This makes me think of how chip and snack companies will use a more matte bag to make their item seem healthier because the shinier bag makes us think of oil and grease
I appreciate that you don’t leave a stone unturned in these videos. We went from Kawaii products to sexy shampoo to psychology to environmental impact all in about 15 minutes. Good shit.
soap bars then: cut into bricks soap bars now: formed into an amorphous shape, imprinted with a logo, wrapped in wax paper coated with glossy plastic with foil embeds, printed with ink, bound with twine, sent to you in an amazon bubble-lined plastic mailer
😢 I know and it KILLS ME. I'm a soap maker for a career and when I see it shrink wrapped, I gag!!! I make a lot of other things that are minimally packaged, not packaged, and if they are, it's almost always 100% recyclable. It feels like such a small effort when I go to target and see thousands of plastic packaged crap
YES I prefer liquid soap because of ease of use, but I always either buy or make solid soaps and melt/dilute them into a liquid. Not only is it more ecofriendly but solid soap bricks are also way easier to store than awkward pump bottles.
@@janisir4529 I buy one really cute liquid soap bottle once in a while and refill it with the bulk liquid soap. This way I can change up the look of my soap more often than if I got a proper soap dispenser but it's way less expensive and slightly less bad for the environment than getting those pretty hard plastic bottles regularly.
The first thing that came into my mind is cookie tins...they even use paintings instead of product information because they know everyone will buy those to use them afterwards
@@anthropomorphicpeanut6160yeah i agree they are More like souvenirs at least for me if you go to Scotland it's basically against the law not to get a cute tin of famous Scottish shortbread bonus points if it has a stag or a highland cow on it
I have two cookie tins that my Taiwanese friend got me, and one that I got from a pokemon store in Japan, and I still use all three for general storage :P
The “take a picture” advice is SO GOOD. like I often see stuff I don’t actually want but I want to show off and taking a picture ALWAYS stops me buying it. And this also works for stuff without packaging that looks really beautiful/appetising. If you’d be happy with a photo, don’t bother buying it!
I think a good example of "packing" catching people is books. First you get a paperback. Then you get the hardcover. Then you love the art on the Penguin edition, then Barnes and Nobles does a gold edged version. And you end up with a whole shelf of copies of the same story, with different "packaging"
And then there's me always buying the cheapest one (with an emphasis on ONE) I can find. No matter if that's the Kindle version or a super beat up second hand physical copy. I get the aesthetics of a beautiful book shelf but I wonder how much disposable income some people have to splurge that much on books 💀💀
Tbh, I'm guilty of picking up books based on if their covers are pretty to look at, but I do care more about what the story is about ultimately. If the story sucks---no matter how pretty the cover is---I ain't reading it. But I do like good graphic design for books.
I'd say one of the oldest and most commonly used aesthetic packaging is perfume bottles. Imagine if all those expensive liquids all came in plain boring bottles. The sales would fall through the floor. Also, fancy packaging for sweets and tea has been around for over a century. Fortnum and Mason's, the fancy London shop selling tea, coffee, sweets and ceramics nailed it decades ago. Their metal tea boxes are so pretty that I keep them after the tea's used up and refill it with other tea (I buy their tea and flower mixes 1-2 times a yeat when i go to London for work). And so do millions of other people around the world, probably! To give them credit, those boxes are really practical as well as pretty :)
I’m a packaging engineer. I like SPC (sustainable packaging coalition) as a resource on sustainable packaging. Lots of major companies share their packaging goals through SPC.
this is so interesting! thanks for sharing - I'm going to look into this - it would be interesting if the public would be able to see who a member of SPC is!
I honestly love your videos because they are so calm! No hate just calm information for the viewer. And I always feel like you have something to add to the topic and aren't just reciting what has been said many times before.
This was a common practice in America during the Great Depression. Families were repurposing cotton flour sacks for clothing (why let good fabric go to waste?) and once the flour companies caught wind, they began printing the sacks with pretty patterns. I'd love if this sort of second-life thinking was baked into our modern products, but sadly this is a world of deliberate obsoletion
I'm a sucker for minimalist packaging: single-color cardboard boxes, esp. in pastel palette, with nothing but a name on them in small simplistic font, or transparent glass bottles. Just gets me every time.
