How Perfume Bottles "Stand Out"

How Perfume Bottles "Stand Out"

There is a saying in the French perfume industry: "A beautifully designed perfume bottle is the best salesman for perfume."

At the very beginning of the perfume industry, perfume creators used precious metals such as crystal, agate, and gold to decorate this special product, using a sense of luxury to please or attract European royals and nobles. Perfume, as a commodity, is also endowed with the enjoyment of senses including smell, vision, and touch. Compared with the scent, the bottle is a kind of "visible" art. In addition to its function as a container, the perfume bottle also expresses its design concept and artistic tension through the product, resonates with consumers aesthetically, and thus influences and further stimulates consumers' desire to purchase.

We share some aesthetic concepts that are done well in the bottle and appearance and are easy to "stand out".

Mainstream Aesthetics

It conforms to the aesthetics of the majority and has a decorative beauty, evoking consumers' beautiful emotions and making them pleasant.

The main customers of perfume are still women, and for female users, they are naturally attracted to beautiful, lovely, and sparkling accessories. Brands that are prominent in this aspect, such as Marc Jacobs' Daisy series, use light colors as the main tone of the bottle, such as light lemon yellow, light orange yellow, light green, light blue, etc., and use a bunch of flowers as the shape of the entire bottle, making people associate with the beautiful feeling of the bright summer sunshine and the vigorous vitality of nature.

There are also bottles with decorative beauty, such as Carolina Herrera's high-heeled shoe bottle, Jean Paul Gaultier's nude bottle, Anna Sui's dreamy bottle, Givenchy's luxurious and elegant bottle, and Moschino's fun little bear bottle.

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Since the 1920s, the simple, clear, and elegant bottle aesthetic represented by Chanel No. 5 has also been deeply rooted in people's hearts, bringing about the design concept of "the simpler, the more advanced," which is recognized by most consumers. Brands of this kind include Jo Malone, Loewe, Hermès, Kilian, etc.

"Reverse" Aesthetics

We define it as abandoning the aesthetic preferences of the majority, de-standardizing, de-industrializing, and emphasizing the originality of the design. This type of bottle design mostly appears in niche salon perfume brands. In recent years, the minimalist labels and bottles represented by Le Labo (Perfume Laboratory) and Aesop have become another "anti-mainstream" trend, rejecting industrialization and processization, and making the perfume brand more focused on the scent itself and the brand experience.

With the uniqueness of the design, it represents the scarcity beauty of the perfume. For example, the wooden bottle cap of Nasomatto is cut from a natural piece of wood, retaining the natural wood grain and flaws (as well as wormholes). Each consumer receives a perfume bottle cap that is unique.

"Black Afgano, the pure wooden bottle cap is as dark and psychedelic as black charcoal; the pure black perfume liquid is exposed to show the psychedelic color of human nature."

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The bottle cap of Mendittorosa is made entirely by hand using materials such as wood, metal, clay, and rope, adding uniqueness and a sense of mystery.

"Idiot, the bottle cap is made of uneven clay stones, and Idiot corresponds to the first card of the Tarot deck and also the number 0. It implies starting from "0" and driving forward calmly, enjoying this journey of the Fool."

"Holy Will, the bottle cap is twisted into a twisted shape like a hemp rope, as if the Western messenger is conveying its spirit to its believers, telling them: they are always there and will never change."

By adding additional decorations to express uniqueness, for example, Xerjoff gives away meteorites when buying perfume, and each meteorite has a corresponding unique code.

"Neo of the Meteor Series, the shape of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh's crown is the brand's iconic image, representing honor and glory. Each meteorite has its own identity card recording the unique coordinates when it fell."

There are also cases where a certain region or era's unique culture is borrowed to attract the aesthetic taste of "some people".

For example, MCDI's oil painting series, the reference to each world famous painting not only pays tribute to the cultural diversity of the Renaissance period, but also expresses that perfume is an exquisite art rather than an industry.

"Amant, using Jacques-Louis David's famous painting - Portrait of Madame Seriziat and Her Son. The expressions of the characters in the painting are natural and real, and the artistic conception is gentle and cozy."

The bottle of Lancôme's La Vie Est Belle series is decorated with a French silk scarf, which is a manifestation of the taste, temperament, and elegance of the French.

Amouage, from the mysterious Arab country, can be seen from the gorgeousness of the bottle that it is displaying Middle Eastern culture, with the crystal bottle adorned with gorgeous gold carved decorations.

The change of the bottle cap of Amouage perfume is also worth mentioning. The first-generation bottle cap had a pointed mosque dome shape, inspired by Arab architecture; the second-generation bottle cap replaced the pointed top with crystal and designed a wave effect, aiming to refer to the glorious culture of the Arab Empire along the ancient Silk Road; the third-generation bottle is the version we see now, continuing the previous style, and the waves of the bottle cap are adjusted to be polished, so that more people can better understand the ancient Arab's preference for spices.

Innovation, Novelty and Uniqueness

With the support of modern technology, the innovation in perfume bottle technology is also impressive.

Paco Rabanne's packaging may not be so well-known in China, but its bottle won the IFF Best Bottle Award in 2009. One of the most representative ones is the Phantom Robot, which is a perfume that focuses on mobile Internet black technology. The bottle can be directly connected to a mobile phone, and it is a refillable bottle, which means that if you like this "little robot," it can accompany you all the time. The bottle is made of chrome alloy, metal, and black materials, shaped like a robot, dynamic, cool, and like coming from outer space, full of a sense of the future.

Moncler's bottle perfectly interprets the style of technology and exploration of nature, presenting with a unique kettle-shaped appearance, covered with a silver embossed shell and cap. The 150-milliliter refillable bottle is equipped with an LED screen, and the lit information panel can be personalized to edit the displayed text through the Bluetooth mobile phone application, which can be called an unprecedented innovation in the global fragrance market.

Combined with the current development of the perfume industry, perfume bottles should not only meet the basic functions but also have aesthetic value and cultural connotations consistent with the brand concept. Combining art, color, humanities, history and culture, technology, and many other aspects to innovate the design and packaging of the perfume's appearance, making it a practical artwork. At the same time, the beauty is conveyed to consumers.

Learn the "Gift-Giving" Aesthetics from Big Brands

In recent years, Chinese consumers usually focus on choosing perfume as a gift when giving gifts. For this reason, big brands like Jo Malone, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, etc. will make the gift boxes extremely attractive during each festival, making consumers feel the urge to buy when they see them. We use the following pictures to show this.

"Yves Saint Laurent's 2023 Qixi Limited Edition Gift Box, with zebra stripes and a three-dimensional embossed LOGO, is highly attractive. Expressing my love for you, with all my heart."

Of course, in addition to the aesthetic value, in the operation of perfume, merchants should also pay attention to the most basic protective function of the perfume bottle:

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Perfume contains a lot of alcohol, so pay attention to the sealing of the bottle cap to prevent evaporation, deterioration, pollution, and leakage;

Imported perfumes often need to be transported over long distances, and perfume bottles are mostly fragile glass products, so it is necessary to pay attention to the firmness of the perfume bottle and the outer packaging to prevent breakage and scratching of the label;

Considering the practicality of consumers' usage scenarios for perfume, it is convenient to open, suitable for horizontal placement, easy to carry, and the liquid sprayed from the nozzle should not be too much;

I hope that practitioners in the perfume industry can truly understand and think about the significance brought by the perfume bottle, and better convey the brand concept to consumers.