Making Labels for your Natural & Organic Skin Care
As you might imagine, we see an awful lot of labels every year and some work better than others– at least in our opinion. Many, many more are beautiful and creative and invite consumers to pick up the bottle or jar and put it on their counter, in their shower, or in their travel bags.
Your label has a big job to do to help sell your products. When thinking about your labels, it’s important to remember all the reasons your label is on your product. Your label has to disclose the ingredients and any safety warnings, it has to tell people how to reach you and it has to sell your brand overall, and that product specifically. Your labels should fit with your overall brand elements– color, typeface, voice, logo and key messaging points.
Label Designers. Can’t Get Enough of Them
Designing a comprehensive, legally correct label that also lets your brand stand out takes some design skills and experience to know how much of the container to cover and exactly what to say. If you already have your logo, you’ve taken the first big step. If not, your designer can often handle everything from logo to letterhead. Your designer will help you select the colors and typeface, and from there, they can begin to design your labels. Though contracting with a designer may seem expensive at first, remember the label has to jump off the shelf, sell your brand and still look good after the 103rd pump or the 45th squeeze.
Working with a designer, you will discover different ways to express your brand and visually tell your story. To get started, write down the key points your label has to get across. If the Avocado Oil is an important brand element, then you’ll want to make sure your label showcases Avocado. Then, the next time you’re in the skin care aisle, spend some time evaluating the packaging. What do you like? What resonate with you? Which tell you a story about the product and draw you in? Which jump off the shelf? Which confuse you? Giving your designer examples of what you like and why can jumpstart your design process and shorten the time needed. It can also help you narrow your choices on packaging, which can seem overwhelming sometimes.
Design considerations include:
- Size of the label in proportion to the container
- How much information you need to convey
- Logo size
- Using more than one label– top, bottom, front, back
- The environment where the product will be used – silk-screening can be a better choice for products destined for wet and sandy beach bags, for example.
The Essential Label Guidelines are available here.
Additional Resources
- Sticker Giant (small minimums and fast turn around)
- Frontier Label
- Leapin’ Lizard Label
- Lightening Labels Blog
- Advanced Labels Northwest
- SK Labels
- FDA – Labeling Cosmetics
