Who's the Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer?
As an entrepreneur looking to invest in skincare, you should know who’s the best private label skincare manufacturer. Our last article, “Private Labeling Skincare at Low MOQ,” article discusses the low minimum order benefit of private labeling with skincare. Why settle for anything less when you can work with the best of the best?
But one google search later, and you’re swamped with hundreds of different labs, all with unique services, products, and prices.
That leads us to the question: Who is the best private label skincare manufacturer?
Obviously, I want to say Genie Supply. I mean, this is our blog, and I never said anything about being fair. However, we are not the only manufacturer out there, and we don’t offer every service (looking at you 3PL), though we’ve come a long way in offering everything a beauty entrepreneur could need (formulating, testing, basic design. + turnkey manufacturing) and we are female founded, managed and run.
Ah, yes and when it comes to skincare manufacturing, we’ve launched novel private label and custom formulations that can be found. international retailers in the US, South America and Europe. But, I digress.
Only you can decide who’s “the best.” Maybe it’s the one that’s been around for decades, or perhaps it’s the one with the fastest turn around time. It all depends on what you want.
So, in no particular order, here are the five ‘best’ private label skincare manufacturers.
Five Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturers
How do I know that these five labs are potentially the “best” private label skincare manufacturers? Through two ways: a thorough vetting of their website and espionage! It was an interesting experiment that I’m excited to share with you. I even ran the test with Genie Supply!
Don’t worry, I promise to give a fair and neutral report for each brand (including us).
The Experiment
To keep things equal, I called each company with the same line: “Hi, I’m wondering what it would take to create an account with ____company name____ and potentially start a skincare line?”. Depending on the conversation, I would offer up my fake name and a ridiculous-sounding email. I used a real address, but for reference, let’s use billybumboop@gmail.com. Then, I browsed their site and critiqued it on the ease of finding a variety of products and information about their values, services, and contact information.
Below, you will find a quick summary of their site and usability (bad, okay, good, great), reviews, what happens when you call the company, skincare mediums, and the final rating based on the five ★ system.
First on our list, a cosmetics lab that’s been around since 1983. Their website is mostly organized, and they have two different private label pages. One is very surface level with big, vague words with little information. You have to jump through hoops to find the second, more detailed page on how to create an account with RainShadow Labs.
Reviews for RainShadow Labs on Google give them a 3.9 of 5 stars (17 reviews) while Yelp gives them 3.5 stars of 5 stars (5 reviews). Issues are cited as shipping costs, long turnaround times, and mixed customer service.
RainShadow Labs was the first lab for me to call, so I was a little nervous. When they picked up, I gave my spiel and was met with some silence and then an “..okay.” Fearing I’d been caught, I panicked and asked about their low minimum order quantity (MOQ).
The RainShadow Labs representative explained their MOQ regulations. I waited for a couple of beats, wondering if there would be any information to be added about starting an account. When there wasn’t, I thanked them and hung up. It was a brisk conversation. I wouldn’t say there was any impoliteness, but there certainly wasn’t any engagement on their end.
Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer Summary
Skincare Mediums: serums, lotions, creams, scrubs, gels, oils
Website Usability: Okay
Customer Service: Okay
Pros: active blog, a resource guide, direct contact
Cons: confusing information on the website, not engaging, no graphic design
Overall Rating: ★★★
2. Pravada
A bit younger than our last cosmetics lab, Pravada started business in 2009. Although inconsistent with publishings (and a little boring, if I’m honest), their blog dates back to 2010 with plenty of articles - if you’re willing to sift through their archives.
Their private label skincare products page includes a generic ingredient photo, sample price and categories (that make it difficult to find skincare products) based on mediums. There are few reviews for Pravada. Their Facebook page lists two reviews (all 5 stars) from three years ago.
Upon calling Pravada, you’re sent to an automatic machine that requires you to pick if you’d like to connect to sales, accounting, shipping, graphic design, or an operator. I chose the latter and explained my situation. The Pravada representative introduced themself before telling me to search their site for samples to create an account before taking down my email address to send information (props for not laughing at billybumboo).
They said I could email them with questions or schedule a meeting to talk to someone. When the call ended, I was immediately met with an email detailing pricing and the next steps to success. Although the call was short, I felt like there was a better connection with Pravada compared to many of the other labs.
Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer Summary
Skincare Mediums: cleansers, oils, creams, masks, serums, oils, moisturizers, toners
Website Usability: Okay
Customer Service: Great
Pros: free consultation, direct contact, graphic design
Cons: confusing information on the website, inconsistent blog, unreliable reviews
Overall Rating: ★★★★
3. Cosmetic Solutions
Although there’s no specific date when Cosmetic Solutions began, their site mentions three decades of work and growth at their lab. The site has a little bot in the right-hand corner to offer personalized assistance and their how to private label guide is clear, concise, and engaging. Their products page is a bit disorganized with confusing categories.
Cosmetic Solutions has several reviews available, including 14 reviews on Indeed.com, to get the employee’s perspective (3.7 of 5 stars). Google gave 3.8 of 5 stars (14 reviews). Most of the 5 stars had little or no extra comments on why they gave their high score.
