Depending on whom you ask, miniature-sized packaging can be referred to by any number of names—unit dose, trial-sized, travel/amenity, sample and limited use. Equally broad are the different ways these packaging configurations can be used—whether it’s to create a buzz around a new product, allow users to experience a new-to-them product, or give users a convenient way to travel with the products they already love.

“Brands have an ongoing strategic need to reinforce the decisions consumers make to buy their products [and] being able to make it easy for those customers to engage with products is critical,” says Paulette Gramse, MultiVision product development manager, WS Packaging, San Diego, CA. “When brands make it easy for consumers to use their products in non-traditional environments away from home through the use of sample sizes or just generally smaller packaging that’s convenient to handle, it creates great opportunities for building brand affinity.”

Sample and limited use-sized packages can be simple or sophisticated, depending on a brand’s needs. For some brands, these smaller packages need to echo the sophistication of the formula they contain. Nick Gardner, executive vice president of sales, HCT Group, Santa Monica, CA, says this is in part because consumers have more sophisticated expectations regarding product performance. “While the modern consumer is willing to pay for a higher quality product, they are even more likely to make a purchase if they know the product actually does what it says,” he explains. “Allowing the customer to ‘try before they buy’ is a great way for consumers to test out multiple products from various brands without committing to the full size, and it has proven successful through the wide variety of beauty sampling subscription services.”

HCT Group has addressed this growing trend by getting more creative with the trial size components it produces, rendering packages that remain loyal to the brands’ story and perform as well as their full-size counterparts. An example of this work is the package HCT produced to house Lorac’s TANtalizer Highlighter and Matte Bronzer Duo. A product formulated to give the face an instant glow, Lorac’s signature bronze color compact was a full turnkey project created by HCT Group in both full size and travel-size options. “The travel size component was designed to be more convenient, giving it the ability to fit into small bags and pouches for customers seeking ‘beauty on-the-go,’” Gardner says. “Providing customers with travel-size options encourages impulse purchases, oftentimes leading to a full-size purchase later down the line.”

The plastic compact holds 0.2oz/6g of product and features bronze vacuum metallization and silk screening on the compact lid.

In another well-executed, smaller sized luxe example, Gennevilliers, France—based Albéa recently received an award for the best First Class airline unisex travel kit 2014 at the Travel Plus Awards for its role in the production of a Givenchy amenity kit. The kit was used by Air France to welcome guests to its La Première suites, and was developed to provide a collection of  “exceptional, made-to-measure” luxury accessories.

According to Albéa, the shapes, colors and materials of the products in the kit were designed to convey “gentleness and calm.”  The kit is comprised of Givenchy Le Soin Noir face cream (10ml), Lift Intense anti-tiredness roll-on for the eyes (9ml), hand cream (10ml) and Le Soin Noir lip balm (7ml). The products are housed in a “noble and refined” velvet-lined, black leather-like case that’s accented by a red closure.

Geka GmbH of Bechhofen, Germany, has developed a range of smaller sized applicator components to make it easier for cosmetic brands’ samples to echo the look and feel of their larger-sized siblings. The Marsala Summer set consists of five products—two mascaras, a lipgloss, an eyeliner and an eyebrow applicator. The products are billed to be “understatedly chic and remarkably convenient.”

Try Before You Buy

Margery Woodin, vice president of marketing and sales, Identitpak, McAllen, TX, believes millennials are driving the demand for samples. “This web-savvy generation is more given to filling out questionnaires and requesting samples via consumer websites,” she says. “The subscription base sample distribution is becoming more popular and appealing to indie and mature brands, which find this model more targeted; however sampling distribution via event marketing and gift with purchase remain strong.”

Identipak recently collaborated with Pinrose, a luxury fragrance company that subscribes to the try-at-home-before-you-buy model.  Because Pinrose is a web-based fragrance company, founders Erika Shumate and Christine Luby worked with Identipak to devise a new sampling method they call Petals.

