The secret to Axilone’s sustainable decorations

Why is it important to develop decorations today?

Beauty brands are seeking differentiation through increasingly complex and disruptive decorations. We are getting more requests for one-off projects or collections that are intended to launch a new product with several versions of decoration. As a packager, we are being asked to offer a wide range of premium, sustainable decorations that integrate brands' CSR strategies and contribute to creating products with a lesser environmental impact.

Axilone is developing sustainable decoration processes for plastic and aluminum components ©Axilone

How are you innovating in this area?

For the last several years, we have been developing sustainable decoration processes for our plastic and aluminum pieces. One approach aims to replace organic solvents with aqueous solvents in sprayable resins. At our Chinese site, we are finalizing the set-up of a new lacquering, varnishing, and vacuum metallizing line that uses aqueous solvents. We will soon be announcing our capacity to create decorations with reduced environmental impact that meet ISO chemical, mechanical, and aesthetic characteristics. The second approach, which is a focus for us in France, is to reduce the amount of organic solvents in our decorations in order to obtain protection with a high volume of dry extract.

How are these projects progressing?

In China, we will be ready to offer our entire line of classic and innovative decorations with various effects (wet, sand, vintage, marble, etc.) this year. In France, and throughout Europe, our developments are happening upstream. We're working with our resin suppliers to identify the best materials to develop a product without organic solvents that can be sprayed on our pieces.

What else are you putting into place to reduce your products' environmental impact?

Axilone encourages the use of recycled or bio-based resins as well as single-material, refillable designs that fit in with a circular economical model. And that applies to lipsticks and premium cases in makeup, as much as to rechargeable jars or perfume in personal care.

What remains to be done?

We are involved with decorations early on in the product lifecycle and are working downstream to make them compatible with recycling channels - the type of decoration, the combination with base materials, surface, thickness, and increasingly to integrate rechargeable packaging, which would imply sustainable decoration. This is especially challenging for products like lipstick, those "handbag" items that are heavily manipulated during their life cycle.