How to Create A Cosmetic Packaging Design That Wins On-Shelf

Despite how light and approachable cosmetic packaging design appears, it’s a niche with substantial retail competition. As a result, in recent years, the cosmetic industry has seen innovative packaging design trends.

We’ve all seen it; your typical cosmetics aisle is wall-to-wall options, with big-name brands getting the most play and smaller brands becoming lost in the shuffle. For this reason, new beauty brands are shifting focus to an Ecommerce strategy where they can reach customers directly.

Unfortunately, in this scenario, direct-to-consumer advertising platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Google ads are becoming more expensive with so many emerging cosmetic companies. Organic social media campaigns are not nearly as effective as they once were, thanks to the throttling these platforms used to encourage ad spend.

So while it may seem daunting, on-shelf presents an opportunity for new brands to break through in the beauty industry. But only if taking the appropriate steps…

Smaller cosmetics brands hoping to compete on-shelf must inspect their beauty packaging design strategy from top to bottom. They must pay special attention to how brands find success and the essential design principles they’re leveraging to achieve victory.

Cosmetic Categories

A quick refresher on the various categories in the cosmetics industry. There are product design trends specific to each of the cosmetic categories. Cosmetic companies often look within their category but would be better served to create ideation from what is trending on the other side of Ulta’s store.

Face Skin Care Cosmetics

There is a subtlety in facial skincare packaging. Perhaps the most health-focused of all cosmetic categories, facial skincare products follow a design strategy that implies safe and natural ingredients. I mean, who wants to put dangerous chemicals on their face?

Body Skin Care Products

The category of body skin care products is more expansive. Everything from large but cheap, midsize naturals, and small luxury lotions exist in a single aisle. Understanding your target audience is critical to your lotion packaging design strategy.

Makeup Products

Makeup packaging needs to speak beyond look and feel. There are other considerations for makeup than the ingredients and your appearance. Makeup package design may need to include ease of application and ease of removal in the design strategy.

Hair Care Products

There is perhaps no greater fear of cosmetic consumers than of a bad hair day. Often, consumers take a multifaceted approach to hair care with shampoos, conditioners, leave-ins, and supplements. This type of cosmetic packaging needs to imply fast-acting and long-lasting results.

Nail Care Products

Style is everything with nail care packaging. Perhaps the hard shell of the nails implies fewer chemicals will penetrate the surface, but there is still a tendency to sacrifice in the name of glamour.

Fragrance Products

Like the spirits industry and premium alcohol packaging designs, perfume and cologne have a level of sophistication among even the cheapest brands. The glass cosmetic bottle is a go-to choice, but the shape and size differ widely.

Cosmetic Customer Research

It’s hard to get customers excited about your design when you don’t know who those customers are! If you haven’t yet, one of the first things you should consider is your exact customer profile.

Are you trying to reach customers who buy those high-end luxury brands like Dior or Chanel? Or are you more focused on natural ingredients and sustainability, targeting customers who prefer to shop with an eco-friendly approach? That is not a bad goal, considering that 61% of the cosmetics market share comes from plastic packaging. We will touch on this in a moment…

Luxury Cosmetic Packaging

Putting pricing strategies aside, luxury is a purchase driver for most cosmetic product consumers. Consumers expect high-end cosmetic packaging in brands found in boutique cosmetic stores and even within the aisles of Target.

The question is, how can you showcase premium cosmetic packaging within your pricing model? Of course, test the impact of your luxury cosmetic packaging design to make sure it is worth the investment.

Sustainable Cosmetic Packaging

Sustainable ingredients are and have been an important consideration for cosmetic brands. But what about the packaging used on cosmetic products?

Does plastic packaging hurt purchase intent, and does switching to recyclable packaging lead to a profit that at least matches the increased cost?

Is our secondary cosmetic cardboard packaging hurting the image of our brand because we are not directly stating the use of recyclable paper in our cosmetic packaging?

We know bisphenol-A is not desirable for water bottles but does switching to BPA-free cosmetic packaging lead to more repeat purchases?

These are all questions you have to ask in today’s world, but it doesn’t always mean we can tie the trend to profitability. Recyclable cosmetic packaging has a massive impact on our environment, but we cannot guarantee a massive impact on your total revenues.

Modern cosmetic packaging may call into question many of these purchase drivers, but test how messaging affects your bottom line. Is sustainability better served as a part of your brand strategy rather than being used as a part of your label or package copy? Test and find out for sure.

Youthful Cosmetic Packaging

With the past behind us, let’s shift our attention to the cosmetic consumers of the future.

Clearly, a brand selling fun beauty products to teenagers has more leeway for fresh, funky designs and bold color swaths than companies aiming at the Estée Lauder crowd.

