Project 8™: A Smarter Way to Source Cosmetic Packaging
- Venny Tao
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 28 minutes ago
Discover a smarter way to source cosmetic packaging. Project 8™ helps beauty brands find, evaluate, and compare packaging solutions based on product needs, budget, materials, function, and design.
Finding the right packaging sounds simple—until you actually start looking. A beauty brand may know that it needs a 30 ml serum bottle, a PET bottle with a sprayer, a refillable jar, or packaging similar to something already on the market. But turning that requirement into the right production-ready solution can involve searching through hundreds of products, contacting multiple suppliers, comparing specifications, checking compatibility, evaluating costs, and requesting samples. For busy brand teams, that process can quickly become inefficient.
That is why Akey Group created Project 8™, our personalized cosmetic packaging sourcing and consulting service.
Spend Less Time Searching. More Time Building Your Brand.
Today, brands have access to more packaging choices than ever before. The challenge is knowing which options actually make sense for a specific project.
A bottle may look right but use the wrong material. A pump may not work well with the formula's viscosity. A beautiful package may exceed the project's target cost. Another option may require an MOQ or custom tooling investment that doesn't fit the launch plan.
And sometimes, the best solution simply isn't something a brand knows to search for.
Packaging sourcing requires more than searching. It requires evaluation.
Project 8™ turns that process around. Instead of asking brands to find packaging first and contact us afterward, we start with the project itself.
You provide the brief. We help connect the dots.
You don't need to know the exact bottle, pump, material, or packaging structure you need. It could be your product type, formula texture, desired capacity, target retail price, packaging budget, launch date, material preference, dispensing requirement—or simply a photograph of packaging you like.
Our team uses those requirements to understand the project and begin evaluating suitable solutions.
For clients who already have detailed specifications, we can search accordingly. For clients who aren't sure what they need, we can recommend directions based on the product and project goals.
More Than Packaging. A Solution Built Around Your Project.
Project 8™ evaluates your packaging needs from multiple angles rather than matching your project to the first product that looks similar.
Our team can:
Source packaging based on photos or reference products
Match capacities, materials, shapes, and dispensing functions
Recommend packaging based on your product and market needs
Suggest alternatives you may not have considered
Evaluate compatibility with your project requirements
Evaluate solutions against your target cost and budget
Compare and narrow down the strongest options
Recommend colors, finishes, and decoration possibilities
The objective isn't to give you more choices.
It's to give you better choices.
Beyond the Online Catalog
One of the biggest misconceptions about packaging sourcing is that everything available must already be online. It isn't.
Akey works with an extensive packaging network that is continuously evolving. New molds, dispensing technologies, materials, decoration capabilities, sustainable structures, and innovative packaging solutions can enter our network faster than any website or catalog can realistically keep up.
Project 8™ allows our team to search beyond our public online catalog, including new arrivals, specialty solutions, and options available through our extended sourcing network.
For brands, it's like gaining access to a much larger private packaging library - with an experienced team helping you navigate it.
Your Personal Packaging Sourcing Service
Traditional sourcing often means sending the same request to multiple vendors, waiting for different answers, comparing inconsistent information, and trying to determine which supplier actually understands the project.
With one project brief, we can help search, evaluate, compare, and narrow down potential solutions before presenting the strongest options for your consideration.
Because we understands packaging materials, tooling, engineering, decoration, and production, our evaluation goes beyond appearance.
We consider whether an idea can actually become a successful finished package.
From Packaging Search to Packaging Solution
Sometimes the package you initially request is exactly what your product needs.
Sometimes it isn't.
A serum originally planned for a standard glass bottle + dropper, for example, may benefit from an airless system. A labeled bottle may achieve a more premium appearance through direct screen printing. A tube may be replaced by a larger airless package to improve dispensing and positioning.
These are decisions that are difficult to make from a catalog alone.
Our goal is not simply to sell you a bottle, jar, pump, compact, or tube. It is to understand what you're trying to accomplish and help identify the packaging solution that makes the most sense for your product.
A comprehensive evaluation designed to identify the right packaging solution for your project.
Your next packaging solution may already exist - even if you haven't found it online.
Complete our Project 8™ Packaging Inquiry and tell us what you're working on. Share your requirements, upload reference images, or simply tell us what you're trying to achieve.
Your packaging is more than a container—it’s your brand’s voice in physical form. Through custom tooling, you can transform ordinary materials into storytelling assets that connect emotionally and visually with consumers.
