Premium Beauty News - Cinqpats is presented as a creator of innovative packaging, in particular for cosmetics. What is innovation to you?
Jean-Louis Mathiez - Cinqpats’s DNA is feasibility, in every sense of the word. We don’t sell ideas or concepts. Our role consists in making ideas feasible. Innovating is about finding economically realistic technical means to overcome or get round difficulties…
Premium Beauty News - Where exactly do you take action?
Jean-Louis Mathiez - We need to work differently with each customer. Some of them only need help with design, while others ask us to manage whole projects, including by supervising production. Sometimes we also play a role in quality control with adapted specifications. Between these two extremes, there are endless intermediate situations. But we are always asked for solutions.
Our team is still composed of five people with a great experience in product design, material science, and industrialization. We also have freelance partners who provide their expertise in design, marketing, and project follow-up.
Independently of our customers’ requests, we also work on our own projects: once we have registered patents, we offer them to brands.
Premium Beauty News - Can you give examples of these various approaches?
Jean-Louis Mathiez - Cinqpats has worked with Ghawali, the perfume brand owned by the Dubai-based Chalhoub group, to develop caps based on a design by Centdegrés. In this case, we had to find technical solutions, design and develop moulds, and launch manufacturing.
More recently, we took part in an ambitious project for NextGen Beauty, German group Cosnova’s incubator: we were to launch a foundation customization kit for the brand La Manufacture with five base shades which customers can mix to get the perfect foundation for their complexions or the mattifying or lightening effect desired.
With Cosnova’s R&D team, we developed a complexion-measuring tool to be added to the box and used at home. This small device is fixed to a smartphone camera, so users can accurately measure their skin’s complexions among 50,000 shades, thanks to an application they download. It is made of 33 parts forming an optical system, a target with 24 reference shades, and a light diffuser.
Perfectly in line with the DIY trend, this product has the advantage of being easy-to-use. The pipette helps pour the right quantity of each shade in the mixture given by the application. A cup is provided for it. It is both easy and extremely safe, since all bases are tested, and it is affordable.
When it was launched in Germany in late 2020, it generated much enthusiasm among consumers. It should soon be marketed in France!
Premium Beauty News - Are there any other ongoing developments?
Jean-Louis Mathiez - Absolutely! We have patented a lipstick tube fully made of machined aluminium, which means we did not need a mould, and fully recyclable. It is a system with a sliding pushbutton switch inspired from vintage products, but modernized with an original braking system. The tubes are available in a standard 12.7 size or in a smaller, stackable size.
All parts are produced with a machine fitted with CNC (Computer-Numerized Control). In practice, you just need to send the manufacturer a file to receive prototypes a week later.
As for large-scale manufacturing, we have two options, depending on our customer-brand’s needs: either in Asia, where they have a great experience in part machining for computers and smartphones, or in Europe, for smaller series.
We have also developed a technical solution to make glass more accessible for foundations, with a flocked applicator (developed and industrialized). It is a purely European product: it is flocked in Germany, the plastic comes from France, and glass from Italy. We will soon be able to reveal more!
