Cosmetics refer to products applied to the human body (skin, hair, toenails, mouth and lips, etc.) with the purpose of cleaning, maintaining, beautifying, modifying and changing the appearance, or correcting the human body odor and maintaining a good state by applying, spraying, sprinkling or other similar methods.

Therefore, in addition to the simple cleaning and maintenance function, cosmetics can also bring users sensory satisfaction and enhance their personal charm in social activities.

The global cosmetics market is expanding and consumers' pursuit of cosmetics is upgrading with the increase of disposable income. The aging population has prompted more people to use cosmetics to maintain a youthful appearance, and the market for anti-aging beauty products has become increasingly active.

At the same time, with the improvement of people's living standard and the update of people's concept, the variety of men's demand for cosmetics is also expanding, and it is developing towards the direction of beauty, nutrition, curative effect, multi-function and natural raw materials.

According to a market survey by China business research institute, the cosmetics market in emerging markets has a strong growth momentum. The asia-pacific market is the world's largest cosmetics market, accounting for 36.9% of the total consumption in the same period, followed by Western Europe, North America and Latin America.

In 2015, the size of China's cosmetics market was 333.94 billion yuan, among which the retail sales of cosmetics reached 204.9 billion yuan, making China the second largest cosmetics consumer in the world, second only to the United States.

Despite the rapid growth of China's cosmetics market, the per capita consumption of cosmetics is still in the primary stage compared with developed countries. From the perspective of consumption space, the consumption level of Chinese residents is constantly improving, and the habit of pursuing beauty and individuality has been gradually formed. The consumption of cosmetics contains a large market space.

Arconvert, a self-adhesive material expert, cited l 'oreal's 2016 cosmetics market research report and said:

Based on the global cosmetics market size of more than $254 billion in 2016, it is predicted that the global cosmetics packaging and printing market will show a good and steady growth trend in the next decade.

In the past, department stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets, cosmetic stores offline entity has been the traditional cosmetics sales channels, and on the basis of electronic commerce development in recent years, B2C, C2C and other electric business channel development momentum is swift and violent, breaking the barriers cosmetics sales channel, become the third largest circulation channels of supermarkets and department stores.

According to Mr. Chiara tomasi. Ian Renton, marketing manager at Arconvert SpA and owner of the Renton label company:

The Internet and digital printing technology have transformed the cosmetics market to be "earth-shaking", completely changing the situation of being dominated by the big brands, so that some niche cosmetics with special formulas are not inferior to the traditional big brands.

At present, more and more enterprises are participating in the cosmetics market competition, and the product categories are becoming more and more abundant. The rapidly developing e-commerce channels and social media have broken through the channel restrictions of different positioning brands in different regions in terms of information display, information dissemination and information sharing, making it easier than ever to directly reach the target customer groups, impress consumers and drive consumption.

"Label printing suppliers, such as us, are having to master new technologies quickly in the current market situation to better grasp the future trend of 'more lots, more varieties, less quantities'," he said. "Mr. Renton said.

Renton labels USES a sekon 3030 dry toner digital press to process a large number of cosmetic labels, while other short orders are handled by the epson Surepress L4033 inkjet press.

In the UK, Amberley labels is a big proponent of digital printing technology. The company owns several of the HP Indigo digital printers. They realized that niche high-end brand owners always pursue perfection with an almost rigorous attitude when ordering labels and packaging for their products.

Trevor Smith, executive director of Amberley labels, said:

"We had to meet a very high printing standard, from print quality to color consistency, from die-cutting to bag edges, and every task had to be as perfect as they could get."

In particular, Mr Smith points out that serving these specialist brands requires a high level of skill in handling skus, which can provide the minimum order quantity and the minimum printing length. "For some orders, the final finished product label may be only 7-8 meters long. So it's very important for companies to have short order processing capabilities."

Mr Renton is no less impressed. He says:

"It is not unusual for us to print more than 20 different cosmetic labels with a very small initial print run. Sometimes even the same product, the size of the label is different, and often more than one product."

Mr Tomasi said:

"What is different from the past is that the bathroom has become the center of people's physical and mental health. Everyone likes beautiful thing, although place oneself in the bathroom, we also hope to be surrounded by beauty, stimulate our sense organs with beautiful article. "If the bathroom is a pleasant place to relax, the bathroom is also a challenging place to put things. Some stains and water stains can leave things at constant risk of surface erosion, dirt and even damage."

