Excellence for Her

The new packaging for Narciso Rodriguez is a product from Axilone, a subsidiary of Ileos, a leading supplier of packaging to the fragrance, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industry.

Usually I do not write about perfume packages as it is dominantly the design and not the technical or technological performance which create the innovation. I am not a designer and although I love beauty in all forms, it is very hard for me to find the lyrical and analytical words to describe a design. But this perfume packaging is different; it combines a beautiful design with some high tech innovations.
As a consequence this is a two-in-one post, in other words for the design I follow (translated) the description of my colleague-blogger, Rogerio Oliveira, an industrial designer in Curitiba/Brazil, who saw this packaging at the CosmoProf in Bologna, and reported about it on his blog “Um Dia, Uma Embalagem”. After his perfect description I add some words about some technical details. But first Rogerio Oliveira:

During my visit to the recent CosmoProf, the world’s most important international event in the beauty and cosmetics sector in Bologna, Italy, one of the packages that most caught my attention was the perfume “Essence for Her”, the brand of stylist Narciso Rodriguez. Some may even say that the packaging is not pretty, as the format is very organic and irregular, in contrast to the packages usually developed for the perfume market. But it is the irregularity of the form that has, in my opinion, its greatest qualities. Furthermore, these organic forms are the trademark of designer Ross Lovegrove, responsible for this packaging design. I do not know if it was intentional, but we can say that this package is an "amalgamated" version of the male packaging, with its absence of straight lines, contrasting with the almost mathematical and architectural precision of the version for men. The bottle, produced in glass by Saint-Gobain Desjonqueres SA in France, is completely organic and crystalline, showing a typical feminine elegance, purity of soul and sensuality as imagined by the designer. What really impresses in this package is the finishing inside the bottle, a mixture of metalising and paint, giving the bottle a surprisingly nice appearance. According to Saint-Gobain, unlike the male version that holds an inside bag that prevents the product to come in contact with the painting, the bottle of “Essence for Her” does not need this trick because they achieved to create a finish, which is fully compatible with the product. The visual effect caused by metalising the inside of the bottle, together with the metal cache and the bottle cap, is impressive, leaving it hard to not be noticed in the gondolas of the shops. Rogerio is very short about the bottle cap, so let me do that.
Is the bottle made of glass, the bottle cap is moulded using Surlyn PC 2000 creating a harmoniously entity with the bottle.

Surlyn is a commercial thermoplastic ionomer resin that was introduced by DuPont in the early 1960’s. Surlyn can be used in conventional extrusion/co-extrusion, blown film, cast film, and extrusion coating equipment designed for polyethylene resins.
Moulded goods made with Surlyn are virtually unbreakable, and offer unusual design freedom, combining toughness, clarity and chemical resistance. It is one of the materials most favoured by designers, for complicated and bold designs.

Thanks to a direct removal of this fully massive, isomorphic, and smooth piece from the mould, no mould parting line is visible, leaving the transparency of the cap perfect.

Credit: The large photo is made by Rogerio Oliveira.

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Pure nature - The fragrance of the Amazon dancing in the wind

The capillarity of the wooden sticks transmits the fragrance of the perfume from the Amazon region to the ambiance of the room.
15% of the world’s total of all known vegetal species (plants, trees) and 10% of all mammals are concentrated and trying to survive in the Amazon region.

This source of fresh air to the world, home to (besides man and animal) many super-fruits, medicinal plants and other useful species, will be destroyed soon. Between 2006 and 2007 11.224 km2 has been deforested - 20% less than in the period 2005-2006. Compare 2004 when one of the highest indices (27.379 km2)) in history had been registered. Hopeful? No! In the last 5 months of 2007 the devastating activities for prime wood, soy and cattle has been accelerated. Between Aug and Dec 2007 3.235 km2 has been cut down and satellite pictures show it could be twice as much.

It is no wonder that many individuals, research centre and companies are feverishly looking to the Amazon forest as a tremendous source for sustainable exploitation, which might stop the illegal activities that cause the destruction. Responsibility and sustainability are the keywords.

With the recent trends in healthy food, energy and fortification drinks, interest in Amazonian “superfruits” is growing. It’s little wonder that produce as açaí, coco, cupuaçu, buriti, acerola, pitanga, guaraná and medicinal plants as andiroba, are tagged with such superlatives as ”the next great super food”. I shall explain the names of the fruits and their significance in a later post regarding innovations in food. Just for now an example: Cupuaçu, described as a “pharmacy in a fruit”, is loaded with a variety of flavonoid polyphenols that act as antioxidants, including catechin and epicatechin (the same as in green tea) and quercetin, the polyphenol found in grapes and berries.

But it is not only the edible components which are extracted (in a sustainable way) from the Amazon rain forest. Since some years exquisite perfumes are created from this region, as well as the ingredients for a wide variety of shampoos and cosmetics.

The Indian smelling sticks in mind, Nutriphitos Cosméticos Ltda developed a similar product with the natural fragrance of the Amazon delta. The “Perfume para ambiente” (Perfume for the ambiance) releases its fragrance through the capillarity of the wooden sticks which stay in contact with the perfumed liquid. It lasts up to 5 months.

To market the new product, art director Rodrigo Teixeira of ZehDesign created a packaging holding the bottle with the olfactory liquid and functioning as a display. The wooden sticks are positioned at the side of the packaging fixed with a sisal rope, as a show-off to the costumer.

Not surprisingly this packaging won the Prêmio ABRE in Brazil.

Every single item of this product is natural and sustainable, highlighting the closeness to nature of this brand. The Vitacarta 300 g/m2 card board box is made from 100% recycled material and offset printed.

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© Weslley Murylo de Souza Steeman
amsteeman@yahoo.com.br