Labels on a very small curve

A lip balm label is a small rectangle wrapped round a narrow cylinder that lives in a warm pocket. Every one of those is working against you.

The tightest label in the estate

A standard twist tube gives roughly a 55 by 55 millimeter wrap, and much of that is on a curve tight enough that the label wants to lift at both ends.

Which is why the trailing edge is the thing that fails. An overlap of a few millimeters, so the label sticks to itself rather than only to the tube, is a effective fix.

Adhesive and surface

Polypropylene is a low-energy surface and not everything adheres to it. Ask the label supplier for a stock rated for PP, not a general-purpose paper.

The tube must be clean and dry. Any balm on the outside and the label will lift over it within days.

And it is going into a pocket at body temperature, in contact with skin oil. Test by wearing one for a week rather than by pressing one onto a tube on a bench.

Getting it straight

By hand, on a round tube, without a jig, fifty labels will be fifty angles. A simple hand applicator or a roller jig costs little and pays for itself in appearance.

Set the label position against the bottom of the tube rather than the top, because the bottom is the part that rotates and the customer sees.

What has to fit

On the cosmetic side: an identity, a net quantity, the ingredient list under INCI, and your name and address.

On the drug side, all of that plus a Drug Facts panel, which is the whole reason the 60 percent small-package provision exists, and the reason a second panel, an extended-content label or a small carton is worth pricing before you commit to a tube.

References