Introduction
The main container for cosmetics are no more than these three categories “glass bottles, plastic bottles, and tubes“, they all play a different and important role in cosmetics packaging.
Among them: glass bottles account for less than 8%, and the other 90% of the market share is plastic bottles, tubes, etc.
However, there is a special phenomenon in the cosmetic industry, that is, “high-end cosmetic product prefers glass bottle packaging”
Why do high-end cosmetics prefer glass bottles? What are the reasons behind it?
And why the plastic bottle and tubes can account for a big part of the cosmetic packaging market？ what’s the advantage of plastic containers?
Just reading through this blog, you will get the answers.
This blog will include the following content:
Plastic bottles Vs Glass bottle for cosmetic packaging
Reasons for preferring glass bottle packaging
How to choose a cosmetic glass bottle manufacturer
Development of Plastic bottles for cosmetic
Plastic bottles or Glass bottle for cosmetic packaging
In fact, glass bottles or plastic bottle for cosmetics, these packaging materials are not absolutely good and bad.
different companies, different brands, and different products, according to their own brand and product positioning, cost, profit target needs, choose to use different “appropriate” packaging materials.
let’s analyze the advantages and disadvantages of glass bottles, and plastic bottles, and the differences between the two, so that may better help you make a choice.
Plastic bottle advantages and disadvantages
Pros
- Plastic bottles are less dense than glass products, light, adjustable transparency, not easy to break, convenient for storage and transportation, and easy for consumers to carry and use.
- Plastic bottles have better corrosion resistance, acid and alkali resistance, impact resistance, and high mechanical strength and are easy to shape and lower production losses.
- Plastic products are easy to color, can be adjusted according to the needs of color, easier to achieve the packaging design needs.
Compared to glass bottles, the cost of plastic bottles will be relatively low.
Cons
- Plastic material is easy to produce chemical reactions with cosmetic content in the bottle, which can easily cause cosmetics to deteriorate.
- Plastic bottles are easy to carry static electricity, and the surface is easily contaminated.
- plastic packaging containers are not environmentally friendly, discarded bottles will cause environmental pollution.
- plastic containers look relatively cheap and are not suitable for a high-end product
Advantages and disadvantages of glass bottle
Advantages
- The glass bottle is stable non-toxic and not easy to produce a chemical reaction with skin care products. good barrier prevent the cosmetics from deteriorating
- The glass bottle has a higher transparency, the contents are clearly visible,
- Strong rigidity enables the glass bottle not easy to deform, in addition to the heavier weight, glass bottles provide the consumers with a better hand feeling
- glass bottle temperature tolerance is good, can be sterilized at high temperatures, it can also be stored at low temperatures;
A glass bottle can make more thorough and convenient disinfection than a plastic bottle - glass bottles can be recycled and reused, with no pollution to the environment.
Disadvantages
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- The glass bottle is brittle, easy to break, and not easy to store and transport.
- The weight of glass bottles is large, and the transportation cost is high, especially for e-commerce express.
- Energy consumption in Glass bottle processing is large, which causes stronger pollution to the environment if a glass bottle can’t be recycled many times.
- Compared with plastic bottles, the printing performance of glass bottles is poor.
- Compared with plastic bottles, glass bottles have a high cost in mold creation high so they need a larger minimum order.
Reasons for preferring glass bottle packaging
Protect the product
To improve the basic function of protecting the contents inside the packaging, the pursuit of high functionality, multi-function, and quality assurance.
Especially now in the era of “efficacy skin care” Among high-end cosmetics, preference for glass bottle packaging will be common.
The above analysis already lets us knows that the glass bottle has the features like stability, good barrier, heat resistance, light resistance, and solvent resistance.
It is not easy to produce chemical reactions with skin care products,
So from the “safety, and stability”, glass bottles are the most reassuring material!
The use of glass bottles for cosmetic products is more conducive to the preservation of care products with antioxidants, anti-aging, and whitening effects, as these ingredients are highly active and easily affected by light.
In addition, glass bottles have a high barrier to gas, but also make glass bottles become the preferred packaging material for perfumes and other volatile, easily dissipated fragrance products.
Therefore, the perfume packaging in the market is basically a glass bottle material.
Reason2: Maximize the attraction of customers and the performance of the brand
General cosmetics are mostly liquid, milky liquid, or cream, such products do not have a distinctive appearance. It must be designed through a beautiful and unique glass bottle to express its own characteristics.
Most of the cosmetic brands in the market are now using translucent or fully transparent glass bottles to highlight the composition and color of the liquid.
From the perspective of the consumer, the first thing is to attract the consumer’s attention (catch the consumer’s eye), and then trigger the consumer’s desire to buy. Transparent and pure, noble and elegant, is the charm of the glass bottle.
Therefore, the design and adoption of fashionable, eye-catching, energetic, and interesting external glass bottles are one of the means for cosmetic manufacturers to beat their competitors down.
Therefore, the glass bottle as a product “coat” should not only have the function of holding and protecting the product but also must have the role of attracting customers and pushing them to make decisions.
Reason 3: Maximize the taste and value of cosmetics
In the market, various skin care ideas are emerging, and various glass bottles are competing with each other, making people dazzled.
Many products not only tell people how efficient their product is but also sell fashion and culture.
The fashion and culture of cosmetics are usually what we call taste.
How to reflect the taste of cosmetics, in addition to product advertising and product counter display and other aspects, the glass bottle is an important link, an important carrier.
A decent glass bottle can not only directly stimulate the senses of consumers, but also can reflect the taste of the product
In addition, the heaviness of the glass bottle can make consumers trust and improve the grade of cosmetics, which is impossible to do with plastic packaging.
