Kraft packaging for beauty and cosmetics brands
Cosmetics packaging carries more mandatory copy per square inch than almost any other category. Getting the carton right is mostly a question of reserving panel area before design begins.
Beauty brands typically need a slim tuck-end kraft carton around each unit and a kraft mailer for direct-to-consumer shipping. The constraint that drives the spec is INCI ingredient copy, which needs more panel space than most designers plan for.
What actually drives the spec
The constraints that decide the structure in this category, in the order they matter.
INCI copy eats the back panel
Full ingredient declarations in descending order, at a legible point size, routinely need more space than a slim carton back panel offers. We size the carton against your actual ingredient list rather than around the bottle alone.
Glass droppers and airless pumps
Tall narrow primary containers tip inside a loose carton. An 18pt board with a fitted insert, or a carton cut to the shoulder of the bottle, keeps the unit upright on a shelf.
Kraft shifts your brand colours
A pastel palette, which most of this category uses, loses saturation against a brown substrate. Either commit to the muted result or budget for a white underbase.
Sets need a mailer that holds position
Multi-item routines shipped direct need a moulded pulp or die-cut insert. Loose items in a mailer arrive as a pile.
Typical specification
Where most orders in this category land. Yours will be quoted against your own product.
- Typical format
- Straight tuck-end carton, 18pt kraft paperboard
- Common finishes
- Soft-touch matte, foil stamp on brand mark, spot UV
- Regulatory
- INCI panel area reserved at dieline stage
- DTC shipping
- E-flute kraft mailer with moulded pulp insert
Questions from this category
Can you print ingredient panels small enough to fit?
We print down to 5pt legibly on kraft paperboard, but readability at that size is poor and some retailers set their own minimums. The better fix is planning the panel area first, which we do at the dieline stage.
Will pastel brand colours work on kraft?
They will print, but muted. Pastels lose the most saturation of any palette against a brown substrate. A white underbase restores them at additional cost per unit, and we will show you both on a sample before you commit.
Packaging for beauty and cosmetics
Tell us what you are packing and at what volume. Pricing and a free structural dieline back within one business day.