Box is great, buy! What's in it, btw?

I've heard of hyphenated phrases like passive-aggressive, manic-depressive, but could there be a compulsive-impulsive shopper? You bet.

Let me confess: I belong to that remarkable sub-species of homo sapiens. I get easily attracted to good-looking packaging. Then I get an impulse to go buy it, whatever it is in the luxury packaging.

I succumb to the temptation (which, by the way, is the best way to resist it). The more you yield to that shopping impulse, the stronger the compulsion to buy next time.

The other day, I yielded to the impulse to buy a petaloid blusher from Japanese-French luxury brand Laduree. It set me back by over 1,000 yuan ($148). Not that I needed one. But, boy, wasn't it beautifully packaged!

Later, I found the product hard to use. But that's a different story.

Here and now, let me share why I found the blusher irresistible. It sat snugly in a gorgeous eggshell-shaped box. Its decorations were luxuriant. The cosmetics box is fit for royals. In my dreamland, I'm a royal, a little lovely princess. So, that inner princess in me had to have the blusher, rather its regal packaging box.

My vanity unit and mirrored cupboard stock recently bought lipsticks. Some of them suit my skin complexion, some don't. There are discs of facial powders, talcs, so on. Some of them I probably used just once. There are Christmas special gift offers that I am yet to open.

You must have guessed it by now - I bought them all because of their terrific packaging.

Luxury goods makers seem to understand me more than I do myself. If you think I'm crazy, I'd say think again.

In my view, my friend Zhang Li, 30, who works in the fashion industry, is even more crazy about luxury packaging. She is a collector of packaging boxes. Her home is like a museum, a tribute to packaging maestros who tempted her to buy every conceivable luxury good she could afford.

She flaunted her collection when I visited her recently: "This is the paper bag of Burberry, with its iconic knight logo on it. This is the box of Hermes, and I especially like the ribbon that goes with the box. Oh, the package of Dior is also very beautiful. The black and white chequered pattern makes the packaging a real art."

Apart from paper bags, boxes, she even keeps dust bags. "I need those dust bags to cover my luxury bags when I don't carry them around. Besides, the brand logo is also on the dust bag. It is part of the luxury."

It seems female consumers consider not only product quality but also packaging when they buy luxury goods.

Attractive packaging taps into a female consumer's emotional craving to make a personal statement using fashion, accessories and attractive physical appearance.

Also, when you buy luxury goods for family members, you tend to splurge because you want to impress, and you want to make the recipient happy.

Zhang Chen, an expert on luxury bag authenticity identification at the Beijing Price Certification Center, said: "The main function of luxury packaging, no matter if it's in the form of paper bags, boxes, or dust bags, is to convey brand value. This is the reason why it attracts consumers. In addition, good-looking packaging is especially attractive to consumers when they buy the luxury as a gift."