"This is why cosmetic packaging should meet the following two contradictory requirements at the same time: first, cosmetic labels must have a strong visual appeal, satisfy consumers and their legal and regulatory needs, and at the same time stimulate consumers to buy; The second is to ensure that the label is functional and easy to use."

The label needs to be in direct contact with the surface of the product, and in practical use there may be a lot of water stains. Considering that cosmetics are not disposable consumer goods, they require a period of use, Mr. Renton recommends the use of durable materials.

He think:

"One of the biggest challenges in printing a cosmetic label is choosing the right label material."

"We use synthetic label materials that have been coated or polished. Laminating materials are suitable for manual labeling, and after glazing, the advantages of synthetic materials are obvious, the material is thin and easier to machine labeling, especially suitable for small cosmetics or small hose on the small area labeling.

"We've helped a lot of start-up cosmetics companies. These new customers are generally advised to do a pre-press test before ordering a label to see how well the printed sample is displayed on the plastic container, glass container or hose they provide. We will also provide customers with the final printing effect of different materials for reference.

About 70 percent of Amberley's cosmetic labels are made of synthetic materials, "which can deviate from the direction of plastic." Mr. Smith is sincere.

In addition to the self-adhesive film, Arcovert has realized the inherent advantages of using paper self-adhesive materials, especially when compared to screen print decorative effects.

These advantages include: cost advantages, such as the processing tools used and the size of the order; The production process is more environmentally friendly; Less waste; It is easier to make version changes through digital printing; More can present the design effect, so that the designer can better implement the idea; At the same time, there are many options for post-processing.

"When a customer appreciates or touches a paper label, the natural nature of the paper immediately awakens the consumer's conceptual connection with nature, and the label becomes a sensory pathway for the product and the brand."

"Touch helps create a symbolic connection between the person and the object, between the buyer and the seller," Mr. Tomasi said. That is to say, when physically touching a product, it gives the person who touches it the emotional right to buy it."

In terms of the label form, reattach, tear seal, peel label and multi-layer label are the main products provided by Amberley for the cosmetics market.

In Renton's view, the market has a particularly legitimate need for transparent labels. This is because transparent labels leave consumers with the impression that there is no label and that the information is printed directly on the container.

"However, transparent labels do present challenges in the manufacturing process. For example, pure black or dark colors are more suitable for transparent labels than light or light colors."

Mr Renton believes that accurate registration is crucial in the cosmetics labelling market, where many cosmetics come in very small containers.

"The labeled area provided by the ultra-small container must also be ultra-small, so the alignment must be very precise to ensure that the printed text is legible and that the barcode on the retail label is legible. To put it bluntly, printing a label on a lipstick requires far more quality than printing a label on a wine bottle."

High-end post-printing decoration, such as hot stamping, cold stamping, embossing and so on in the actual application of the demand is constantly expanding. In addition, the bleeding location of the adhesive tape also requires special attention from the processor when making the label.

Cosmetic label extension area is very small, effective control of adhesive bleeding is very important, on the one hand, to ensure that there is enough adhesive space to make the label stick firmly; On the other hand, there is also a need to ensure that labels remain firmly attached throughout labeling, transportation and storage.

However, the natural nature of cosmetic packaging makes the use of RFID tags a challenge, as introduced by Mr. Dean Frew, chief technical director of SML:

"In the field of cosmetics and perfume, many packaging materials are not suitable for RFID technology, such as metal materials used in packaging, aluminum foil, etc., some materials have a reflective effect or bright surface, will bring difficulties in RFID reading."

SML is working with a range of manufacturers to develop a tag as an alternative to overcome these difficulties, so as to better meet the literacy needs of the retail sector. SML has a packaging division, the SML retail packaging design division, which is dedicated to the development and design of RFID tags friendly to the cosmetics and perfume markets.

At present, this department has achieved gratifying results in many aspects.

"But we have to accelerate the pace of internationalization. "The reality is that in the cosmetics and perfume markets, brands don't design their labels with RFID in mind. It's really a revolutionary technology for the industry."