Cosmetic Solutions’ call was very brief. The representative who answered spoke quickly and barely waited for my introduction to end before she sent me off to someone who could better answer my questions. I was put on hold while a peppy advertisement for the brand played in the background.
Unfortunately, no one was around to take my call, and the machine encouraged me to leave a message. In short, I felt rushed and overlooked.
Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer Summary
Skincare Mediums: scrubs, creams, sanitizers, gel, moisturizers, oils, serums, balms, cleansers
Website Usability: Good
Customer Service: Bad
Pros: assistant bot, engaging, direct contact (sort of), graphic design
Cons: no blog, confusing products page
Overall Rating: ★★
4. Wholesale Natural Body Care
This lab was established in 2000 and has a confusing site. The categories at the top looks disoriented, and their private label guide is slightly engaging, but overwhelming with information. Wholesale Natural Body Care also provided a COVID-19 update on how their services are limited with the pandemic.
This transparency is key to customer satisfaction even though it makes them vulnerable to criticism. Wholesale Natural Body Care had testimonials on their front page, all glowing reviews, and no credibility to the person who gave their opinion. One review listed “Pharmacists” at the bottom. Outside of their website, there were no reviews available.
The representative for Wholesale Natural Body Care was the friendliest out of all the labs. Perhaps they picked up on my nervousness (espionage is nerve wracking), but they assured me that the process was an easy and simple process.
All I had to do was create an account online and test out different samples that I would like to use. Even though it was a short call, I welcomed the warm tone on the other side and smiled in relaxation.
Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer Summary
Skincare Mediums: sanitizers, gels, oils, toners, creams, lotions, scrubs
Website Usability: Okay
Customer Service: Good
Pros: direct contact, expansive products list, graphic design
Cons: inactive blog, unreliable reviews, slow processing time
Overall Rating: ★★★★
5. Goodkind
Formerly known as Texas Beauty Labs, Goodkind Co. was founded in 2003. This revamping is recent, and they’ve undergone many changes. Their site went from a clean, clear website that provided loads of information to pastel pink.
Although it differentiates itself from its competitors with its choice of hue (the others were all a combination of white, brown, and green), there is not nearly as much information. Although Goodkind doesn’t have reviews, their former label does. Like Cosmetic Solutions, there are employee reviews available on Glassdoor 2.9 of 5 stars based on 6 reviews). Google gives 3.4 of 5 stars based on 8 reviews.
Neither of their sites had a phone number to call, but their contact form is very detailed.
Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer Summary
Skincare Mediums: balms, serums, moisturizers, creams, lotions, oils, deoderant
Website Usability: Okay (their old site is Good)
Customer Service: Fair
Pros: detailed contact form, some reviews,
Cons: no blog (on new site), no direct contact
Overall Rating: ★★★
Is Genie Supply the Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer?
It depends on who you ask! We’re not perfect (no one is), but we do aim to be the best. We only have 2 years to make a name for ourselves compared to the decades of other private label skincare manufacturers. But two years of being established doesn’t mean we don’t have the experience! Read more about our founder story here, and you’ll see that while we’re small now, it doesn’t mean we can’t hold our own.
All the other cosmetics labs above specialize only in skincare and not color cosmetics. We do both because we have the range, and we recognize the different needs of entrepreneurs. Currently, we offer our products in CBD and non-CBD types.
While we don’t have any reviews, there are many features of us on the web, such as Forbes, Beauty Independent, and Tech in Asia. We also don’t have employee reviews, but we’re proud to say that we are a female-founded and female-led company with over 50% POC.
Something else we have that our competitors don’t? Our active blog! That’s because we want to answer you, the entrepreneur, and all the questions you may have. We have articles on creating a lipstick brand vs. a lipgloss brand (similar yet different!), finding the perfect lab, Hemp vs. CBD, and more!
How did Genie Supply do with my espionage experiment? Not bad! The person who answered was the only one who asked for my name and the second person to get my email address. They got my name wrong (Louie instead of Lily) and tried their best not to laugh at my ridiculous email address.
I was also asked about which products I liked best and wanted to invest in. After they got my email and phone number, they said they would send my information to someone who would get in contact with me for a more detailed conversation.
This call was not as professional as my other ones, but it was a lot more honest and transparent. It depends on which lens you’re looking through. If you want someone who is much more businesslike and professional, you would probably be unimpressed. Our team is gritty, and that’s okay with me.
As for Google reviews, we finally have some, and our average score is 3.9 out of 5. Hopefully that will be better the next time we provide an update here. We have one ex-client that left 2 reviews (both one star) under 2 names for the same project, so that doesn’t help. If they’d only left a single 1 star review, we’d have a 4.2 score right now. Fingers crossed for better reviews from clients that don’t mind disclosing that they worked with us!
Best Private Label Skincare Manufacturer Summary
Skincare Mediums: creams, cleansers, moisturizers, masks, serums, oils, toners, lotions, gels
Website Usability: Good
Customer Service: Good
Pros: ACTIVE BLOG ;), low MOQ screen printing, direct contact/can talk to a sales rep same day
Cons: Limited graphic design assistance, no 3PL
Overall Rating: ★★★★
Excited to Start Private Labeling Your Skincare Line with Genie Supply?
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