How to Create Effective Skincare Packaging Design
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Let’s admit – we’ve all picked up a product from a shelf simply because the packaging spoke to us. Perhaps it was the bright colors that communicated revitalization and energy. Or maybe it’s the minimalistic look that made the product seem trustworthy and organic.
First impressions matter, and it’s especially true in the crowded skincare market, where typography, colors, and shapes can make you trust a product before you’ve even tried it on your skin.
As a beauty brand owner, you should be informed about how and why certain design choices are or are not effective, to help you convey your message and ultimately sell your product.
In this article, we’ll look at all things skincare packaging design to find out how your products are perceived and what should definitely be on the packaging. Let’s go!
Why Skincare Packaging Design Matters
Your skincare product packaging can be more powerful than you might think. It gives the first impression of your product to your customers, and it’s often the most important, right?
Your product packaging communicates your brand values, differentiates your brand from the competitors, ensures accessibility and usability for your customers, and overall, continues to tell your brand’s story.
“81% of consumers have bought a product because its packaging caught their eye.”
To sum up, the best packaging will balance the visual appeal with usability and visual storytelling of your brand, so all parts work toward providing the best experience for the customer.
The Key Elements of an Effective Skincare Packaging Design
Color Palette
Color palette is the thing that’ll set the emotional tone of your brand and the product. For example, neutral colors usually signal minimalism, earthy colors — natural values, bold and colorful packaging conveys youth and playfulness, but metallics give a more luxurious look.
You can look into color psychology to better understand how different shades and hues impact the way we perceive products and packaging.
Source: Forbes
When you start a skincare brand, one of the things described in your brand book should be the brand’s colours. You can refer to these colours once you’ve gotten to the step of developing your packaging.
Remember that all your products shouldn’t look the same. Still, they need to have unifying elements, and you can add subtle variations for different product ranges (night/day products, anti-aging product line, makeup vs skincare, etc.).
Typography and Fonts
Typography and fonts are another thing crucial to your skincare packaging design, as they not only play into the aesthetics but also carry practicality.
Lettering on the packaging should be readable and comprehensible for your customers. This is especially important in the skincare industry, where you have to clearly state the ingredients or give directions for the product’s usage.
But typography can, of course, carry a message too. Usually, serif fonts give a more elegant vibe, whereas sans-serif fonts embrace modernity and a down-to-earth vibe.
Source: New England Reprographics
Brand Logo and Placement
Can’t forget about one of the most important visual elements of your brand: the logo. It’s what makes your brand recognizable and memorable in the sea of other beauty products.
The placement of your logo on the packaging matters too! Center your logo and you’re likely giving a bold and confident impression, or choose a more subtle placement on the side for a more laid-back vibe.
Source: Dillion Skincare & NOTO
Hierarchy of Information
Informational hierarchy is especially important. The order in which information is presented will guide your customer’s eyes the second they look at your product.
They should immediately see:
Your logo;
The product name or type;
Its key benefit.
All of these elements should be recognizable in an instant.
Secondary information, like usage directions, ingredients, and certifications, should still be easy to find, but they can be positioned further from the very face of the product.
White Space and Balance
Here’s an interesting paradox in packaging design: often what’s not there is as important as what’s included. White space (or negative space) is an empty area that helps alleviate and highlight other elements in the design, like logos, text, and other graphic elements.
White space brings harmony and balance in the design, helping you avoid unnecessary clutter and distractions. Your skincare packaging design should have enough white space to bring your customer’s attention to what really matters.
Alignment with Trends
At last, your skincare packaging design should be somewhat timeless yet still relevant to the current times and tendencies.
Some design trends directly follow skincare tendencies, like minimalistic packaging echoes the skinimalism trend. Though, if you blindly implement them without seeing the relevance to your brand, your product risks looking dated in a couple of years.
Successful brands tend to adapt trends with caution, morphing them with their overarching branding and uniqueness, making their product feel timeless and relevant at the same time.
By the way, if you want to dive deeper into current tendencies, here’s an article on 2025 beauty design and branding trends that we know you’ll find especially useful.
Legal and Regulatory Requirements
We looked at the elements where you have a somewhat creative freedom to play around with, but there are some legal requirements that you can’t sell your products without. Let’s look at them to ensure your products both look good and adhere to the laws.
What Must Appear on Skincare Packaging
Some non-negotiables need to appear on skincare packaging in most, if not all, of the world’s jurisdictions, and they are:
Ingredient list. Your packaging should include ingredients in the order of concentration (the higher the concentration of an ingredient, the higher it is on the list). You should follow the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) guidelines for consistency and transparency, but we’ll talk about what is INCI a little further down.
