Luxury Cosmetic Packaging.

The primary case carries the weight and the finishing, and the refill cartridge carton is a plain folding box in the same colourway. The case justifies a price that includes weighted hardware, so it goes rigid on 2mm greyboard with a magnetic, drawer or lift-off closure. The refill costs a fraction, typically runs 40 percent smaller, and has to look like it belongs without any of the foil or lamination.

Specifying the refill as richly as the case is the common expensive error.

Edge quality, more than any finishing technique. Crisp foil edges, mitred wrap corners and tight registration of foil to print are where tiers actually separate. A slightly soft foil edge or a wrap that bunches at the corner is the most visible defect on a luxury box, and it is noticed before the emboss or the paper stock.

Edge painting on a rigid lid is rarely specified and disproportionately noticed.

One ink on 18pt SBS or uncoated board, in the range colourway, with no lamination or foil. That reads as intentional restraint rather than cost-cutting, provided the hierarchy across the range is consistent. A moulded pulp insert keeps the refill pack single-material and honestly recyclable, which is the point of offering a refill.

Soft-touch is deliberately left off refills so the difference from the primary case stays legible.

Hot foil, a deboss, and a specialty wrap paper over the greyboard. The wrap is where most of the perceived quality sits: a textured or coloured stock the hand reads before the eye does. Foil is the tier marker across the whole category. A recessed mark outperforms decoration at this price almost every time.

Spot UV and embossing are available, though on a rigid lid the wrap paper usually does more for the impression than a further technique.

From the product and its fitted insert, since there is no standard size in this category. Rigid boxes are built around the insert cavity, so we need the product dimensions and the closure type before the dieline is drawn. Refill cartons are typically 40 percent smaller than the primary case because they hold only the cartridge.

Brief us with the range structure, the retail tier and the closure you want and we'll size both parts together.

500 sets per design, for the rigid case and the refill carton alike. Multi-component builds with a sleeve, an insert and a box carry the same figure. Collection launches with several SKUs can be scheduled in stages to spread the outlay.

Orders scale to 100,000 with the same construction.

7 to 10 business days from artwork approval, or 5 to 7 business days on a rush. Pre-production samples take 5 to 7 business days, and a rigid sample is not optional at this tier: the foil edge and the wrap corners have to be seen before the run.

The sample fee is refunded on the bulk order and we ship USA-wide.

The refill can be fully, and the primary case can be mostly. Greyboard, recyclable wrap paper and a moulded pulp insert all go into the paper stream. Magnets, ribbon and a soft-touch film do not, so we keep those to the primary case and leave the refill single-material. A stated recycled-content percentage matters when a range sells on circularity.

Say which components carry the claim and we'll spec around them.