“Pinrose users go online and fill out the ‘scent finder’ quiz using an algorithm,” Woodin explains. “It is inspired by synesthesia, incorporating colors, sounds, and textures to ‘map’ consumers on the olfactory spectrum.”

Users are asked a series of questions—including places they’d like to visit, the music they love, and color preferences—all of which help develop a unique user profile that pinpoints three ideal fragrances. Users have the option to try a sample of one or all three. Pinrose then sends users single-use perfumed towelettes (Pinrose Petals) to try at home.

Woodin says translating the playful names and unique graphics for each fragrance into each sample petal has been a truly fun experience. “Our latest and the one we’re most proud of to date is the printing and filling of their new Secret Genius,” she says. “The piece is cold foil stamped with a holographic film in speckles that look like diamond dust.”

Chris Payne, senior vice president, global marketing, Arcade Beauty, New York, NY, also believes e-commerce is driving the popularity of sample packaging, especially in light of the prevalence of subscription services like Ipsy, Birchbox, Glossybox and Beauty Fix, to name a few. “This is an exceptional opportunity to use a sample to engage a potential client in a very targeted and willing audience,” he says.

Fusion is Arcade Beauty’s latest vehicle for the sampling of fragrance, makeup, personal care and skin care products. The product’s patented design allows for two products to be mixed at the same time, and combines the flexibility of thermoforming and the adaptive nature of sachets. “It allows for a formula to be released onto an applicator, such as a towelette or mask, at the time of use,” Payne explains. “To achieve this, a frangible seal keeps the first formula safely contained in the thermoform. After the customer applies pressure to the thermoform, the seal breaks, releasing the formula into the sachet.”

Payne says Fusion is ideal for products that need to be separated until time of use, as well as for single formulas that cannot be in contact with an applicator until use. Fusion is amenable to a variety of formulas, including lotions, creams, gels, masks and liquids. 

Cosmetics and personal care companies are also turning to sample packages that allow for greater consumer customization, according to Ernest Loesser, president, Unit Pack Co., Cedar Grove, NJ. He says, “There is more diversity in the products they offer and subsequently more variation among the samples they need. For example, a fragrance company won’t come to us with a single product line. Instead, they have a single product line with ten variations, all of which need unit-dose packaging solutions.”

Consumers are no longer sampling a single product but all the variations of that product, whether it is a difference in scent, shade or color. Although one might think the idea of more sampling options would complicate production for the sample packaging supplier, Loesser says it hasn’t for Unit Pack, thanks to its flexible production lines. “It’s not difficult for us to break a large run into smaller runs of each sample variant,” he explains. “A client may come to us with an order of 500,000 units, but among that total, there are ten variations of a single product line.”  

While Loesser wasn’t free to divulge names, he says Unit Pack has helped three new customers in this way in the past six months. One client needed samples for a 30-product skin care line including products such as exfoliants, masks, creams, herbal supplements and astringents. “We manufactured 200,000 sample pouches, but within that total, different products needed different pouch sizes,” he says. “Across 30 products, there were five different samples sizes: 1-, 1.5-, 2-, 3- and 5ml. We adapted successfully to the variations needed by the client because our production lines were designed for maximum flexibility.”  

Loesser says that type of project demonstrates how far Unit Pack has come since its founding in 1964. The vast majority of the company’s production machinery has been designed and built in-house, and in the past six months, it’s also adopted 3D printing technologies. “At first, 3D printing allowed us to mass produce critical replacement parts for our production lines, but since then, these new technologies have transformed our packaging capabilities,” he says. “Today, we are using 3D technologies to develop experimental components that are dramatically improving our established production lines, which is more important than ever.”

Ensuring Safety & Efficacy

Pre-portioned and unit dose product samples are a great way to ensure the correct amount of product is being used at each usage occasion. But when products have an active ingredient that requires drug-facts content on the label, squeezing all of that information on a smaller sized package can be challenging.