Usage instructions. To ensure safe usage of your product, your packaging should clearly state how to apply the product correctly. It’s extremely important in beauty, as you may know, that sometimes incorrect usage jeopardizes the results and effectiveness.
Warnings. Products like the ones we use on our skin are legally required to have warnings to avoid unnecessary risks for your business and the customers. Such warnings are usually something like “Avoid contact with eyes” or “For external use only”.
Batch or lot number. You’re required to state the batch number of your product so it can be traced and identified, in case of recalls or customer concerns.
Luckily for you, if you sell private label cosmetics with Selfnamed, mandatory technical information automatically appears in the Design Studio. If you design your packaging elsewhere, simply upload your file to the Design Studio and Selfnamed’s team will review it to ensure it meets all legal requirements and standards.
Some other elements on the packaging you might be obliged to include on the packaging (depending on the region you sell in) are:
Weight or net content;
Manufacturer or distributor information;
Expiration date;
Country of origin.
What is INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients)
INCI, or International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients, is a standardized system for naming and identifying cosmetics and skincare product ingredients. All cosmetics and skincare brands globally have to follow this system.
This system was developed for consistency and identification of ingredients in our personal care products, so it’s easy for customers to navigate all the different components and ingredients. Plus, it also protects your customers because you cannot use unidentifiable names or marketing buzzwords in the ingredient list.
INCI makes sure that each ingredient has only one name on the packaging across the globe. For example, aqua will always be water, glycerin will appear as glycerine, lavender oil as Lavandula angustifolia oil, and so on.
INCI also provides a handy ingredient decoder, if you’re not fully sure about what all the ingredients in your product mean.
Examples of Skincare Packaging Design That Just Work
Now, let’s look at some brands that have great skincare packaging design that aligns with their branding, overall mission, and makes excellent use of the key elements we looked at in this article.
Drunk Elephant
Source: Drunk Elephant
It’s no surprise Drunk Elephant likes to compare their products to smoothies as their packaging features a mix of bold colours and plenty of white space, giving a fun yet healthy feel.
What’s interesting, in their typography, they use both serif and sans-serif fonts, with the former being higher on the hierarchy (product name, key ingredients) and the latter being lower (main properties, volume).
Aesop
Source: Aesop
Everything about Aesop’s signature amber glass packaging and apothecary-inspired labels says timelessness and quiet luxury. All of it perfectly ties in with their mission of striving to create products of the finest quality.
Another important focus for Aesop is their dedication to sustainability. That is why most of their packaging is made of recycled material and some of their stores have even introduced an in-store refill trial with reusable glass bottles.
Tata Harper
Source: Tata Harper
Another brand that reinforces its brand values through packaging is Tata Harper. With matte green glass bottles and gold accents, the brand communicates eco-friendliness and luxury at the same time. They’re dedicated to natural, non-toxic ingredients, while the price point matches the premium look.
Also, Tata Harper’s packaging is minimalistic, with simple typography and successful usage of negative space.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, your skincare packaging is for more than just carrying the product. It also needs to catch your potential customer’s eye, tell your story through design, and align with legal requirements to protect both your brand and the consumers.
When done right, skincare packaging design can become as iconic as the product itself. I hope this blog article both fuelled your creativity and cemented certain requirements for your future use. Now, bring memorable designs to life in your equally memorable products!
Frequently Asked Questions
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Skincare packaging design is the way you create a look and feel of the packaging that stores your products. With packaging design, you want to balance aesthetics, legal requirements, and usability.
Your product packaging communicates your brand values, differentiates your brand from the competitors, ensures accessibility and usability for your customers, and overall, continues to tell your brand’s story.
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Your packaging is required to include an ingredient list, usage instructions, warnings, batch number, and, based on the jurisdiction, also weight, manufacturer information, expiration date, and country of origin.
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Yes, if you want to start a skincare brand, Selfnamed can help with the design. You can use Selfnamed Design Studio to contact the team, share your vision, and they’ll design packaging concepts for you.
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To make your skincare packaging design look modern, you can focus on minimalistic design, sans-serif typography, and natural color palettes. Such elements are now popular in the skincare packaging world.
Want the inside scoop on current trends? Read our article on the top beauty design and branding trends of 2025.
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No, you don’t need a designer to use the Selfnamed Design Studio. It’s free to use, and it makes designing easy for someone without extensive experience in design. And Design Studio also gives you lifelike mockups that you can use to sell your products.
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