Aquaproof Paper Labels · Creative papers
It feels like paper. It behaves like a film.
The short answer: aquaproof is a polyethylene-based material finished to look and feel like an uncoated paper. It spends an evening in an ice bucket and comes out flat, with the print intact — which no kraft, laid or Tintoretto will ever do. From £157 per 100, and it is the single most useful compromise in this range.
Any shape within this size — rectangle, round, oval or custom die-cut.
VAT invoice · card or bank transfer · proof before production · ±5 % quantity tolerance
- Printing
- 1 option
- Protection
- 1 option
- Adhesives
- 1
- Sizes
- 24 formats
- Smallest
- 35 × 30 mm
- Largest
- 150 × 105 mm
- Quantities
- 100 → 10 000, more quoted
- Variable data
- quoted on request
Printed from £157 per 100, unprinted on rolls from £62. Production 2 to 10 working days after proof approval.
The problem it solves
The producer who refuses plastic
Every wine and spirits maker meets the same wall. The textured paper is the right look — and it wrinkles the first time the bottle sweats. The synthetic film survives anything — and it looks like packaging. Most people choose the paper, lose a batch of labels to an ice bucket, and then choose the film reluctantly.
Aquaproof exists for that argument. It is a film underneath, so water beads on it and the edges do not drink; the surface is finished matt and slightly fibrous, so under the thumb it reads as paper. It is not a substitute for kraft — the colour and the grain are different — but on a chilled bottle it is the closest thing to a paper label that still exists at the end of the evening.
- Textured paper
- best look, fails in ice
- Aquaproof
- paper feel, survives
- Synthetic film
- survives, reads as plastic
- Aquaproof from
- £157 / 100
- Kraft from
- £175 / 100
- White PP from
- £168 / 100
- Printing
- full colour
Straight answers
What it does, and what it does not
Survives immersion in ice
Hours in a bucket, condensation on a fridge shelf, a wet cellar. The label stays flat, the corners stay down, the print stays readable.
Is not a certified marine film
Wet is not the same as chemically attacked or immersed for months. For drums shipped by sea, that is a BS5609 question, not this material.
Takes no hot foil
Foil is pressed with heat, which this film does not accept. If the design needs gold, it needs a paper — and then it needs to stay out of the ice.
Price by quantity
What a run actually costs
Up to 55 × 70 mm, full colour, unprotected — die, setup and printing included.
| Quantity | Run price | Per label |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | £158 | £1.58 |
| 200 | £163 | £0.82 |
| 300 | £169 | £0.56 |
| 500 | £173 | £0.34 |
| 1 000 | £197 | £0.20 |
| 1 500 | £215 | £0.15 |
| 2 000 | £239 | £0.12 |
| 3 000 | £277 | £0.094 |
| 5 000 | £369 | £0.074 |
| 10 000 | £596 | £0.060 |
Excluding VAT and delivery. Other sizes, finishes and quantities are priced in the configurator above.
FAQ
Aquaproof — what producers ask us
Is aquaproof paper or plastic?
Technically a polyethylene-based film, finished to feel like an uncoated paper. That is the whole point: the hand feel of paper with the water behaviour of a film. Held next to a kraft label the difference is visible; on a bottle at two metres it is not.
How long does it survive in an ice bucket?
An evening of service, comfortably — which is the case producers actually care about. It is a wet-strength material rather than a submarine: it is designed for condensation, melting ice and wet hands, not for weeks under water.
Can I have gold foil on it?
No. Hot foil is pressed into the material with heat, and this film does not take it. If foil is essential, the design belongs on a textured paper — and that label will not survive an ice bucket. It is one or the other, and it is better to know before the proof.
Does it need a varnish or a lamination?
No. The material itself is waterproof and the range is supplied unprotected. The print sits on a film surface that does not absorb — adding a coating would change the paper feel you chose it for.
What does it cost against a normal paper?
From £157 per 100 against £175 for kraft or laid, and £117 for a plain coated paper. It is one of the rare cases where the technical answer is not the expensive one — the wet-strength film costs less than the textured papers it replaces.
The label still looks new when the bottle comes out of the ice.
Wet-strength, paper feel, from £157 per 100.