Quadpack: Mimicking rare exotic woods and trending finishes in beauty packaging
21 Jun 2024 | Quadpack
Quadpack crafts beauty packaging from common wood types like ash, which can be equipped with finishing technologies that mimic the look of exotic wood species such as wenge. Quadpack’s senior category specialist Denisa Stircea elaborates on the supplier’s concept of “wood reimagined,” which outfits FSC-certified natural materials with trending wood finishes with a “powerful capacity for storytelling.”
This is Benjamin Ferreir for Personal Care Insights, and I'm joined by Dennissairaa, and she's the senior category specialist at beauty packaging manufacturer QuadPack, which is equipping beauty packaging with finishing technologies, which mimic exotic wood species, and this does for cost and environmental savings also.
Hi, Denisa, let's start off by elaborating some of the different designs that you're offering within your wood finishes.
And what are their unique features?
And also, can you talk about the target consumer for each of the aesthetic profiles?
Hi, Benjamin.
Thank you for, for inviting me.
But I will start by saying that, many people know that wood is sustainable, but not everyone realizes how many different looks wood can have.
Thinking about like, having only one, that natural look, it's like saying that the sky is always blue.
So it's very limited.
So we've created this collection of, wood finishes to show different faces of wood.
We all know that customers have different kinds of appreciations towards woods aesthetics.
So through this collection, we wanted to, to show that woods can really reconcile all tastes.
For brands, really appreciating the woods classic aesthetics for those, , but also for those that, that want a more sustainable, option, but that breaks away from the classic traditional look appearance.
We have lots of ways to make look wood, , look natural, but also very different.
And you will see from the example that I will, I will show you right away.
So we can have, ocean-inspired aesthetics.
With this kind of finishes.
Glittery, that I recall a little bit the fish scales, or we can have the refined look.
Of white and black.
When wood goes really incognito, you can't tell it's wood when we apply the varnish.
Or we can go even really extravagant by applying metallic finishes.
Or The springish vibes, spring is coming, so we have this marshmallow types of, finishes, very trendy among the young people, also very trendy on Instagram, TikTok, , Pinterest.
So my point is that there are endless ways to make, look, to make wood look awesome, but also there is a great opportunity for brands to look awesome by choosing wood because they will do, a good deed, good, , thing for, for the planet and helping the planet, but without making any compromise on their aesthetics because wood can be metamorp metamorphosed.
And you were speaking a bit about the environmental footprint of your solutions.
So, the ability to mimic wood, to mimic exotic wood is very interesting.
Can you please share some more details about the cost efficiency and the sustainability of this approach, and talk about how this ties into larger production runs for beauty brands?
Yeah, sure.
Nature is amazing and provides a great source of inspiration and also resources.
That's why we are here today.
With 40 years of experience, we explored so many types of woods, and from here and from there also.
Exotic goods are loved by everybody, so because they are sustained, because they are beautiful, because they are rare, because they are unique, they, they give this sense of, of exclusivity and, and rarity.
But these essences come often from faraway regions.
Also, that brings a lot of challenges and risks of deforestation, of supply, of, carbon footprint also, because they come from far away, not to forget about the costs which can be very, very, very high.
So the real issue today here is the lack of sustainability of those, exotic woods.
But how we can turn this this problem into a solution, so we thought about it and we said the solution is really at hand.
It's very simple, and the answer is called color matching.
We color match local wood essences from Europe to mimic exotic woods, and not only exotic because today we are able to, to mimic even stone for you to, to, to imagine.
So it's not that very complicated.
Our aim is to discourage, in fact, the use of exotic good types and stress the importance of a responsible local sourcing approach also, which is our DNA today.
It is in line, it, it, it is in line with our commitments as a big core company that we became since 2021.
So today, thanks to our decoration techniques, we can achieve really premium aesthetics.
Without, let's say, having the implications of costs or the environmental impact of the exotic wood types.
It's, it's as simple as that.
You were also mentioning the larger production runs.
I wanna tell you that also that every everything that we propose is tested and replicated in industrial conditions in our in-house facility.
Many people also wonder Are these finishes sustainable?
Because We, we use varnishes and because there are so many wood, so, so many varnishes, so many varnishes, there are so many varnishes and Many people wonder if these finishes are sustainable, and the answer is yes.
It's proven.
We conducted, ecotoxicity tests and the results proved that our products are safe and non-toxic.
And it's not only about products and the products that we use to, create these, finishes, but also how we manufacture.
It's very important.
We are very proud to say that Quatpac invested heavily, heavily in clean manufacturing equipment.
And in 2020 also, we, installed a system of biomass that is, that we use our wood scraps to, to generate energy that fuels the dryers, the heating, and the air conditioning in, in the factory.
So we have very strong commitments towards making a positive impact.
And could you also comment on how easily your wood wood packaging solutions integrate with existing beauty packaging lines, and this is considering the potential adjustments that are needed for like, filling, sealing, or labeling processes.
To put it simply, today, most of our wood, or most of our solutions, or wood is mostly used for cosmetic caps and closures.
It can practically do the same job as plastic without any trouble, but we also offer solutions for other products like jars, like sticks, like compacts, bottles, tubes, droppers.
Our wood solutions are designed to easily replace plastic, OK?
Let me, let me show you some examples.
We can take the fragrance here.
Look, this is a monomaterial wood cap.
And it fits perfectly onto the bottle.
So it can replace perfectly other materials.
We have the jars that screws on seeds easily.
That's the syndrome is plastic.
We have replicated the same gesture with the lipstick, like you put the cap off.
And you close it by Clicking.
I hope you click, you, you hear the sound.
Everything is meant to be very easily adapted on the, on the filling lines and they work perfectly with the filling lines.
Switching to wood doesn't change the process at all, and wood provides really the same functionality.
As the other materials.
Thanks to the technology that we have today, wood can be transformed and industrialized just like any other material.
It replaces the other materials without any problem.
And the biggest difference is that it is the most sustainable option out there for cosmetic packaging.
