Specialized in designing and manufacturing metal and plastic components for the beauty industry, Axilone incorporates a sustainable approach into each of its creations. The company’s elegantly and sustainably designed “all aluminum” container opens a world of possibility for the Responsible Luxury sector.
What inspired the unique concept of your “all aluminum” compact?
Julie Vergnion, Marketing & Communications Director: At Axilone, we constantly monitor trends to remain a source of creative strength for our clients. We designed this all-aluminum case to be as beautiful and elegant as a piece of jewelry—like the Forbidden City Hersee Golden Lion cosmetic palette, winner of a 2021 Formes de Luxe Award—while integrating environmental responsibility and sustainability. This creation illustrates a new area of expertise at Axilone in that we took a coherent approach to innovation by combining current luxury codes with environmental constraints. Aluminum was an obvious choice as it can be infinitely recycled with household waste, as was its reloadable design, which encourages reuse.
What are the advantages to designing with aluminum?
JV: Aluminum is interesting for its weight, cool touch, and metallic sound. Another advantage is the infinite range of decoration techniques that can be used on the material. The Hersee Beauty compact's high-end decoration features double anodization. To increase its sustainability, we can also add recycled aluminum content. Our attention to detail carries through to the built-in mirror—which is also aluminum. Only an expert eye would recognize that it isn’t glass!
Reynald Trochel, Director of Innovation: All aluminum creations are also suited to personalization. With the Hersee Beauty compact, the base and decorative top are separate, so brands can easily create different editions by changing just a single element—an important advantage when tailoring production to demand.
What about recyclability?
RT: We designed the case with an attention to sustainability by integrating cleaner decorative elements. Anodization was used to introduce pigments into the aluminum surface without resorting to chemical products. Ultimately, it is 98% aluminum; the remaining 2% is not a problem for sorting or renewal, and makes the product a good candidate for recycling in a circular economy approach. In Europe and North America, the case will be collected, sorted, and recycled within existing channels. This represents a genuine innovation for the luxury market.
How does it expand Axilone’s sustainable offer?
JV: The launch is currently generating new interest for our solutions in the luxury market as it demonstrates that “all aluminum” can unite elegance and sustainability in the cosmetics sector. For over a year, our “all aluminum” offer has also included rechargeable lipsticks, as well as mascaras and caps for perfume and skincare (screw-on or clipped) for high-end perfume and cosmetic brands that now see environmental responsibility as an integral component of beauty.
How is this development aligned with Axilone's strategy?
JV: We would like to advise and guide brands in the areas of eco-design and sustainability and our technical proposals now systematically include an environmentally-friendly option. Sometimes changing a single packaging element is enough to lower environmental impact.
RT: Our goal is to support our clients in three areas: reduction, reuse, and recycling. This also implies taking a genuinely pedagogical approach with our internal teams so that every step makes an active contribution to Responsible Luxury.
