The decisions you make about packaging for your essential oils can help define your brand and impact usability. The type and quality of packaging not only plays a critical role in the first impression of your product, but also in ongoing customer satisfaction.
So, when it comes to packaging your essential oils, there are three main concerns to look out for to ensure that your customers have a great experience with your product:
- Leakage
- Safety
- Spoilage or Product Longevity
Leakage
Leaking oil can make the outside of the bottle look bad, create a mess for the consumer, and lead to wasted product. Leakage occurs for two primary reasons – incompatible components or filling process.
Product compatibility
The best way to avoid leaking is to choose the right dispensing system from the start. EuroDrop® caps and Dropper bottles are the industry standard for dispensing and storing essential oils. Why? They use18 DIN sizing. 18 DIN caps and bottle necks are universally designed to work together ensuring a proper fit every time.
An added bonus of using Dropper bottles is the built-in tamper evidence provided by the transfer ring. When a Dropper bottle is paired with a Tamper Evident EuroDrop cap, there is no need for shrink wrapping. The tamper evident band just slides over the transfer ring. If the frangibles (little white plastic teeth between the cap and ring) are connected, you know your product is secure.
Carow Packaging designed our EuroDrop caps to exceed the highest design standards. And, with production in the USA, you can get them quickly and without exorbitant overseas shipping costs.
Filling Process
Leakage can also be caused by the filling process. This can be very costly in terms of time and money. If oil gets onto the bottle thread during filling, the cap cannot seal correctly due to skip threading and cap back-off.
To reduce product leakage resulting from filling, consider recalibrating the torque setting on the capping machine. Also look for ways to prevent oil from getting on the outside of the bottle.
You can read more about quality issues and troubleshooting here.
Safety
Safety also plays a role when it comes to packaging for essential oils. There are regulations for certain liquids as noted by the Poison Prevention Packaging Act and administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), including select flavors of essential oils.
Having a child injured due to faulty packaging is a tragedy and a worst-case scenario for any company. It is important to understand child-resistant packaging rules so you can utilize appropriate and safe packaging for your customers.
Carow Packaging offers regular, push turn, child-resistant, tamper-evident, and child-resistant & tamper-evident caps. We have a line of caps that are CPCS compliant. If a vendor states their caps are child-resistant, make sure to ask for the documentation stating that the caps meet certification standards.
Also keep in mind that just because a protocol test has been passed by the closure manufacturer, the packaging may not be compliant when it reaches the end user. Why not? Ultimately, it is the filling and capping processes that ensure a child-resistant cap and packaging is compliant. The protocol testing on the primary packaging demonstrates that the closure has the ability to pass the child-resistant packaging protocol test. However, this is only true if the closure has been used properly by the filling and bottling provider.
You can learn more about the CPSC guidelines and proactive steps you can take to maintain regulatory compliance in all steps of the packaging process here.
Spoilage or Product Longevity
If your product leaks, either during or after the capping process, you may have to toss the bottle or the whole lot. That’s a loss of time and materials. Even if the product doesn’t leak, an improper fitting cap can lead to evaporation or spoilage. Either can create a bad customer experience and impact your bottom line.
What causes spoilage to your essential oil products? Exposure to oxygen and light. If liquid can leak out of an ill-fitting cap, oxygen can get in. Also, not all containers provide the same level of protection from light, thus it’s important to choose just the right one.
There are a variety of colors and materials to choose from. While it may be tempting to select the most visually appealing container, you need to factor in how light will affect your product.
Glass bottles are inert and are the best choice for naturally aggressive essential oils. The four most common color options for glass bottles include:
- Amber or Brown
- Flint or Clear
- Cobalt Blue
- Green
Each color has its own aesthetic and protective factors. In regard to light protection, the darker and more opaque the glass, the more protection it offers against oxidation. Oxidation breaks down oils and negates their therapeutic value over time.
Read more about which colored glass is best for essential oils.
As both a manufacturer and distributor, our goal is to provide the best solution for every customer. We routinely test ALL products in our office lab for form, fit, and function.
We also have a Quality Manager on staff to help our customers with troubleshooting. Jack Phommachanhom, our Quality Assurance Manager, has been involved in multiple facets of manufacturing process engineering for over 25 years. His role is to support the technical needs of the company. He does this by developing core products and by assuring that all our products, whether designed in-house or sourced from another manufacturer, meet the highest quality standards.
As Jack says, “Not many packaging providers have a process engineer on site, so I have the opportunity to spend time with customers to help address specific product and filling issues. It’s a role that adds value to our customers and to Carow by allowing us to use what we learn to continually improve our products.”
We invite you to download our free Essential Oils Dispensing Success Guide for even more in depth information on your packaging choices.
If you need more information on packaging choices for your essential oil products or would like someone to evaluate your flow rate to make sure it is optimized, let us help you. Contact our Account Specialists at Carow Packaging for additional advice or samples at 815-455-4600. We are happy to help you stay on top of these three main packaging concerns.
