Marketers are always looking for the next cool look in personal care product packaging. This fall, that look could take on a decidedly “frosty” appearance, thanks to a ground-breaking new iteration of DuPont Surlyn ionomer resins. Produced by DuPont Performance Materials, these resins were designed for a one-step plastic injection molding process which produces frosted packaging such as bottles, jars and caps for a variety of uses.
There’s just something about the frosted look: previously restricted to glass, marketers say frosting produces a premium aesthetic that just might enable manufacturers to raise their price on any given product, simply because consumers equate that type of packaging with class and style.
DuPont’s Surlyn possesses unique attributes which allow it to take on extremely fine, intricate details of a plastic injection mold, ultimately producing a high-gloss item with an entirely, or partially, frosted appearance. And the one-step process can increase production efficiency and lower costs because frosting is an add-on option that requires no substantive changes to the molding process, i.e no second-step.
Frosted packaging seems to have received a warm reception from the market, especially for personal car product companies, who use it for their topical products such as creams and and lotions. Heretofore, these manufacturers were able to utilize a myriad of creative packaging techniques like facets, special finishes and coloration, but never have they had such power over translucency.
There’s more: Surlyn frosting allows for even more advanced decorative techniques, including metallic finishes, hot stamping, lacquering, marbling, bubbling, glittering and suspended animations. When you combine these characteristics with the high-impact and chemical resistance of plastic polymers, you have an extremely yet — dare we say? — lovely package which can move the needle for producers.
And that’s a pretty cool thing indeed!