Contract Cosmetic Manufacturers 101: Find The Best Beauty Lab For Your Brand
Finding contract cosmetic manufacturers is the exciting next step after making the switch from home-to-lab, or after spending months custom formulating your beauty products from scratch with another manufacturer.
If you are not sure if contract manufacturing is the next step for your business, or simply need guidance on how to find the best contract cosmetic manufacturers, this guide is for you.
We provide clarity on the exact steps you must take before you reach the all-important contract manufacturing stage. Plus, we outline the essential documents that you should have on hand before contract manufacturing.
What Is Contract Manufacturing?
Contract manufacturing involves manufacturing a cosmetic product to the exact specifications and directions provided in a preformulated and tested recipe. To put it simply: you bring the formula recipe and the lab makes it for you.
Is Hiring A Contract Cosmetic Manufacturer My Next Step?
Is your business ready for the contract manufacturing stage?
We recognize that it’s easy to confuse contract manufacturing with all of the other formulating and manufacturing methods. As such, we’ve outlined the immediate next step for your brand’s circumstances below:
If You Are Brand New To Formulating Cosmetic Products:
Are you completely new to the skincare and makeup formulating world? Before you search for contract cosmetic manufacturers, you need a finalized and perfected recipe ready for this production stage.
If your cosmetics brand is starting from scratch your first step is to decide if you want to sell preformulated or customized cosmetics:
You can purchase preformulated cosmetics on a bulk or private label basis. The product manufacturing step is included with these methods. No additional contract manufacturing stage is necessary. You will not own the rights to the formula.
There are two key customized manufacturing methods. Custom product creation is a semi-customization process that involves adding a limited number of customizations on top of a supplier’s base formula. Custom formulating involves working with a professional manufacturer to create brand new cosmetic formulas from scratch.
Contract cosmetic manufacturing is the next step once the custom formulating and testing stage is fully completed.
Because custom formulating involves creating a brand new formula from scratch with the assistance of professional chemists, you can get creative with your formula ideas.
At Genie Supply, we’re experts at custom formulating new-to-market concepts, novel chemical research, hybrid beauty products, and clean cosmetics.
We’ll be on hand for the contract manufacturing stage once your formula is ready to go. You can also take your custom-formulated recipe and contract manufacture with a different lab if you wish. You will retain ownership and creative control over your formulas. Learn more about custom formulating at Genie Supply here.
If You Have A Finalized Recipe Ready For Manufacture:
Are you ready to level up and make the switch from home to lab manufacturing? Formulating at home is convenient at the early stages of your business, however, it increases the risk of formula issues including contamination problems, shelf-life uncertainties, and skin-safe issues. Learn more about the risks of formulating at home in our full blog post.
If you are 100% satisfied with the products you create at home, you can hand over your exact recipes to a beauty lab. A team of qualified expert chemists will professionally recreate and mass-produce those same formulas as closely as possible to the original.
It’s important to note that tweaks to make the formula safe and legally compliant are sometimes necessary. For added peace of mind, the custom cosmetics manufacturer will conduct legal and safety tests.
What if you already custom-formulated with another manufacturer? Typically, you can custom formulate with one lab, and contract manufacture with another. However, this rests on the assumption that you own the legal rights to the formula.
Finding The Best Contract Cosmetic Manufacturers For Your Brand
Once your recipes are ready to go, it’s time to find a compatible beauty lab to manufacture your products. But with so many different contract cosmetic manufacturers to choose from, how do you identify the best one for your brand?
There are five key criteria to keep in mind:
Prior Experience:
Has the manufacturer custom formulated from scratch and contract-manufactured cosmetics for other brands in the past? Has the supplier worked with home-to-lab brands before? Look for a proven track record with strong testimonials from prior clients.
Capabilities and Expertise:
Even if a supplier has prior experience, they might not have the exact specialties required to manufacture cosmetics for your brand. Does the lab have the knowledge and personnel to recreate your exact recipe? This is especially important if you have complicated formula recipes with multiple mixing phases and fluctuating temperatures.
Cost & Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ):
Does the cost of contract manufacturing fit your budget? Is there a set MOQ that exceeds your current stock needs? If any contract manufacturer exceeds your budget, take them off your shortlist.
Quality Ingredients & Ethics:
Although every manufacturer will follow the same recipe, ingredient quality can vary wildly. Make sure every contract cosmetic manufacturer on your shortlist prioritizes quality throughout all of their production processes.
It’s also important to choose a lab that aligns with your business’ ethical standards - especially if cruelty-free or organic ingredients are important to your brand.
Testing & Quality Control:
One of the main advantages of moving from home to the lab is the reassurance that your products undergo strict testing and quality control processes. Ask each supplier on your short list about their safety testing and quality control practices.
At Genie Supply, we have extensive experience working with home-to-lab businesses like yours. We always assign a responsive team and a dedicated project manager to our contract manufacturing clients.
Strong ethical values and quality ingredients with a focus on sustainability is at the heart of our business. Additionally, our contract manufacturing process is flexible and creative, and we don’t set any MOQ for contract manufacturing (a small order fee may apply).
Gather This Important Information Before The Contract Manufacturing Process Begins
Now that you have found the best contract cosmetic manufacturer for your business, take some time to get all of your legal and formula recipe documents in order. Getting organized at this stage will avoid any delays in the manufacturing process.
The documents you may need include:
If you custom formulated with a different lab, you must provide a legal document showing that you own the legal rights to the intellectual property of the formula.
Additionally, contract cosmetic manufacturers typically ask for specific and highly detailed measurements and instructions to recreate the formula as closely to the original as possible.
Finally, the testing results for the requested tests (at least PET, stability, can be more for other markets/products) are required in order to being manufacturing. Otherwise, these tests will need to be completed at cost before manufacturing can begin.
On-boarding forms ask for mixing instructions, equipment, and ingredients. Learn more about everything included in Genie Supply’s contract manufacturing onboarding form in our full blog post here.
When it comes to the ingredients, it’s important to provide details on common names, trade names, and full INCI listing. INCI stands for International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient. Providing all three of these names will avoid any confusion during the manufacturing process.
To recreate the formula to your exact specifications, the manufacturer will need the percentages of those ingredients. Typically you will need to calculate this in percentage weight.
As a general rule, you should provide as much detail as possible to ensure that your recreated formula lives up to your expectations. Additional details are required if the recipe includes complicated mixing phases and fluctuating temperatures.
Do you have all of your contract manufacturing documents in order? Fill out Genie Supply’s onboarding form to start manufacturing your beauty products ASAP.
In sum, there are three key steps involved in finding the best contract cosmetic manufacturers for your brand:
Understanding whether or not your brand is ready for the contract manufacturing stage (and how to get to that stage if not)
Making a shortlist and evaluating every beauty lab on the list based on our 5 crucial criteria
Getting all of your documents in order ASAP for a smoother and quicker contract manufacturing process
Ready to contract manufacture your formula recipes? Genie Supply would love to work with your brand! Don’t hesitate to call us: (812)3291105 or email us: customerservice@geniesupply.com
