This year, the German Packaging Award is being presented to 36 outstanding solutions across ten categories – including several cosmetics and personal care products. The beauty company Kao Germany alone won in both the Design and Functionality and Convenience categories. The packaging for ‘John Frieda Refresh’ has also been recognised for its good design. It combines the brand’s iconic DNA with a clean design language, creates brand recognition across product lines and uses recycled materials. Bioré’s children’s sun cream, ‘Kids UV Stamp’, has also been recognised: the dispenser bottle, featuring an intelligent nozzle design, creates a paw print on the skin, making the correct amount of sun cream visible and requiring no additional pump or dispensing system, explained the German Packaging Institute (dvi). The awards will be presented at a gala in Berlin on 19 November.

Sun cream with a paw print

The Hamburg-based packaging specialist Brandpack won the award for its design for Salthouse Cosmetic Packaging. According to the dvi, the range – comprising bath salts, shampoos and shower gels containing Dead Sea salts – combines striking silhouettes with improved ergonomics, a feature allowing the product to be emptied upside down, screw caps for refill options and a consistently recyclable design. Corrugated board specialist Seyfert has also been recognised for its eye-catching in-store display featuring a large-format Sensodyne tube. More than 200 companies from 17 countries submitted innovations for the 2026 German Packaging Award. The independent 22-member expert jury selected 36 entries from Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.

More recyclable solutions

Several packaging manufacturers active in the beauty and cosmetics sector were also honoured, including Aptar Closures, together with Werner & Mertz, for a monomaterial push-pull cap made from 100 per cent recycled material. Linhardt, a manufacturer specialising in tubes and other cosmetic packaging, has received a sustainability award for a new recyclable aluminium cap. The “Circular Closure” reduces the proportion of plastic to the technically necessary minimum through an integrated plastic inlay, thereby improving the recyclability of aluminium tubes. “Sustainability and recyclability are proving to be key drivers across all categories,” says dvi Managing Director Natalie Brandenburg. The simplification of complex packaging and the use of pure monomaterials are important trends in this regard. The German Packaging Award, an international, cross-sector competition, has developed into a European showcase for packaging since its launch in 1963.

Source: dvi