Three Main Types Each with Pros and Cons

Recently, as consumers pay increasing attention to skincare product packaging, eye cream packaging materials— a key factor directly affecting product quality and user experience—have seen their material characteristics and selection logic draw significant attention from the industry. Currently, the mainstream eye cream tube materials on the market are mainly divided into three categories: aluminum-plastic composite tubes, all-plastic composite tubes, and pure aluminum tubes. Each type of material exhibits differentiated advantages in terms of barrier performance, environmental attributes, and cost control, providing diverse options for brands with different positioning.

Aluminum-plastic composite tubes, leveraging the structural advantage of "metal + plastic," have become one of the mainstream choices for eye cream packaging. These tubes use aluminum foil as the inner layer and plastic as the outer layer, which can effectively block oxygen, light, and moisture, greatly reducing the risk of oxidation and deterioration of active ingredients in eye cream. Data shows that under the same storage conditions, the retention rate of active ingredients in eye creams packaged in aluminum-plastic composite tubes is approximately 20% higher than that in ordinary plastic tubes, significantly extending the product's shelf life. At the same time, aluminum-plastic composite tubes have a built-in premium texture, which is highly consistent with the positioning of mid-to-high-end eye cream brands. However, they also have drawbacks such as poor environmental friendliness and high recycling difficulty; moreover, excessive squeezing may cause delamination, affecting the user experience.

All-plastic composite tubes are characterized by their "all-plastic structure" and are subdivided into non-barrier and barrier types. Among them, non-barrier all-plastic composite tubes are relatively low in cost and suitable for low-end eye cream products that have low requirements for barrier performance. Barrier all-plastic composite tubes, by adding barrier materials such as EVOH (ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer) to the multi-layer plastic structure, enhance their protective capabilities and can meet the needs of mid-to-high-end eye creams. The outstanding advantages of this type of tube lie in its environmental friendliness and recyclability, as well as its wide range of color options, which can match the packaging design needs of different brands. Additionally, it has excellent resilience and can quickly regain its shape after being squeezed, maintaining a neat appearance. Nevertheless, barrier all-plastic composite tubes are relatively high in cost; to achieve barrier performance equivalent to that of aluminum-plastic composite tubes, the cost needs to increase by 20% to 30%.

Pure aluminum tubes stand out with their "one-piece" all-aluminum structure, boasting extremely strong stability. They do not alter the internal properties of eye cream and eliminate the risk of leakage at the joints where different materials are bonded. Pure aluminum tubes with an internal coating can avoid reacting with the product, and when combined with a tail sealant design, their sealing performance is further enhanced, providing more comprehensive protection for eye cream. From an environmental perspective, pure aluminum tubes can be recycled and remelted; the energy consumption for producing recycled aluminum ingots from waste aluminum is only 5% of that for producing primary aluminum ingots, fully aligning with the current trend of environmental protection. Furthermore, they have a wide range of application scenarios—apart from eye cream packaging, they can also be used for packaging cosmetics, glues, and ointments. However, pure aluminum tubes are relatively soft and prone to deformation when squeezed, and their production requires high technical standards, resulting in relatively high costs.

Industry insiders stated that when choosing packaging materials, eye cream brands need to comprehensively consider product positioning, ingredient characteristics, environmental needs, and cost budgets. The three mainstream materials each have their own focuses. In the future, with the upgrading of environmental protection technologies, packaging materials that combine high performance and high environmental friendliness are expected to become the development direction of the industry.