Product boxes for classy cosmetic packaging: Loella

Brushes are often overlooked, living in the shadows of the constant creation of new makeup and beauty products.

This was when Nadine Oei - founder - decided to fill a much-needed market gap and created Loella Cosmetics, the saviours of makeup brushes for beauty lovers.

Read the story of Loella Cosmetics, changing the world of brushes in the beauty world.

Tell us a little about what inspired you? How did it all start?

Being a beauty lover, I noticed how when it came to brushes, the market was primarily dominated by household beauty brands.

Nearly all of the high-quality brushes available shared a common design (mostly black) and are priced at a premium.

On the other hand, affordable brushes out there do not have the best quality.

This is when I realised I wanted to create makeup brushes for other beauty lovers that were good looking, had an appealing price, and delivered fantastic results.

Let’s talk a little bit about the brand. Why Loella?

Loella stands for “famous warrior”, and the brand itself is all about empowering people through beauty and in life.

We try to keep this as the inspiration for all of our branding decisions.

We choose to use strong colours to keep this image of a “famous warrior” all around.

So would you say that you want Loella to have some kind of positive impact in the community?

Absolutely! The beauty of beauty is that it’s a medium through which people can express themselves and feel empowered.

You can get as creative as you would like. This is why we partnered up with the #iamtheCODE foundation, where we donate 10p of every brush we sell.

This foundation helps girls all over the world to learn how to code, and we want to be a part of the future of the next generation. This way, we do our modest part to change the world, one brush at a time!

Let’s talk more about your products. What does Loella offer so far?

Well, all of Loella’s brushes have been designed for ease and versatility. We want Loella brushes to stand out from the crowd.

Our brushes are also vegan and cruelty-free!

So far, we have three collections available. We have the Girl on Fire, Wild as the Ocean, and our newest Femme Fatale collection.

Each one of the collections has its own colour motif that’s congruent with the theme. Our signature Girl of Fire and Wild as the Ocean brush collections can be purchased as a set containing 10 brushes.

We also understand how customers have different brush needs, these collections can also be purchased in half sets.

We offer Flawless Base Sets, which are perfect for those that looking for face brushes for foundation, bronzer, contouring, etc. The Cut Crease Eye Sets include all the necessary brushes to create that perfect eyeshadow look.

You can also purchase brushes individually, but also this is only possible with the Girl on Fire and Wild as the Ocean collections.

Can you also tell me a little more about your new launch and collection?

Our most recent launch was the Femme Fatale collection, which was a collaboration with Sarah Exley.

Sarah is the head of makeup at The X-Factor and Love Island, and she helped us design each brush to create the ideal backstage brush set.

The brushes have been created for detailed and precise makeup application and facilitate techniques such as nose contouring, tightlining and precise highlighting.

Now let’s talk about packaging! How did you approach this?

As you may know, in the beauty industry, packaging is just as important as your product, so we were sure we wanted to create something just as jaw-dropping.

In addition, since we are predominantly an online business, we needed packaging that was relatively flat and the right size to hold an entire brush set.

In the beauty world, a lot of packaging includes plastic for windows or transparent boxes.

We knew from the beginning that we would want to avoid plastic in packaging as much as possible and just go for a closed box on which the brushes can just be displayed.

What packaging did you decide to use?

We were looking around for a long time before finding Packhelp. We decided to use the Classic Product Boxes in three different boxes. They were the perfect choice for what we were looking for in packaging.

What convinced you to create your packaging with Packhelp?

The main reason why we decided to work with Packhelp is that it is so easy to develop your own design online with the design tool they have.

When you're a startup, you don't always have a graphic designer on board or someone with experience in packaging design.

This tool really allowed us to very quickly and easily design our own packaging and also show us visually what the end result would look like. The low minimum quantities and the ability to easily reorder were also a plus.

And how about the packaging design? I see that each collection has its own design. Can you tell us about that?

Packaging design was hugely important to us. For the design, wanted to reflect the colourful nature of our brushes and we chose brush strokes for the background to represent the product.

Each collection has it’s own theme and meaning behind it, so we thought it was best for each of their personalities to be reflected in the packaging.

That’s why one packaging for each collection was the best thing to do.

The low prices and order quantities also made this easy for us to do, it gave us room to be even more creative and show our brand exactly how we wanted.

How do you see the future of Loella Cosmetics?

We are really happy about our last collection. Hopefully, in the future, we continue to grow and release more collections.

We are also looking forward to growing together with Packhelp and start dipping in some of the other brilliant packaging solutions they offer!

Lessons Learned:

Better beauty begins with better brushes, and Loella Cosmetics is setting the trend.

From a small idea, she created a product line that provides an affordable and high-quality solution in a market dominated by big brands.

With Loella Cosmetics, professional makeup brushes are no longer a luxury to be passed over by beauty lovers.

Nadine’s efforts into creating her own beauty brushes have transferred to create the success of Loella Cosmetics:

• • • Develop a brand that has a meaning and provides a solution that you believe in
    • Ensure that your branding remains consistent across your products, packaging, and design
    • Let creativity have an influence on your brand and business decisions; it’s okay to be different