Part of these decisions has to do with your brand‘s unique personality. This involves who you’re targeting as much as your own company values. You must stay consistent here and align these ideas as you design your packaging. To put that another way, would your product line fit in better at Sephora or Hot Topic?

Cosmetics Packaging For Your Preferred Retailer

And what about your preferred sales channels? Are your products sold in a department store? Are you trying to compete directly in the makeup aisle of CVS, Bloomingdales, or Nordstrom? Maybe you work directly with a small space cosmetic shop, such as a beauty supply store that services hair stylists and estheticians?

Where exactly do your products live? Do they sit on a cosmetic shop counter? On an end cap? Or in a long, dark, and dreary aisle?

A lot of market research needs to be done based specifically on your shelf (and store) competitors. Therefore, simulated testing with an accurate competitive landscape is important to the SmashBrand package testing methodology..

Perform Competitive Research

Cosmetic competitors exist around every corner. In the websites your consumers visit, the magazines they read, and the social circles where they frequent. Competitive research in your design process means looking at competitors where they exist.

The result of lackluster competitive research results in head-scratching why your brand struggles to take consumers from buyer consideration to making purchasing decisions. Point blank; extensive competitor research must be part of the cosmetic product packaging process.

A Primer On Cosmetic Label Design

Even after you’ve clearly outlined your market and understand the competitive landscape, coming up with standout designs isn’t easy. Whenever someone comes up with a “rule” for what constitutes effective design, another company succeeds while subverting it.

Indeed, there are few true limits in cosmetics design, which can make ideation a challenge. If anything’s fair game, where do we start?

If you don’t know where to begin, we recommend using design principles as your guiding star. (And while there are a lot of unique elements worth considering here, we’ll review just a few of the most important.)

• Contrast – How distinct elements, colors, or fonts are from one another in a layout.
• Space – How white space or negative space is used to balance visual elements.
• Balance – How much “weight” each visual element has for drawing the eye.
• Movement – How weighted elements coordinate to guide and draw the eye in a set direction.
• Emphasis – Certain elements made larger or more prominent to show importance.
• Repetition – Use of repeating elements or patterns for visual consistency.

The Allure of Subtle Packaging Elements

When your design is great and applying the above elements correctly, people may not even notice them. Rarely will a shopper sit back and say, “Wow, that lipstick tube has incredible color contrast!”. However, the elements are sticking in their minds and unconsciously trigger information about your brand‘s qualities.

Simple research shows consumers pick up unconscious cues from cosmetic packaging designs. And when the packaging makes them believe the product is high-end, they were more willing to believe it was superior overall.

Develop a Unique Style

Armed with the above visual guidelines, it’s time to develop a cosmetics design style that suits your cosmetic brand.

Take the above elements and experiment with original designs. Think long-term here. Intense and ostentatious designs are brilliant at grabbing customers attention, but their style burns quickly and fades away as the novelty wears off.

Alternatively, cosmetics designs that take a more modern, minimal approach (as most high-end brands do these days) enjoy a more timeless quality. Keep these ideas in mind as you design for your audience.

Of course, as we mentioned above, sometimes we make rules only to break them, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Common design trends in cosmetics include clean and minimal layouts, designs with intricate lines and patterns, and often flowery, earthy tones.

But Keep Your Visual Hierarchy in Mind

All the above elements will help you craft a cosmetic packaging strategy unique to your brand, but always pay attention to the messages you’re sending with your layout. And not just in the “we’re natural, we’re approachable” sort of way. Every design element in your packaging sends a message, a concept known in the design world as your visual hierarchy.

This term broadly describes how important each visual element is in your overall layout. The above principles come into play here-balance, emphasis, contrast, and so on. The most important elements in your design should be the biggest and most visually distinct.

This often means the brand name and logo design for makeup brands, as cosmetics packaging is often small with little real estate to work with. If you’re designing for smaller-size tubes, clamshells, or bottles, pay specific attention to the messages you’re putting forth in your layout.

Testing Your Cosmetics Packaging For KPIs

Feel free to unleash your creativity, but remember the customer‘s opinion matters most. Try to validate your research and cosmetic packaging mock-ups through internal feedback reviews, external focus groups, A/B tests, or other types of product testing.

Evaluate each cosmetic packaging mockup against the above design principles and your target market’s feedback. Whether you’re selling cosmetics, beauty products, or any other consumer packaged goods, this approach is the best way forward.

Cosmetic Packaging Design Agency

Want a best-selling brand? SmashBrand works with CPG companies to create a packaging solution optimized for consumer intent. Your cosmetics packaging design goes through repetitive testing and iteration to ensure that only the best design hits the shelf.

Book a time to discuss your project with our team.