Beauty industry manufacturer Arcade Beauty and The Estée Lauder Companies are collaborating to address sustainable sampling with the launch of the 80% Paper Packette, an innovation that signals real movement in an industry under increasing pressure to cut plastic waste.
For Arcade Beauty, the packette represents both a technological and strategic milestone. Designed to minimize plastic usage and enhance bio-based technologies, Ciara Donohue, Global CSR and Sustainability Manager, told CosmeticsDesign, the packette is more than an incremental change in packaging.
According to Donohue, the new format slashes the environmental footprint: it uses 63% less fossil fuels, cuts global warming potential by 69%, and reduces water use by 61%, compared to its foil predecessor.
R&D process and overcoming challenges
Developing a sample pack that could meet the rigors of the beauty market while being recycle-ready wasn’t simple. She explained that balancing product protection with increased paper content required “assessing a multitude of materials” and overcoming technical hurdles, such as modifying filling and sealing equipment.
“The other challenge was to adapt our printing, filling and packaging processes to this new paper-based material, requiring technical modifications on our equipment,” she said.
Collaboration with Estée Lauder
The project gained momentum through a collaboration with Estée Lauder. “While we had been investigating paper technologies since 2020, this paper packette project with Estée Lauder significantly accelerated the paper technology development,” Donohue noted. Origins, an Estée Lauder brand known for its eco-conscious stance, became the first to launch using the new format.
Tamar Teller, Global Executive Director of Visual Merchandising, Packaging, and Store Design at Estée Lauder, called the partnership a natural fit. “We leverage sustainable materials where possible and are excited to be the first skin care brand to launch with Arcade the 80% Paper Recyclable Packette,” she told CosmeticsDesign.
We also spoke to an Origins spokesperson, who highlighted the internal collaboration that brought the solution to market, involving packaging design, engineering, and material science teams. “This new Arcade packette reduces plastic with an innovative 80% paper material that meets critical recyclability requirements,” they said.
For brands considering similar moves, the Origins spokesperson advised focusing on circularity and working closely with suppliers. “The key is to remain committed to progress, testing new solutions, and collaborating with industry partners to drive meaningful change,” they added.
Future outlook
Arcade Beauty, for its part, sees the 80% Paper Packette as one step on a longer sustainability journey. With 94% of its product range now available in recyclable formats, the company is pushing toward full portfolio conversion by 2025. “We will continue our paper roadmap journey that began in 2020,” Donohue said, with plans to extend paper-based materials to more product categories.
As the beauty industry faces mounting scrutiny over packaging waste, collaborations like this one suggest that scalable, performance-driven solutions are finally starting to take shape. And as suppliers refine these technologies and brands like Estée Lauder test them in-market, the momentum is expected to open doors for wider adoption, not just in sampling, but across primary packaging formats where the stakes, and the sustainability gains, could be even greater.