Personal Care Packaging Materials - Plastic Bottles

Guangdong Hongyuan, as a Chinese lotion pump manufacturer, has 13 years of global trade experience and specializes in providing high-quality lotion pump heads and plastic bottles for the cosmetics, skin care and personal care industries.

 

I. Different Types of Plastic Materials

 

Plastic packaging materials are commonly used for personal care products. These include PP, PE, PET, PETG, etc.

pp

PP is a high-molecular-weight polymer made from polypropylene. It is a non-toxic, harmless, odorless plastic with good heat resistance, decent cold resistance, and excellent chemical stability. It does not undergo significant chemical changes when exposed to strong acids or alkalis.

Characteristics: milky white and semi-transparent, smooth, and non-greasy; PP bottles are softer than PET bottles and easier to squeeze, but they have lower transparency than PET bottles, so they are commonly used for opaque shampoo bottles (which are easier to squeeze).

How to color PP material: Use color masterbatches produced by specialized manufacturers (a type of high-concentration particles composed of colorants, carrier resins, and dispersants). They have good coloring properties, and during the production process of PP plastic, the color masterbatches are directly added to the product, mixed, and then proceed to the next process, resulting in colored products.

Features: PET has high transparency, the bottle body has some flexibility, can be indented but is harder than PP.

4. PETG

PETG has better transparency than PET, but it is not commonly used in China due to its high cost, high waste rate, and inability to be recycled. PETG is used for various long-lasting daily necessities, such as cosmetic bottles, perfume bottles, and pharmaceutical packaging containers. Compared to PET, PETG has higher transparency, better chemical resistance, superior oil resistance, and better weather resistance (yellowing resistance) than PET. The procurement cost of PETG is 2-3 times that of PET.

II. Bottle Body Process

Color: 1. Custom colors are available, typically in natural matte and magnetic white, or with pearlescent powder effects. Although the bottle and cap use the same color masterbatch, slight color differences may occur due to different materials used for the bottle and cap. 2. PP and ABS bottles are mostly solid-colored, while PETG and acrylic bottles are often transparent, giving a translucent effect. Acrylic bottle walls are often spray-painted, which can refract light for a better effect.

Printing: Screen printing uses regular ink or UV ink. UV ink offers better results with a glossy and three-dimensional effect. Color confirmation should be done via a sample during production, as screen printing effects may vary across different materials.

Hot stamping: Hot stamping processes like gold and silver stamping differ from printing gold or silver powder in terms of effect. Hard materials and smooth surfaces are more suitable for gold and silver stamping, while soft surfaces may result in poor adhesion and peeling. Hot stamping offers better gloss than printed gold or silver.

Pump head: Based on manufacturing processes: A. Electroplated pump head; B. Electrolytic aluminum pump head; C. Plastic pump head.

Outer cap: Primarily made of PP material, though PS, ABC material, and acrylic material are also used.

Classified by structure into double-layer caps and single-layer caps:

Double-layer lids: A. PP inner lid + PS and acrylic outer lid; B. PP inner lid + outer lid made of PP or ABS with electroplating; C. PP inner lid + electroplated aluminum outer lid; D. PP inner lid + PP or ABS outer lid with spray coating. Single-layer lids: PP material is commonly used.

Cap manufacturing process: Cap edges can be gold or silver foil stamped or spray-painted; the inner cap of double-layer caps can be screen-printed with a logo, while the outer cap uses transparent material for a see-through effect. The outer cap can have a logo embossed using electroplated aluminum.