Malibu Wellness pumps new packaging

Malibu Wellness, Inc. continues to take pride in staying in front of the curve when it comes to healthy skin care. So it's no surprise that the company is pioneering a reusable pack in the U.S. cosmeceutical market just when sustainable packaging has become so prominent.

The packaging for Malibu's EC Mode skin-care products does much more than address an environmental call. The attractive container offers functional, economic, and environmental appeal for consumers at retail, and for salon, spa, and medical professionals. The product/packaging combination represents an ambitious effort by the Malibu, CA-based firm, which reintroduced EC Mode in the new packaging last February.

Used to treat skin-care challenges such as acne, rosacea, and inflammation, the EC Mode products are marketed to healthcare professionals for both women and men, in a clear styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) container/jar from Yon Woo Co. Ltd.. The jar's threaded silver-colored closure houses an unusual pump that dispenses product without the use of a more traditional dip tube. A threaded translucent overcap fits over the jar closure.

Fitting into that outer jar is a white injection-molded polypropylene jar, also from Yon Woo, that holds the product. A wraparound label on the jar is printed with the following dispensing instructions: "Remove overcap. Press down on top of container using index and middle finger on each side of the center simultaneously."

Once product is completely evacuated, the user discards the inner pack. He or she then can buy a cylindrical PP refill pack and put it into the SAN container and rethread the outer container with the silver closure that houses the pump device. A foil lid is sealed to the top of the refill pack. The consumer discards the foil before placing the refill pack in the outer SAN container.

"In the traditional pump system, air that is between the liquid (gel or cream) inside and the top of the container remains in the container for the life of the product," explains Tom Porter, founder, CEO, and product developer of Malibu Wellness. He says, "The no dip-tube dispensing pump does not use air from within the container to dispense product. In our 'airless' system, any air pocket that exists after the product is filled is removed by priming the pump, and no air enters the product after the air pocket is removed."

Malibu Wellness fills product on any of four lines at its Mid-America Manufacturing/Distribution Center in Indianapolis. That's done on piston-filling equipment from A Packaging Systems. Pressure-sensitive, metallized polypropylene labels in roll form are supplied by Label Tech and applied to the inner PP container on a wraparound labeler from Take-A-Label.

"To my knowledge," Porter says, "we were the first to use this system where the customer buys a package with the product inside a refillable pack. Then when they want to purchase it again, rather than buying the SAN container again, they just buy a polypropylene refill pack. It has a foil liner, much like a yogurt cup. So, rather than throwing away the SAN container, the only thing they discard is the inner jar and foil lid."

Porter says that is not only an environmental benefit, but also an economic one. "The client pays about half the price, and there's less product waste because the airless system allows you to use the last drop of product." ...Read more