Thermafuse Healthier Hair With Heat of Kannapolis, NC, is not only putting the heat on its products, it's putting some heat on its packaging with hot, new bottle shapes created with help from Joni Rae and Associates (www.joniraeandassociates.com).

Available in salons across the country, the products work with the heat of blow dryers and hot irons to heal and repair hair using what Thermafuse calls the HeatSmart Complex®, which combines a silicone molecule and a wheat protein molecule that, together, stay on and in the hair, penetrating to smooth frazzled hair cuticles while adding shine. The HeatSmart Complex is accentuated by and activated with heat.

The high-density polyethylene bottles, produced in dazzling pearlescent pastels and citrusy-pearl-finish colors using molds from Matrix Packaging (www.matrixpackaging.com) are part of a large line of custom and stock packages for shampoos, sprays, stylers, volumizers, colored hair treatments and more. The products comprise some 50 stockkeeping units. The impactful collection of containers include tottles and jars provided by Dieter Bakic Enterprises (www.bakic.com).

The glamourous, sophisticated look of the three-sided bottles didn't come easy, as Thermafuse faced several design challenges that would have stopped many packagers and designers in their tracks.

The efforts of Thermafuse and its design and packaging teams paid off, with a series of practical advancements, especially as the three-sided bottles feature a way to incorporate a lengthy ingredients listing and product details. In order to effectively communicate the new product formula technology to consumers, the company wanted significant space on the bottles devoted to product copy. But once the ingredient listing took its required legal spot on the bottle design, there was no room left to tell the unsual heat-sensitive product's story.

As the formula team and design groups negotiated, a suggestion to simplify the product formula emerged, to which the formula department replied with a resounding “no.” So the teams worked against a backdrop of multiple disciplines, time zones and various strategic positions to resolve the challenges, until finally the suggestion of a three-sided, custom-molded bottle was proposed.

The fresh color scheme is based on hair type. “Blue, orange and yellow containers—both warm and cool colors—provide a visual representation of the fact that the products work best with heat and then cool to a healthy shine,” points out Joni Rae Russell, president of Joni Rae and Associates.

Depending on the SKU, the containers are topped with spray foamers from Airspray Intl. (www.rexamairspray.com), pushbutton sprayers from MeadWestvacoCalmar (www.calmar.com) and Seaquist Perfect (www.seaqperf.com ) and overcaps from Berry Plastics (www.berryplastics.com) in a dazzling copper. A blue and a metallic copper icon label graphic are centered on the main label panel. Grayson O (704/932-6195) fills the containers and screen-decorates them in two and four colors and adds the metallic icon label graphic.

Special multi-panel labels from WS Packaging (www.wspackaging.com) are incorporated on the two-sided containers to accommodate the extra ingredients listing and explanatory product information.