Custom Printed Perfume Boxes for UK Fragrance Brands

It is the first thing a customer handles, before the glass and before the scent.

Perfume bottles are heavy for their size and nearly always glass. A 50 ml bottle with a metal collar and cap can weigh around 200 g, so the box has to hold it still.

That is why a perfume box is rarely a plain carton. Most have a card platform or an insert that grips the base of the bottle and stops the cap knocking the lid.

They tend to launch with two or three scents in 30 ml and 50 ml bottles, and need one box per scent.

Salons and barbers blend a house fragrance and sell it at the till. Market sellers and online shops decant into 10 ml atomisers and box those as well.

If you also sell oils, samples or sets, the full perfume and fragrance packaging range covers each of those formats.

• Independent perfume houses with two or three scents
• Salons and barbers selling a house scent
• Aromatherapy makers moving into fine fragrance
• Wedding favour sellers boxing 10 ml atomisers
• Marketplace sellers who post bottles every day

Add about 4 mm to the width and 6 mm to the height for a carton with a platform.

Rigid boxes with an insert need more room, because the foam or card wall around the bottle takes up space. Allow 8 to 10 mm all round.

The table gives guide sizes from bottles we see often. Your bottle may differ by a few millimetres, so every box is cut to your figures rather than a stock size.

It suits a brand selling through shops and online, where the box is opened once and often kept on a dressing table.

A rigid box is thick greyboard wrapped in printed paper. It arrives assembled, feels heavier in the hand and suits gift editions and premium lines.

Plenty of brands run both. The carton goes on the everyday 50 ml, while rigid perfume boxes with a printed wrap go on the 100 ml and the gift edition.

It is stiff enough to hold a 100 ml bottle upright without the panels bowing.

A straight tuck end is the standard closure. A reverse tuck end or an auto-lock bottom is worth asking for when the bottle is heavy and staff fill boxes by hand.

Rigid perfume boxes use greyboard of about 1.5 to 2 mm with a printed wrap. Lid and base, drawer, magnetic flap and sleeve and tray are all built this way, and the guide to cosmetic box styles shows each one. Board, rigid and finish options are available on request.

The front carries the name, and the back carries the volume, the ingredient list and the responsible person's UK contact details.

Full colour CMYK handles photography and gradients. One or two colour print on white or kraft board looks clean on a short run and keeps the quote down.

As options, soft touch lamination gives a velvet feel, foil stamping adds a metallic name, and spot UV lifts a pattern off a matt ground. Our guide to foil, spot UV and soft touch shows how each one looks on board.

A bottle loose in a carton will crack the carton corners, and a bottle loose in a rigid box will chip its own cap.

A card platform cut to the bottle base is the cheapest fix for cartons. Foam inserts cut to the bottle outline suit rigid boxes. Both are available on request.

If you post direct to customers, put the perfume box inside an outer mailer rather than sticking a label on it. Our cosmetic mailer boxes for posting beauty orders are sized to take a boxed bottle with padding.

A tall, narrow front with the name in the top third reads from across the room.

On a salon counter boxes are often laid flat or stacked. Print the top panel as well, so a stack still shows the brand from above.

A window cut-out shows the bottle, but it also lets light reach the liquid. Most perfume brands skip the window and print a photo of the bottle instead.

A 50 ml bottle can be 95 mm or 130 mm tall depending on the cap.

Another is ordering before the cap and pump have arrived. Box the finished bottle, not the one on the mock-up.

A third is cramming the back panel. The volume, batch and contact details must be there, but tiny type on a 40 mm wide panel is hard to read. Keep the ingredient list in a clear 6 pt or larger.

1. Send the bottle size with the cap on, or post us a sample bottle.
2. Choose carton or rigid, the board and any insert.
3. Tell us the print, the finishes and the quantity you need.
4. Approve the free design proof our team sends you.
5. Production runs 4 to 6 business days, then free tracked UK delivery takes 2 to 3 business days.

The written quote lists the box, board, print and delivery, and nothing is printed until the proof is approved.

If a box arrives misprinted or damaged, send photos within 10 days and we reprint or refund. Start with the perfume box quote request form or WhatsApp a photo of the bottle.