@@NTSTAT, definitely. The irony of it is, when we're talking about falling for an aesthetic, what immediately comes to mind is some excessive, exuberant, gaudy, unnecessary embellishments (as in "mermaid-tail mascara" or a box of blush looking like a piece of jewelery). Yet in my case it's the radical lack of all embellishments that gets me to buy the thing. Seems like my craving for the reduction of marketing devices motivates me to buy something I don't really need (which IS a brilliant marketing strategy, apparently). That was the ironic inner contradiction that I was trying to convey.
@@steffyxx huh? Never stated there was. I was just pointing out that over consumption happens due to fancy packaging. Julia said she likes simple packaging and i stated, it can be the same trap and over consumption in that way. They agreed. I never said anything was wrong with liking anything but then, what would be the point of this channel.
Almost fallen for it more than once. I say fallen because I know I already have products I could finish and far cheaper alternatives. The mind gaming is just insane lol.
i'm a victim of the kawaii, can't help myself when my inner child is screaming for me to get it all 😭 no but fr i think aesthetic packaging is cool if you can repurpose it! for example i use the wrappers of the sanrio inspired candy as material for my bullet journal. i also have a huge collage of cute cardboard package designs up on my wall as decor! when you know you REALLY like a certain style or aesthetic, buying products within that aesthetic can give you many creative outlets to repurpose stuff you wouldn't necessarily even think about using afterwards.
Yup I'm a total victim of kawaii and especially pink packaging. The other day I bought some tropical cleaning wipes even though I don't like it and prefer the lemon smell, just because tropical had a pink package with a beautiful frangipani on it 😂 I also love to cut out cute pink labels and stick them in my journal.
Same! But I try to keep the buying to a minimum but still end up buying a little more then necessary (just a little, really) and I always feel bad throwing away all the cute packaging… especially on the blind boxes! So I try to repurpose as much as possible :3
I love buying things with cute packaging but I always find away to reuse it: wrappers get stuck in sketchbooks, labels go on walls to fill gaps between posters, cups and cans hold art supplies, tins and boxes can hold anything that looks out of place in my room and so on. Makes me feel less guilty for buying something just cuz it has cuter packaging
I would love to see a video about how much we spend with a debit/credit card vs cash. I’ve recently gone back to cash only and I’m saving so much money. I consider myself thrifty but noticed with a debt/credit card I spend more on small items that add up. There are many studies about the psychological effect of cash vs plastic but I feel like the bank and government knows we spend more with plastic and why they are pushing it on us - to find more and more ways to make Wall Street investors happy at the expense of average people.
i'm the opposite. i only pay attention to my bank accounts, so once i take money out as cash, it's as if it has already been spent, so i'm not careful with it. whereas i get notifications for every credit card purchase and am less likely to spend.
this is so true for me! my mom recently convinced me to get my payments in cash because when i have it on my card i spent a little on this, a little on that & then i see i have 5$ left!
I have grown to find aesthetic packaging as a turn off. When I see it I tend to first think about how wasteful all the extra plastic is to make fancy caps, bottles, tubes, ect. My second thought is about the quality of the product. I noticed a trend between aesthetic skin care packaging and product quality. High quality dermatologist recommended skin care is usually in plain packaging while more trendy or gimmicky skincare is in bright, flashy packaging. Not to say that all fancy packaged skincare is bad, but there is definitely a noticeable trend.
I stopped using my favorite skincare line specifically because their packaging used so much extra and unnecessary plastic. Found new skincare that is packaged in glass, which never has to work hard to look good and yay for less plastic consumption.
also the more fancy the container, the bigger portion of the price is just for the packaging, when products that are almost the exact same ingredient wise cost much less bc they are in plain containers, if it's not pretty or reusable enough that I'm not gonna keep the container, it's jsut a waste of money in addition to all the environmental harm producing all that extra stuff does
yeah, like i got an acne facial a few months ago and the lady who did it gave me skincare for acne prone skin. the packaging is plain and white, but it works. ive never rlly bought any trendy or fancy skincare bc of my acne so i xant speak on their quality but i can vouch for the connection between plain packaging and quality
I imagine the sneaker industry isn't your main focus here, but collab culture in sneakers does borrow a lot from this, primarily with different/unique flairs to everything from the paper kicks are wrapped in to the lace options that are packaged with them.
I am a packaging engineer. I design trash for a living I could write a whole theses on all the shenanigans we have to consider when designing packaging. From style, to branding, structure, regulations, security, liability and protection there is alot. And you are correct its kinda a newer trend. It came with the rise of big box stores where the packaging assumed much of the role formerly done by the sales clerk in a general store
11:57 Dassault systemes is a software company. You may have heard of their most well know CAD software SolidWorks which is used to design products and packaging. Tho they were advertising their network platform there.
