Fake beauty products are on the rise impacting consumer safety and damaging the cosmetic industry. Gerresheimer with its expertise in glass packaging has partnered with TruTag Technologies, a brand protection specialist, to offer an innovative, secure digitisation solution for cosmetic brands. The solution involves the integration of invisible microparticles that can be detected and decoded by a smartphone directly on the products. Consumers or brand protection experts can use an app to scan and authenticate the beauty product packed in Gerresheimer glass.

“Luxury industries and cosmetics are particularly affected by counterfeiting and the problem is growing steadily due to increased online shopping. Counterfeit cosmetic products do not just harm the reputation of health and beauty brands, they are also dangerous to end-consumers.” says Nicola Balena, Global Vice President Cosmetics at Gerresheimer. Moreover, there is a lot of money being made with fake beauty products. This is harmful to the consumer financially and qualitatively as the content of such products is often inferior. Counterfeit products therefore also damage the image of well-known brands. With strong competence in creative design and innovative solution development, Gerresheimer has partnered with TruTag Technologies to develop a smart-phone ready solution to detect fake cosmetic products.

“Smartphone compatibility enables the mass verification of cosmetics by consumers before they use their products. We believe this is a game-changer from a consumer safety perspective,” says Michael Bartholomeusz, CEO of TruTag Technologies. Today, almost all solutions that enable authentication of a single product require special detectors or sophisticated equipment. The new solution developed by Gerresheimer and TruTag Technologies requires only a commercially available smartphone.

“Driven by the growing problem of fake products in both cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, Gerresheimer is now working on a digital solution to combine unit-level tracking data with authenticated products to tackle counterfeiting from multiple angles,” states Lea Amstad, head of Digital Health Solutions.

Gerresheimer provides healthcare and beauty packaging products that reflect attractiveness and aesthetic appeal for fragrances, skincare, body care, hair care and colour cosmetics. Dedication to detail and quality combined with competence in creative design and solution development are the reasons why Gerresheimer is a first-choice partner. The company is at the customers’ side from idea generation to the launch of a tailor-made product.