Paris Packaging Week 2025 – a report

When it comes to learning new things, being inspired and talking to other packaging industry professionals, we are full of enthusiasm. With this in mind, we didn’t miss this year’s Paris Packaging Week, which took place on January 28 and 29, 2025 at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition center. In the following, we report on the general highlights and our personal highlights of the event, which has grown in every respect.

The basics of Paris Packaging Week

Paris Packaging Week is one of the most influential trade fairs for packaging solutions in the following sectors

– Aerosols and Dispensers,
– Fragrance, Cosmetics and Toiletries,
– Wine, Spirits and Luxury Beverages, and
– Luxury Products.

It brings together a wide range of industry professionals and provides the creative setting needed to exchange ideas on innovations, trends and sustainable solutions in the packaging world. Hundreds of exhibitors present their latest work, with which they impress visitors – including (potential) customers, but also packaging design agencies like ours – to a greater or lesser extent. Various sub-events, such as expert talks on relevant packaging topics and award ceremonies, ensure a varied program.

Highlights 2025

In 2025, Paris Packaging Week attracted the highest number of visitors in its 24-year history: 12,588 interested parties from 106 countries found their way to Hall 1 at Porte de Versailles, where more than 880 exhibitors were present. The event was held in the exhibition center’s largest hall for the first time in order to meet the increased demand from exhibitors and visitors and to stay under one roof. Also new was the Discovery Zone, which showcased exciting start-ups, materials and products, as well as new packaging technologies shaping the industry today and in the future. It is also worth highlighting that the Pentawards festival was integrated into Paris Packaging Week for the first time this year. Pentawards is the world’s most important platform and community for packaging design, characterized by the annual competition, in which we have already received a silver award – in 2021 for our Gardena eCommerce Packaging.

Highlights from Paris Packaging Week 2025

At the four main shows at Paris Packaging Week 2025 – Aerosol & Dispensing Forum (ADF), Packaging of Perfume, Cosmetics & Design (PCD), Packaging of Premium & Luxury Drinks (PLD) and Packaging Première – we saw a number of remarkable packaging designs. But before we get to these, we would like to mention another aspect that particularly caught our eye.

Stands from another planet

We know it from various areas: how a product looks depends not only on its own appearance, but also on the environment in which it is embedded. The exhibitors at Paris Packaging Week obviously took this into account – and how: We were very impressed by the design of many of the stands. There were emphatically minimalist designs with clever lighting that literally put each piece of packaging in the right light, and there were also variants in which shapes and materials were obviously used respectfully and all the details told a story. Participants took great care to present their products in a stylish and dignified way.

The stylishly printed cardboard and paper exhibition furniture was an absolute highlight, picking up on the sustainability trend and definitely having the potential to cause a stir not only at trade fairs but also at the point of sale.

Luxurious packaging: simple and minimalist, yet creative

In all areas, we noticed a tendency towards simple minimalism with a creative touch. Classic packaging materials were used in fascinating ways and formed into innovative, unusual shapes – for products that look artistic and luxurious. The closures made of stone, wood, glass or metal, for example, are so expressive simply through their materiality that the use of printed graphics is unnecessary. In these cases, the latter would only ruin the special appearance of the packaging. In line with the well-known design principle “less is more”, the uniqueness of the respective material, with its natural pattern or specific surface, serves as the primary design element here.

Less is more – and anything but boring

We will dwell a little longer on the decidedly minimalist designs before turning to the visually more complex highlights of Paris Packaging Week 2025. The fact that the “less is more” approach mentioned above is by no means synonymous with “boring” is also demonstrated by these examples from the cosmetics industry. The design elements here are reduced to the essentials, such as color and surface feel. What sounds so simple is actually extremely difficult. After all, what is filtered out must clearly convey the idea. In other words, the few elements are the sole focus, they receive all the attention and therefore bear the full responsibility for convincing the observer. Consequently, a well-thought-out design concept is particularly important for minimalist designs – especially when it comes not just to a single product, but to a larger range that is intended to impress and be recognizable as a collection.

Glass packaging with an artistic touch – minimalism at its best

This glass packaging is the perfect example of an extremely successful minimalist packaging design. With their special shapes and innovatively designed lids, they can justifiably be called works of art – especially since glass packaging is an extremely complex matter per se and always poses a huge challenge for even the best product designers.

The power of modern aesthetic labels

Even if – as described above – the design purely with the natural, unique characteristics of the materials undoubtedly represents the highest art, it would sometimes be a waste to do without labels altogether – apart from the fact that packaging design without labels is unthinkable. In Paris, Alliance Etiquettes showed us what modern designs can do with creative concepts that gave us fresh inspiration. Contemporary illustrations and high-quality printing technology are a good recipe for attractive packaging designs, which we would like to see more often during our store checks. All too often, we leave the supermarkets with the impression that the full design potential is far from being exhausted.