Couldn’t agree more. I tell people that I major in packaging and they get so confused lol. Most people don’t give packaging much of a thought. There’s someone behind the scenes designing and making sure it survives transit, can be manufactured etc.
Packaging is part of the shopping experience. It has been for centuries. The problem with packaging now is that it's only sensory, and not looked at as something that can be used in an alternative manor. A lot of companies don't like their packaging used to store sewing supplies, or holding socks in the sock bin, so they make it in a way that its use is single. But allure is still part of the selling process. Not an Apple Stan, but they have changed their packaging greatly, getting rid of plastic twist ties for paper holders on their cords, and making most of their packaging recyclable. It can be aesthetic and still be environmentally aware. I feel the problem is when the complete life cycle of the packaging isn't considered by the company.
I work in flexible packaging, most plastic packaging is high barrier does not compost or can be recycled. The industry overall is decades away. There was a Lays Chip bag a few years back that was compostable but it made a lot of noise and customer s complained about the noise the plastic made and it was discontinued. Humans suck.
This year's challenges will undoubtedly be more difficult. Looking back, I realized that I was so focused with my portfolio that I made disastrous financial decisions for the entire preceding year. I had to pick between increasing my investments and purchasing a house. After choosing to sell my investments, I discovered that the property I had purchased required more maintenance than I had anticipated. Trying to find out how much longer I can take this is becoming increasingly difficult.
Invest in companies that provide current cash flows to diversify your portfolio. I hired a planner at the end of 2022 to enhance my portfolio, and in the last ten months, I've made profits in over fifty thousand different marketplaces. Should 2023 teach us anything, it's that luck doesn't last forever. Even in times of abundance, we should put in more effort to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
How can one find a verifiable financial planner? I would not mind looking up the professional that helped you. I will be retiring in two years and I might need some management on my much larger portfolio. Don't want to take any chances.
Makeup items - especially eyeshadow palettes- do this for me. Some of my palettes had the coolest outer packaging I’d ever seen and I felt bad throwing it out even though I had no reason to keep it.
Speaking of mascara I'm older than the majority of your audience, and I can tell you that some of those mascara brands actually broke off my lashes. They were short forever. I got an expensive brand ( I'm not going to name them, I'm not here for that). But it made a difference. My lashes are long, and I couldn't believe it.
I'm graphic design freelancer and I'm absolutely freaking love desings that make my brain tickles! I love colours, creative characters/ sentences or little surprises when it comes to buying something 😅
I have a masters in Art History and things have always been pretty or kawaii but I think why we have and want so much stuff now comes down to two things: Supply and demand: we can have a lot more products for less money - in a way that has never happened before + demand might me higher thanks to high level marketing Plus this level of consumerism is open to everyone - I can name many examples of the past but I think we get it :)
In Australia we’ve used to this our advantage by forcing all cigarette packets to have “plain packaging.” A deliberately unappealing olive colour is used, along with health warnings and a grisly photo, like a diseased lung or something. Of course the tobacco companies were PISSED because we’ve taken away their ability to make their products attractive to customers.
on the consumer side, gittemary johansen has a great series about the comparative sustainability and environmental impact of different product packaging! for example, i learned that glass packaging is more sustainable than plastic only if you reuse the glass -- if it's a single use item, plastic is actually better when you look across all elements of sustainability (extraction, manufacturing, transportation...) instead of just what bin you put it in after
Just because packaging is aesthetic doesn’t mean it has to be environmentally bad! Example: the cutesy pencil erasers work just as well as boring rectangular erasers but they’re so much more fun! I doubt having a bunch of molds and colours in the eraser mixture is having any meaningful impact.
The graphic designer in my loves cute packaging but the eco friendly part of me hates it. I did a whole thesis on buying stuff based off packing vs. product.
Cara, your videos are A MUST. Most of the stuff you say i've thought about it at one point and i consider myself pretty responsible with my own money but i can always use an extra reminder hahaha
You are completely right. The trick I do is (in the case of skin care and hair wash ) I just get a regualr wash with basic packaging, and then put it in a pretty reusable bottle so I can still enjoy having aesthetic stuff without wasting money or compromising quality 👍
I have been watching your channel from the very early videos & it has helped me so much. I am better and not over spending & generally mentally also doing so much better with all the tips you give ❤
Here in Europe there is a chain of stores called "Mini-So" were they only sell stuff which is kawaii or kawaii packaging , specially with Sanrio characters. They are always crammed with people buying useless objects. To me it gives me anxiety and yet there are some that spend hours in there and collect all the little things.
