From Clear Bottle to Branded Bottle
The first thing seen on the shelf is not the scent but the bottle. What turns a standard glass bottle into your brand's bottle is decoration: colour, surface and print.
Having a custom mould made requires high quantities and investment. Decoration is the way to personalise a stock bottle from the catalogue; you can start with far lower quantities. There are four basic techniques, and they are often used together: spray coating, metallization, screen printing and hot stamping.
Four Techniques, Four Characters
Each technique gives a different effect and brings a different constraint.
Spray coating (lacquering). Paint sprayed on the outside of the bottle is cured in an oven. It gives opaque, translucent or gradient colour, in matt or gloss. It is the most common and most flexible technique. On esans.com.tr's glass perfume bottles, custom colour coating is available from a minimum of 1000 pieces.
Metallization. A very thin metal layer is deposited on the surface under vacuum, giving a mirror-like gold, silver or coloured metallic look. A protective lacquer is applied over it. It is striking, but can be more sensitive to scratching and alcohol than spray coating.
Screen printing. The logo and text are printed directly onto the glass through a screen and fired. Unlike a label it does not peel and has no edge. Each colour means a separate pass; as the number of colours rises, so do cost and registration risk.
Hot stamping (foil). Metallic foil is transferred to the surface with heat and pressure. It is used for a shiny gold or silver logo and is usually applied together with screen printing.
| Technique | Effect | Strength | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spray coating | Solid, matt, gloss or gradient colour | Wide colour choice, relatively low minimum | Alcohol resistance varies with the paint |
| Metallization | Mirror-bright metallic surface | Luxury perception | Scratching, wear around the neck |
| Screen printing | Logo and text directly on glass | Permanent, clean label-free look | Each colour costs extra; limited on curved surfaces |
| Hot stamping | Shiny foil logo | High impact in a small area | Fine detail filling in, wear from rubbing |
In addition there are methods such as frosting (matt glass by acid etching or sandblasting), labels and shrink sleeves. A label is the solution that works with the lowest quantity and is easiest to change; most brands start their first run with a label.
Which One Should You Choose?
Four questions determine the choice: how many pieces you will produce, how often the design will change, whether the inside of the bottle should be visible, and what your budget is.
If your first run is a few hundred pieces and you are still testing the design, a clear bottle and a good label is the most sensible route. There is no stock risk, and changing the design is as easy as printing a new label. At a thousand pieces and above, spray coating and screen printing come into play; the unit cost falls and the product looks noticeably more "finished".
If the colour of the contents is part of the design (an amber perfume, a pink body mist), choose a clear or translucent coating. If the formula tends to change colour over time (scents containing vanillin darken), an opaque coating hides that change; this is a little-known benefit of decoration.
From Order to Delivery: Process and Tests
A decoration order takes longer than a stock bottle order and involves more approval steps.
- Fix the bottle and the technical drawing
The print area is determined by the flat surface of the bottle. Take the printable area from the technical drawing.
- Prepare the design as vector artwork
Logo and text are supplied as vector files, colours as Pantone codes. The colour on a screen is not a reference.
- Ask for a sample
Do not approve before you have held the coated and printed sample ahead of series production. Assess the colour separately in daylight and under shop lighting.
- Run an alcohol and rub test
Wipe the sample with a cloth moistened with your own perfume and see that the paint and print do not come off. Look particularly around the neck: that is where liquid most often lands during filling and use.
- Keep it filled for a while
Fill the sample with your own product, fit the valve and leave it for a few weeks. Check for paint blistering under the valve or stains from leakage.
- Add a scrap allowance to the order
Some loss is normal in decoration processes. Send or order slightly more bottles than you need.
Minimum quantity, lead time and price vary with the technique, the number of colours and the bottle size; get a current quotation for each job. Calculate the lead time backwards from your launch date: sample, approval, production and shipping together take weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common questions about decoration.
What is the minimum quantity for coating a perfume bottle?
Screen printing or a label?
Does a coated bottle withstand alcohol?
Why does a metallized bottle scratch?
What is the difference between hot stamping and screen printing?
Can the inside of the bottle be coated?
Does decoration affect recycling?
Why is the colour sample not the same as what I saw on screen?
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