With consumers placing a premium on health and wellness, the evolution of labeling products for the personal care market becomes ever more critical.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased focus on sanitization. Common end uses for the personal care market include shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, laundry detergent, beauty and skincare products.

According to Riley Nay, product manager, films, Avery Dennison manufactures semi and full squeeze MDO films in house, which allows the company to respond to unplanned demand spikes, which were evident at the onset of COVID-19. Avery Dennison continues to see strong demand for materials, especially those earmarked for hand sanitizers, soaps and cleaning products.

“We have a broad offering of rigid, semi and fully conformable films for personal care labels depending on the application needs,” says Nay. Our MDO (Machine Direction Oriented) squeezable films are engineered to provide a balance of rigidity and conformability that enable the widest operating window to meet today’s most challenging converting, printing and application needs. For products that require some squeeze, such as shampoo bottles, lotions or hand sanitizers, we offer semi-squeeze films, such as our Global MDO or Global Co-Ex films. For applications with a larger billboard or that require a full squeeze, such as tubes or laundry detergent, we would recommend a full squeeze film such as our High Performance Primax and FasClear.”

These products all come with their own host of labeling requirements, and substrate manufacturers have been tasked with designing materials that accommodate numerous challenges. Sustainability and container shape are two such challenges.

“Bottle shapes and sizes can present many labeling challenges,” explains Nay. “Avery Dennison’s MDO films are able to respond to these challenges, as this broad range of products, in combination with our adhesive portfolio, can easily conform to complex curves and adhere to tighter mandrel applications. Another challenge in this segment is around recycling. With more and more PET bottles being utilized in personal care applications, labels must enable the container to be recycled. Our Global MDO Next Generation film is paired with CleanFlake Adhesive Technology to enable the recycling of PET containers and improve rPET yields.”

The personal care sector has also seen several notable packaging trends, with health and wellness among them. Recent research from Avery Dennison cited 57% of consumers wanting to improve their overall health and well-being, and they’re looking to brands providing total solutions.

Avery Dennison has also observed many brands leaning on clean beauty, which aligns with sustainability and recyclability.

“Brands are removing toxic or harsh ingredients from their products and focusing on products with clean or natural ingredients,” states Nay. “These brands also want their labels and packaging to reflect or match this move, which is why sustainable packaging and labeling is on the forefront of brands and consumers’ minds. Avery Dennison continues to focus on bringing new sustainable materials to the market. Additionally, our innovations are focused on enabling recycling and products that contain recycled content that will help advance the circular economy.”

For more information on Avery Dennison’s research and the latest consumer packaging trends, click here.