Printing and finishing at the highest level

Packaging designs with three-dimensional components look extraordinarily high-quality and creative. To finish packaging with 3D effects, it doesn’t necessarily need to be multi-dimensional; with creative and logical thinking, as well as modern (printing) technology, it is possible to create a spectacular 3D effect on a normal, two-dimensional surface.

Packaging with great attention to detail

Minimalist designs characterized the 2025 Paris Packaging Week, but here and there we also discovered products that embody the exact opposite. Heineken beer in the middle of a miniature bar with a counter and stools, or Tamburins cosmetics in a miniature bathroom with pictures on the wall and a tiny roll of toilet paper: we have rarely seen such elaborately designed packaging with so much attention to detail.

Disruptive packaging concepts

It is no longer a secret that disruptive packaging concepts are in demand. We have already dedicated several articles to this topic ourselves and have also seen the trend again and again in some store checks. At the trade fair in the French capital, we also came across some packaging that wants one thing above all: to break with all-too-traditional category codes and make a lasting impression with a bold approach. It is a testament to the strength of the brand that consumers recognize Heinz ketchup in an oil canister as such, accept it and, after a brief moment of familiarization, soon find it relatively normal to no longer squeeze the red condiment sauce out of a plastic bottle, but to take it out of the metal container, which has completely different connotations. And the fact that brands from a wide range of industries are suddenly all using the same canister for their products doesn’t bother them either. The brand name and the specific color mean that the container is associated differently each time.

Lotion in a Tetrapak, as seen here from Dr.Jart+, is another example of disruptive packaging concepts.

Other design highlights

Bags are still one of the most popular packaging solutions. This was also made clear at Paris Packaging Week 2025. We saw a few products of this kind and were reminded again why packaging designers (like us…) in particular love bags: they offer a large design area and, with their shape, are always eye-catchers on the shelf. And the creatively designed soaps are no exception.

Every now and then, visitors to the trade fair would walk past us carrying a different kind of bag: a gift bag with wings. These days, strikingly designed carrier bags with an appealing look and feel are still an effective advertising tool, especially for major brands. We were amazed when we saw the “winged” bags.

Packaging meets fashion: at the fair, renowned fashion brands presented stylish packaging in which material, feel and look interact just as precisely as they do in their clothing and accessories.

Dr.Jart+ not only came up with lotion in Tetrapaks, but also with an interesting transport packaging that can be used as a “first-aid kit” for creative presentation of the products at the point of sale.

Exra: Critical sustainability concepts

Although the design aspect was clearly in the foreground at the Paris Packaging Week 2025, packaging that focuses on sustainability was also presented here and there. In this context, however, we came across several questionable concepts that will probably have to be reconsidered and adapted once the new EU directives on consumer and environmental protection finally come into force.

Vela and the paper bags that aren’t

Vela offers special transparent “paper bags” and markets them as a more sustainable alternative to plastic bags used to package textiles in online retailing. “Designed to be recycled” is the company’s main slogan – a bold claim that turns out to be untrue upon closer inspection.

Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to refer to the bag material as paper at all. Apart from the fact that wood is used as the raw material, Vela bags have nothing in common with a paper bag. To create this transparent, water- and grease-repellent bag material, cellulose is first produced by chemical pulping and then finely ground and heavily pressed. The result of this process no longer contains any fibers that could be recovered and used for new products. Thus, the bags do not meet a basic requirement for being classified as recyclable.

We also take a critical view of the additional sustainability advantage of FSC-certified wood as the starting material. The holder of the certificate is the US-based Seaman Paper Company of Massachusetts. This means that all bags used in Europe are made of pseudo-paper that is produced in the United States. The CO2 emissions impact of transportation across the ocean is self-explanatory.

In view of the disadvantages described, we believe it is presumptuous to promote this specific material as a sustainable alternative to conventional plastic bags.

TEXa – truly a sustainable plastic substitute?

TEXa is a novel packaging material that, according to its Malaysian manufacturer Texchem Polymers, consists of 95 percent biobased polymers. These, in turn, are obtained from agricultural by-products and food processing waste. These raw materials are not edible.

The material is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so it can be used for direct packaging of food and leave-on cosmetics anywhere in the world – except in Europe. On our continent, the approval criteria of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) apply, which are significantly stricter.

Since TEXa is derived from waste renewable raw materials, the material has a smaller carbon footprint than fossil-based plastic. However, for a comprehensive and thus truly realistic sustainability comparison, it would be necessary to create a life cycle assessment with the same boundaries and allocations. It is possible that the conversion process from agricultural waste or a sugar or starch molecule to a plastic monomer consumes so many resources that the environmental and climate benefits are ultimately limited.

To avoid ending our report on the generally inspiring Paris Packaging Week 2025 on a negative note, here are a few pictures of the city of Paris and the trade fair.