There's one in the Mall I work at and it's always so busy! I like to pop in to check out the snacks ( it's fun trying new Japanese snacks lol) and it's so hard to not grab a little trinket as well because it's all so dang cute.
Pretty sells Sex sells They go with the primal urges You picked that flower, why? It was pretty You want to have eye pleasing things around you. Basic human nature
This is so interesting to me. I tend to ignore ALL this, actively, I go out of my way to. I might get aesthetic packaging if is practical. But I have tried enough stuff in life that no shiny package will make me ignore the price tag.
Yep! I have seen cosmetic face highlighters sell for $55-$75 for less than 1-oz of product! It's that posh style black laquer and gold trim packaging coupled with the idea of higher price=high quality makes people happy to spend their money
Packaging can really change your relationship to a product. Like I was always nervous to use super glue until I found some that came in a better package. I have a shelf of Apple boxes that just seem too nice to recycle, and that experience of quality and occasion really does make a big difference, but of course, comes with costs
Ahaha you got me imagining how it would look like. It could actually be kinda cool to just open up those paper bags and boxes and use them as wall paper, waste paper bins, flower pots, etc. Would look crazy but also like a fun take on our consumerism.
I was a visual merchandiser for many different companies over the course of a decade, and it was very interesting to see the marketing, visual, and display of products go from sleek, simple, and effective with an emphasis on craftsmanship and quality- to big, excessive, bright, in your face, and emphasizing value- to very symmetrical and cute with strategic color schemes. Even remodeled stores have this “industrial farmhouse” aesthetic now.
sometimes if the packaging is cute and i know i will have a long-term use for it (e.g. a gift cookie tin that i will then use to store sewing or craft supplies) i will buy it, but if it's truly single use like most cosmetics or even shampoo bottles as you mentioned, then i won't let the packaging be the deciding factor bc it will eventually go in the trash!
Not sure how this relates but I was reminded of the types of perfume I like. I love cooler toned shades, like blues and purples, but I feel like most of the scents I actually like tend to come in pink or warmer toned colored packaging. But I will admit seeing something in my favorite colors makes it automatically more appealing to me.
I’m a minimalist, so I’m naturally drawn to neutral/ black and white tones of packaging with small letters and no images (eg Jo Malone hand wash and cream) I always display designer shampoo, body wash etc in my bathroom, and keep the other products I use in the cupboard. I take them out every time I take a shower 😭
At least on the skincare front, the ULTIMATE aesthetic packaging avoidance hack is super sensitive skin. My product decisions are entirely centered on what doesn't give me an itchy, long-lasting rash. A surprising number come from a Canadian company (Indeed) with super plain packaging, zero advertisements, and a deep focus on quality product INSIDE, not garbage on the outside.
I’m such a sucker for the cute packaging of makeup but that’s why I window shop and just watch unboxing videos. I get to “enjoy” the product without actually buying it because I never wear makeup that often anyway.
Ooh that reminds me of the little perfume bottles people throughout the 1700-1800’s would have. They’re so pretty and ornate for what is essentially a little bottle of perfume.
This happens all the time for me. I have kept so many pretty Japanese packages for decoration 😂 When I went to Japan, I had a hard time because every time you bought anything, the workers would wrap them so nicely in such pretty packaging that I didn’t want to open and ruin it.
I needed a new lip balm and definitely went for the pompompurin one just because it was pompompurin. I was like, I know it's scented which I don't care for and it's a little pot instead of a stick like I like, but it's pompompurin so I'm gonna get it anyway. His face is literally rubbed off now. it does smell nice, but like, that was definitely just me wanting something cute.
I went to Japan back in March. Yes, packaging makes the difference. If you go to Akihabara, it's aesthetic product packaging galore. If you take a look at some phone cases, especially the screen protector, it's so over the top with the fancy packaging.
Ugh. Why did “aesthetic” become a synonym for nice? Something isn’t aesthetic. It needs a modifier. Like you said, a Kawaii aesthetic. A room can’t just be aesthetic. Im screaming into the ether. I just wish it wasn’t a trend. At least it’s not destroying the planet.
@leslievanhouten studying art history too! it's killing me lol but nowadays on the internet it's become slang for "aethetically pleasing", and not the actual aesthetic word we're familiar with
My eldest daughter is studying in China at the moment and she’s bought so many ‘beautifully’ wrapped things. They’re lovely but she definitely has been drawn in by the packaging more than the actual items.