WS Packaging recently executed extended text labeling for two products claiming active ingredients in a Derm Exclusive anti-aging advanced collection. Volume Lip Therapy, sold in a .33oz. plastic tube, required 14 square inches of copy space to accommodate an FDA-required drugs facts panel for a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 15. The other product is an Age Defense Moisturizer containing SPF 30 in a 1.0oz. oval tube. “Despite the small size of the product packaging, each label must be able to be opened, read, and re-sealed for the shelf life of the product,” says WS Packaging’s Gramse.

The Age Defense Moisturizer was labeled with an EasyTab label and the .33 oz. product was labeled with a FlexWrap label. Both constructions are patented and are from WS Packaging’s MultiVision line of extended-text labels.

“Along with meeting the regulatory requirements for products claiming an active ingredient, multi-panel labels such as EasyTab and FlexWrap increase label space and give brands the opportunity to tell a deeper story about the product,” says Gramse. “Along with usage guidance, extended text labeling for small containers increases the consumer base by deploying multiple languages, as well as gives brand owners the opportunity to expand consumer engagement and build brand loyalty.”

Birchwood Contract Manufacturing, Eden Prairie, MN is a contract packager of tubes, bottles, jars and sample pouches (also referred to as sachets). The company’s sales manager, Shawn Nahan, says portability and convenience are the driving force behind many uses for the pouch, but ensuring the sterility of the product contained within is essential. That’s why Birchwood offers a validated, purified packaging system.

“Having sterile packaging ensures that the sample product performs as anticipated by the manufacturer and avoids the possibility of contamination that can lead to adverse reactions,” he says. “This…ensures that single use and sample-packaged products are…free of contaminants just like a company’s full-sized products.”

Birchwood is an FDA and EPA registered facility, and follows cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) regulations and guidelines from the FDA. The company’s purified water system is also USP validated for cleaning, sanitization, and mixing of products. Birchwood offers complete personal care and cosmetic product manufacturing and packaging, including ingredient procurement, testing, mixing, filling, packaging and shipping.

Blairstown, NJ-based James Alexander Corp. has been filling and manufacturing single-use packaging for over 38 years and Carol Gamsby, director of sales, says her company’s glass swabs and DuoDispersion Systems are perfect for a high-end beauty product, especially those that require dispensation of specialized formulas. “Our customers come to us with a product that generally has a compatibility or stability issue in other packaging,” she says. “Once we fill their formula into the hermetically sealed crushable glass ampoule, their shelf life is extended, and there are no compatibility issues as you might have with a plastic tube. We are also able to customize the package to fit their market by size, tip and labeling.”

Single-use dosing also goes a long way toward reducing the risk of product contamination, given that the product is used only once at the exact time of use. Fill n’Go from Livcer of Sucy En Brie, France utilizes an ultra-slim, lightweight format that acts almost as an invitation to users.

Livcer’s CEO, Aude De Livonniere, says lipsticks, cream eye shadows, concealers, solid perfumes and more are filled into a very slim card and protected by a transparent seal that also serves to display the product. “The brand can use color and graphics decoration to best showcase the product with a trendy look for the younger market and a more modern approach for its more mature clientele,” Livonniere says. “It is also possible, using a special mold, to reproduce a particular desired shape into four different shaped cells.”

Sample-sized packaging fills an important role in product marketing. Suppliers of these innovative tools continue to stretch the bounds of creativity, affording cosmetic and personal care brands the ability to market their products, reaching out to new and existing consumers, with value-added style. 

Innovative Excellence

Among the 2015 DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation was a completely unique, travel-sized Ultra Slim Spray Bottle from Phoenix, AZ-based HotPot Design and MiiSTS International Inc.

Honored with a Gold award for Excellence in Technological Advancement and Enhanced User Experience, the MiiSTS package cleverly enables users to carry and dispense 11mls (about 150 sprays) of fluids such as mouthwash, hairspray, hand sanitizer or sunscreen. MiiSTS is fitted with a pump housing that allows consumers to spray the product while keeping the package leak-proof.

The precise engineering of the tight welds on the very thin corners of the injection-molded, polypropylene bottle gives a smooth, virtually seamless, appealing finish. The package is about the size of a credit card and 5mm at its widest point, making it a flat, pocket-friendly package.