Pureology’s iconic hair care packaging gets a fresh, updated look that stands out on shelf.
Since L’Oreal’s purchase of the Pureology brand in 2007, there were rumblings that the packaging was
The Pureology brand packaging needed a redesign. |
going to be updated. It badly needed a redesign and L’Oreal kept the details a big secret in the marketplace. L’Oreal had been repositioning Pureology as a luxury professional brand with a very high price-point, premium ingredients and limited the distribution to high-end salons and spas—and it was the common consensus that the package didn’t look luxurious enough to justify its retail price and positioning. Right after designing Pureology’s successful ‘Colour Stylist’ range of products that launched in 2010, it was great to be asked to redesign the visual core product line: Pureology’s iconic hair care packaging.
The BriefL’Oreal asked for a very distinctive shape that stood-out on shelf—but at the same time the packaging needed to appear soft, feminine and with a natural form to echoes the natural aspect supported by the brand’s 100% vegan formulation, sustainable packaging and very strict ‘eco–values.” It was also imperative that the neck of the bottle be quite wide (the product is concentrated and has a very luxurious thick viscosity and the previous bottle’s thin neck was not optimized for the product. In fact, L’Oreal had received complaints that the product was difficult to get out of the bottle).
Additionally, the packaging had to say “luxury, desirability and modernity.” The bottle also needed to be stable on a shower shelf, yet easy to grasp when wet and easy to open and use with one hand. And last but not least, the specific challenge was given to us that “the package should look at home on the shelves of the utmost trendy fashion and beauty store in Paris, Colette.”
Right away we went to work on designing a package that speaks to all the elements of the brief—the wide neck, the eco-values, the shower-grasp, and the luxury. For design inspiration we looked to
The package design had to communicate "luxury, desirability, and modernity." |
nature— to the shapes and forms in pebbles, in leaves, in flowing water and in the petals of flowers (Pureology’s logo is a flower).
We translated these elements through many different ideas and directions ranging from very organic shapes to shapes that retained some sense of the previous packaging. For instance, we designed packages that echoed the past bottle’s slim neck, or its flat profile and even some with a textural relief on the neck, as the old neck had. Then the graphics were designed and a color study done. For the graphics, we retooled the logo to look more modern and designed a new modernized pack graphic system and for the packaging colors we chose colors that retained the same color ‘cue” for each sub-brand but were more “pure looking” — lighter, more pearlescent—more sophisticated.
For one of the designs, I had the idea to design a bottle that can be used right side-up and upside-down and in the process save on money and resources by making and using only one mold to make two bottles. The choices were narrowed down to three designs and then down to one. In the end, the “multi-function” bottle was the design that was chosen.
The final new bottle is an asymmetrical curvaceous organic shape that can stand both on its base and on
The new bottle is an asymmetrical curvaceous shape that can stand both on its base and on its head. |
its head with a 40mm neck diameter— wide enough for the thick product to flow freely and is usable with one hand. The packaging is injection molded using FDA approved (food grade) HDPE made of 50 percent post-consumer recycled material and is 100 percent recyclable.
About the Author: Robert Bergman is president and creative director of Bergman Associates , a boutique luxury branding, design and advertising company and Mpakt, (), a luxury product packaging company in New York— with clients such as Calvin Klein Fragrances, L'ORÉAL Paris and Shu Uemura. He is the former vice president/creative director at L’Oreal and creative director of international editions of Vogue Magazine.