I know I'm susceptible to this, like if I'm choosing between products its so tempting to just buy the one that looks cuter. I have to make a conscious effort to evaluate the products based on merit instead
I once bought a fruity body lotion bc the bottle was big, cheap and light pink so it was a no-brainer but it ended up smelling weird... at least i'm still using the bottle as a flower vase
Great video! Cute art supplies get me every time! I have a few watercolor palettes i bought just for the tin! This is the intervention i need! I will also look at the art on packaging (like the pretty celestial seasonings tea boxes) and try and use them to make cards, books or collages with. As a crafter and painter a lot of packaging can be repurposed but also means keeping a lot of junk on hand waiting for the perfect project. What to do?
I don't take plastic bag but bring my own grocery bag all the time when I go grocery shopping. As a Japanese guy I feel shamed when my foreign co-worker told me "All product wrapped by plastic in Japan , that's too much". Yes ,it's cute and cool design but I can't proud of it.
Whenever I feel myself drawn to a product in pretty packaging, I try to take a step back and think about if I need or would use it and if I can reuse the packaging. Most of the time the answers are No. Sometimes stuff still gets me though, but taking a step back and really thinking about it has helped. This can be applied to everything you can buy.
I have been interested in product packaging for about 15 years now. As much as I like "aesthetic" packaging, I prefer something to be sustainable. For a long time, I would only purchase things that I knew were easier to recycle. And even then, is packaging recycling a myth? I go out of my way to find private recycling programs and even then, I am still skeptical. If a company makes recyclable packaging, I am more incentivized to buy at this point than not. I'm so over "aesthetic" packaging that is literally just pretty garbage. I'd rather have something refillable or recyclable.
Hi, I’m into Lush products because of the quality and appeal of their products but also because of the sustainability politics they have. Even so, they are a company so they can’t be angels, could you look more into it? Thanks
I like packaging that either compliments the item and has a cool color scheme or style or it's straightforward and sticks to what the item is. I just like some color and good fonts I guess. Cutesy packaging is fine as long it's not overdone.
As someone who consistently buysmashed in boxes of cereal and dented cans at deeply discounted, prices I could give a rat's ass about the packaging.I care about saving money
One aesthetic package I know is Moschino Bears (a bear-shaped perfume bottle) I have one because I love bubble gum aroma but it's obvious how it's made to attract attention.
Just a little note, the pronunciation for kawaii is with an "ka" sound and a pronounced "ii" at the end like the Michael Jackson famous heehee, ka-wa-ii. The way you pronounce it, ko-wa-i, means scary in Japanese.
My two favorite types of priducts are the ones with barely any packaging or the kind that are really expensive with pretty and sturdy packaging that I will be putting the first one into after I buy 1 of the expensive ones.
Second comment : Taking a picture is very true. if I were rich I would buy products , take pics and return them or resell them. I don't like many stuff and I like doing more with less ( I dislike minimalism tho , don't want to associate with that at all ). So what I say is pictures really matter sometimes to me , the reason I buy is to just take pics and show in social media and I don't even care about it because I'd be deleting those pics or that the stories don't even get much views. It's really odd stuff. I learn this more from youtube . I see lots of tech videos so I tend to like doing same stuff. I also have lots of pictures from unsplash and pexels of Computer/home decor and somehow imitate them for short time dopamine and get depressed soon after lol. Typing this comment after buying something only for it's cool packaging feels criminal.
Looking at cute aesthetically pleasing things make me happy so I always have an urge to buy to cute things like dolls or decorations that could be useless and wasteful. Buying useful products with cute packaging like skincare products or stationaries can actually stop my urge to buy other useless things to reduce waste in a sense🙈🙈
I buy several items specifically to be plastic free that come in plastic free packaging, like my Tree Naturals shampoo and conditioner bar, or the Native plastic free deodorant. I try to find alternatives that may not be 100% plastic free, like my Chagrin Valley Bug Off bug spray that is DEET free yet more effective imo (comes in an aluminum spray bottle). I also use the Grove Co concentrated foam soap liquid, that comes in aluminum bottles, to refill the glass soap dispenser that came with it. Albeit the glass down dispensers that come with most of those products are very low quality, so I've replaced some with the OXO stainless steel foam dispenser. Going back to packaging, the most SURPRISING packaging that was eco friendly was my PlayStation 5's packaging that was almost entirely plastic free. I got it at launch so I'm not sure if they still do that.
