For its Flash Lift hair lightening solution, comprising a powder bleach, liquid bonder, and liquid developing solution, Redken did away with two of three rigid containers, replacing them with one flexible pouch that reduces the packaging’s environmental footprint, offers greater convenience to colorists, and de-commoditizes the product space. The pouch, designed to provide the needed barrier for the new Redken Flash Lift Bonder Inside premixed bleach and bonder product and “a big wow factor and unique appeal,” according to Andrew Boden, Development for Redken, L’Oréal, resulted in Diamond Award Finalist status for flexible packaging supplier ProAmpac.
In August/September 2017, Redken approached ProAmpac to help them design a package that would better represent the brand and offer greater user convenience. With the previous product, the bleach was packaged in a plastic bag closed with a tin tie and placed in a rigid tub. “The packaging was useful because of the very wide opening for scooping,” explains Boden. “The plastic bag was needed because the bleach itself is very sensitive to moisture, so it protected the product during use. Our experience showed that stylists did not often seal the lid back on the tub, so the bag was helpful to maximize the useful life of the product.”
Redken developed the new Flash Lift Bonder Inside powder formula to improve both bonding and cosmetic benefits, such as improved elasticity, touchable smoothness, and visible shine, as well as processing time. Reads Redken’s Dow entry form, “The new bonder is a reformulated product that has fewer steps to prepare than other, similar products, so it was important to provide packaging that also had more built-in functionality.”
Other initiatives driving the redesigned packaging included a desire by Redken to improve the environmental footprint of its packaging, create a format that would take up a smaller footprint on a stylist’s limited bench space, and be easier for mobile stylists to travel with. “We also wanted to de-commoditize the space with a premium packaging element,” says Bowden.
He adds that Redken explored many packaging options. Wanting to get away from the tub, the brand looked at shaker-style packs, twist-dose rigid packaging, rigid bottles with pour spouts, alternate dosing add-ons for the existing tub, and a completely new format—a flexible stand-up pouch. “Ultimately the pouch won out due to its improved environmental impact and the overall unique packaging wow factor,” Bowden says.
At ProAmpac’s DASL (Design and Sample Lab), the pouch supplier created illustrations and prototypes to help Redken visualize the potential solution. According to Bowden, among Redken’s requirements for the pouch, very strict barrier properties were at the forefront, due to the hydroscopic nature of the powder. That, he says, was the only real driver toward shelf life, along with a strong seal on the spout cap. “Other requirements were an internal geometry to facilitate powder pouring and pouches that could hold 500 grams and 907 grams and pass our intense distribution testing, as these are frequently loose-packed and shipped with many other heavy items,” he adds.
Once the general pouch design was agreed upon, a cross-sectional team from Redken and ProAmpac gathered at injection molder Technimark’s Innovation Center for a day-long ideation session to test six to eight potential pouch designs with three different spouts and fitments. The goal was to develop a dosing cap and fitment that would allow for easy pouring and measuring of the product in one step. Among the innovations resulting from the session were a curved, high-density polyethylene spout that prevents powder fumes during pouring and helps guide product into the cap, which doubles as a measuring cup. In addition, a cross pattern within the pour spout helps break up clumps of agglomerated product.
The final package design is a bottom-gusseted, stand-up pouch with a square shape that slants diagonally on the left-hand side, where the cap is positioned. Of the pouch construction, ProAmpac Vice President of Global Application and Innovation Development Sal Pellingra says it is an adhesive lamination of PET/foil/nylon/polyethylene. He adds, “The foil really created the barrier to ensure no moisture gets into the pouch, and the nylon helped us pass the drop test. Then, the sealant was designed to seal hermetically to that larger fitment and to seal the pouch hermetically at the top for filling.”
