packaging provider Vetroplas.
“The tube market is growing,” confirms Kristy Hooper, Global Marketing Manager, Skincare and Cosmetics, at MeadWestvaco (MWV). “It is a popular solution for brands, because it is an affordable one. Tubes are a very economic solution to packaging, while providing the things that are important to brands, like compatibility and lots of different decoration options.”
On top of this, recent leaps forward in design, material technology, application solutions and manufacture have made tubes an even more attractive packaging solution for cosmetics and toiletries companies.
Breakthrough concepts
New from Spain’s Tuboplast CTL, for example, is the Easy Supply Tube, or EST, the result of a new technology developed to produce an in-mould labelled tube.
“It is genuinely new and radical,” says Dix (Vetroplas is CTL's UK agent). “CTL prints the labels first, then the label goes into the mould and the sleeve of the tube is injected inside the label. So the whole item is produced in one. When the mould opens you have a sleeve that is open at both ends and completely covered by the label.”
This provides several advantages over the standard process, according to Dix, the first being that there is no 5mm ‘gap’ left at either end of the tube: by the cap and the seal.
“Another advantage,” adds Dix, “is because you are not silkscreen printing or offset printing onto the tube sleeve directly – you are actually just printing the label and moulding that label into the tube at the same time – the only limitations are with the label itself. And with a label you can have much more detail than you ever could by printing directly onto the sleeve. Much more complicated designs are possible. We can mix up different finishes with matte and gloss at the same time, and you can have very intricate metallic colours, or photorealistic images covering the whole sleeve.”
Finally, Dix highlights the “much shorter production lead times” ESTs represent. “The customer can give us the go-ahead to print labels in readiness ready for production and we can store them, which takes up no space, it is not like having pallets full of tubes. Then, when the customer says ‘I want 10,000 of this reference and 20,000 of this reference for such-and-such-a-date’ – and that might be only two or three weeks down the line – we have the labels ready. So it is just a question of moulding them with the tube, injecting the head and capping them, which takes barely any time at all.”
M&H Plastics, meanwhile, unveiled in April 2014 a novel process for printing Braille characters directly onto plastic packaging, including tubes. Traditional labels featuring Braille characters can be easily damaged or peeled. As an alternative, M&H uses a high-build varnish to print the dots directly onto the products, using extremely accurate control measures to ensure the height of the Braille alphabet remains uniform throughout the packaging run. M&H says its new technique complies with BS EN 15823 as an approved Braille labelling system.
A very different innovation, but one which presents exciting possibilities, is Cosmogen’s patented Self-Heating Tube. The concept (which comes in diameters of 19mm or 13mm with a 3ml-10ml capacity, or 25mm or 35mm diameters with a 10ml-60ml capacity) is a ‘tube within a tube’, whereby the inner tube is filled with a safe sodium acetate solution and then hermetically sealed, and the outer is filled with formula. To use, the consumer should break the seal to begin the warming.
According to the Parisian company, the Self-Heating Tube is perfect for packaging face and body masks, body oil and anti-wrinkle treatments for the eye area, adding an extra facet to a pampering or soothing experience.
Cosmogen’s latest tubes include the Self-Heating Tube (above) and Tense Tube (headline image), which boasts a double sided applicator with a spatula on one side and cooling zamac on the other
Concern for the environment informs a lot of packaging development and tubes are no exception. Cornelia Schmid, Hoffmann Neopac’s Head of Marketing, tells SPC that “for eco-design we recently launched sugar cane-based tubes and wooden tubes in our Hungarian premises”, while TricorBraun (in partnership with Silgan Plastics and Giflor Plastic Caps) has introduced what it claims is “the lightest, most low-profile tube solution available”. The tube’s neck height is just 0.354 inches and it is 40% lighter than a standard tube head; this means the pack-out is 25% more efficient, translating into energy and cost savings. Meanwhile, Giflor’s Snap-on Finish closure is 50% lighter than the average 2 inch tube top closure.
Sensational application
Of course, on shelf impact and product protection is all for nought if the consumer experience at the point of use is negative. Therefore, suppliers are continually innovating when it comes to the dispensers, applicators and caps to be paired with tubes.
Last year, Hoffmann Neopac teamed up with Aptar Beauty + Home to create two airless tubes: the Polyfoil Evolux and Polyfoil Evoclassic (available in 25mm and 30mm diameters and in volumes of 15ml-75ml). The Polyfoil, says Hoffmann Neopac, protects the formula and provides a mirror-like shine, while the customer can select an Aptar pump with different nozzle types, collars and caps. The premium Evolux version comes in two different nozzle options, with a choice of metal and plastic components for collar and caps, while the Evoclassic one, which is said to be ideal for cosmeceutical brands, has a plastic version of the pump with a plastic cap and an additional on-off function.
Another innovation in airless tubes came from MWV, which launched the Amplify pump and tube at 2014’s Luxe Pack Monaco. According to Hooper, Amplify uses a “rolling bellow technology”, whereby “the engine of the pump system is able to pump air in the same way that it pumps product”. This means that should the consumer run into air pockets, Amplify will recover the prime much more quickly than a traditional system. “You may get one to three empty strokes instead of ten to 12 – it’s less frustrating for the consumer,” says Hooper.
Consumer research carried out by MWV revealed that advantages over the traditional cap on tube system included the overall feeling of hygiene and cleanliness, and the level of control about what comes out of the tube, as it starts to empty.
As Hooper explains: “You get less control because you run into air in the system, which can cause sputtering and cause you to get too much or too little. What Amplify is able to do is get really good evacuation in a very smooth and easy way throughout the entire use of the package.”
Moreover, because the pack ‘flattens’ as it empties, it provides a visible cue for when the product needs to be replaced.
As well as airless pumps, roller ball applicators continue to be a popular dispensing and application method for formulas in tubes. Recently launched rollers include Cosmogen’s Squeeze’n Flat Roller – a stainless steel applicator that fits on a 30mm diameter tube, designed for anti-ageing and firming facial products. Also new from Cosmogen is Tense Tube, a solution for eye, lip and anti-wrinkle products, which boasts a dual action applicator with a smooth SEBS or PE spatula on one side (to apply formula) and a 45-degree inclined zamac surface on the other for cooling and stimulation.
Texas-based Fusion Packaging, meanwhile, introduced Direct Effect, a collection of tube-based direct applicators for targeted treatment. Available in 16mm and 19mm tube diameters with capacities ranging from 5ml-20ml, Direct Effect features 15 customisable styles including eight single or triple Rollerball applicators in ceramic, polypropylene (PP) or stainless steel; five ergonomically angled silicone and TPE Soft-Slope styles; and two applicators in the Pro-Tip series – a Brush Tip and Spatula Tip.
2014 also witnessed progress in cap design. The winner of the ‘prototype’ category at the European Tube Manufacturers Association’s (etma) most recent Tube of the Year awards was Hoffmann Neopac for its Miniwing closure, a capping solution for extremely small tubes. Designed for tubes with diameters from 10mm-25mm, the Miniwing has small reinforcements on the cap so that consumers can better grip and turn.
Indeed, while tubes are perennially popular for packing items which are typically larger, like hair products and shower gels, the Miniwing’s success is indicative of an ongoing trend for small packs. As Gregor Spengler, Secretary General of the etma comments: “Ever greater mobility is fuelling the trend towards smaller and extremely small packs. And the tube is simply perfectly placed for such applications, being stable and unbreakable, with high standards of hygiene and the best barrier properties for optimal product safety.”