Dispensing with the Details

The dispensing options for tubes are increasing. While product formulations often dictate head selection, audience preferences, too, play roles. Product viscosity determines what heads can be used, but the decision also depends upon the desired amount of product to be dispensed at one time, explains Lou Della Pesca, president of 3C Inc. (Wyckoff, NJ).

For instance, while eye care products and body lotions have similar viscosities, consumers have different dispensing preferences.

To meet varying demands, 3C now offers several different dispensing heads for tubes. In addition to adjusting orifice diameters to meet dispensing requirements, 3C can add a synthetic hair brush head to a tube for a make-up product. “The make-up brush tube has an automatic shut-off locking system,” explains Della Pesca. “Unscrew the cap, and product is released. Screw down the cap, and the product is sealed. Such features prevent product from accumulating on the brush or from accidentally dispensing.”

For lip gloss tubes, 3C has an angled head, a brush head, a doe-foot applicator featuring multiple holes like a showerhead, a standard ball head, and a roll-on ball head.

As cosmetics become more sophisticated, demands will change. For example, airless dispensing is more popular today to preserve oxygen-sensitive formulations. 3C offers an airless pump for a 22-mm-diam tube that evacuates almost 100% of its contents.

Della Pesca says cosmetics companies’ interest in tubes continues to grow. “In the past, people shied away from tubes because they didn’t portray a quality image. Now, tubes can be decorated like bottles and jars, and they can include a variety of functional elements like dispensers. Jars often don’t even employ dispensing closures. There is also a cost savings to using a tube over a jar, so in this economy, people are looking at tubes even more.