Cosmetics are “selling dreams, selling fashion, selling hope”, the psychological value of cosmetics play a big role, such as the same bottle of 5g cream, the key to the skin, and some well-known brand like Guerlain, Aquamarine, Leporene, and other can sell them in the price high as thousands of dollars, while other little brands are generally only a few hundred tens of dollars or even lower.
Reason 4: Glass bottles can be recycled and reused, which minimizes the pollution of the environment
Because of the plastic restriction， packaging which is green, eco-friendly, and reusable has become the first choice of enterprises. Cosmetic packaging is no exception
Data show that the discarded plastic bottles from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestle have become the world’s top three largest plastic polluters.
Forced by the relevant laws and external public opinion pressure, they have implemented plastic bottle recycling, the implementation of renewable plastic bottles, and other measures.
but there is still a long distance from totally using biodegradable plastic.
Therefore, glass bottles can be recycled and reused without pollution to the environment, which should also be one of the important reasons why high-end cosmetics prefer glass bottle packaging.
Among them, the recycling of glass bottles attracts consumers to join the environmental protection activities.
On the one hand, they are taking on their own responsibility to directly face the challenges of environmental protection and social responsibility;
on the other hand, they are actively communicating with consumers through these environmental protection activities, which greatly enhances the brand reputation of the company.
How to choose a cosmetic glass bottle manufacturer
As analyzed above, “maintaining and improving the basic function of protecting the contents, maximizing customer attraction and brand performance, maximizing the taste and value of cosmetics, recycling and reuse of glass bottles, and no pollution to the environment” are the “four main reasons” why high-end cosmetic brand prefer to choose glass bottles.
So, for the above “four” reasons, how to choose an “excellent” glass bottle manufacturer becomes the key for cosmetic brands.
When choosing a cosmetic glass bottle manufacturer, is a test for the brand – because it involves quality, quality, price, efficiency, market competitiveness, corporate profit, and many other aspects.
1、Design and development ability, innovative technology.
The appearance and style of a glass bottle, quality, reflect the design and development capabilities, and innovative technology of glass bottle manufacturers.
Therefore, this is the first element in the selection of enterprises.
Especially when you need to make a private mold. Many factors should be considered, such as design, material selection, cycle time, cost, process details, effects, etc.
2, Glass bottle price and cost performance
Glass bottle price and cost performance are the powerful weapons that can make the brand stand out in homogenization
Generally speaking, “inexpensive” glass bottles can make the company have a reasonable profit margin and higher competition.
3, Production scale and production efficiency
Glass bottle manufacturer’s production qualifications, the number of production lines, production equipment, production quality, and production efficiency, directly determine the product supply quantity and speed and indirectly determines the performance of corporate brand marketing.
Before making a decision, We have to go through the manufacturer from hand to toe.
In this way, it can effectively eliminate or reduce the number of products of substandard quality, delayed delivery or delivery shortage, and other conditions.
Development of Plastic bottle for cosmetic
With the development of technology, new plastic material has been applied in the production of plastic containers for cosmetics.
Polylactic acid, also known as poly(propylene glycol), belongs to the polyester family.
PLA is a polymer obtained by polymerizing lactic acid as the main raw material, which is well-sourced and renewable.
The production process of PLA is pollution-free, and the product is biodegradable and recyclable in nature, making it an ideal green polymer material.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a new type of biodegradable material made from renewable plant resources (e.g. corn) by fermentation process to make lactic acid, which is then converted to PLA by polymer synthesis.
Advantages of polylactic acid (PLA).
Environmental Friendly
1. PLA has excellent biodegradability and can be completely degraded by microorganisms in the soil within one year after disposal, generating carbon dioxide and water, without pollution to the environment. “From nature, back to nature”! That’s what Pla can achieve.
The world’s carbon dioxide emissions according to news reports in 2030 the global temperature will rise to 60 ℃, the treatment of ordinary plastic is still burning cremation, resulting in a large number of greenhouse gases into the air, while PLA is buried in the soil to degrade, the carbon dioxide generated directly into the soil organic matter or absorbed by plants, will not be discharged into the air, will not cause the greenhouse effect.
2、PLA is suitable for various processing methods
such as blow molding, injection molding, etc. It is easy to process and very widely used. It can be used to process various food containers, packaged food, fast food lunch boxes, non-woven fabrics, and industrial and civil cloths from industrial to civil.
In turn, it can be processed into agricultural fabrics, health care fabrics, wipes, sanitary products, outdoor UV protection fabrics, tent fabrics, floor mats, etc.
The market prospect is very promising. It can be seen that its mechanical properties and physical properties are good.
3. Wide application
The basic physical properties of polylactic acid (PLA) are similar to those of petrochemical synthetic plastics, which means that they can be used in a wide range of applications.
PLA also has good gloss and transparency, comparable to films made from polystyrene, those other biodegradable products cannot provide.
4. Good compatibility and degradability
PLA is also used in a wide range of pharmaceutical applications, such as disposable infusion sets, no-disassembly surgical sutures, and low-molecular PLA as a slow-release packaging agent for drugs.
5. Safety
polylactic acid (PLA) film has good permeability, oxygen permeability, and permeability to dioxide carbon, it also has the property of isolating odor.
Viruses and molds are easily attached to the surface of biodegradable plastics, so there are safety and health concerns, however, PLA is the only biodegradable plastic with excellent anti-bacterial and anti-mold properties.
Conclusion
So there you have it!
The pros and cons of glass and plastic cosmetic bottles. Hopefully, this article has helped you make a more informed decision about which type of bottle will be best for your product.
If you’re still not sure, or if you need help finding a quality glass bottle manufacturer, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
We would be happy to assist you in choosing the perfect packaging for your cosmetics line. Thanks for reading!