Do you really need to hire a cosmetic manufacturer, or is it just another overrated and unnecessary cost for your small beauty business? 

Whether you are at the beginning stages of your beauty brand, or considering the switch from home-to-lab, partnering with a professional cosmetic manufacturer is a decision that you should not take lightly. 

That’s why we’ve created this easy-to-read blog post outlining the key functions of a cosmetic manufacturer, and how working with a professional manufacturer can help level up your business. 

Keep reading to learn about the dangers of formulating at home, the benefits of sourcing pre-made and custom-made cosmetics, and a word of warning about working with independent chemists. 

The Risks Involved With Formulating At Home

Experimenting with new recipes at home is a great opportunity to learn about the cosmetic manufacturing process. However, going a step further and selling your DIY cosmetics on the market can create several issues for your brand:

• First, you can run into contamination issues - especially with a formula that contains water (even with preservatives, if PET testing and microbial batch testing has not been performed!).

• Secondly, are your DIY cosmetics safe to use on human skin? Advanced formulating knowledge combined with a thorough and professional testing process is the best way to ensure that your products are safe to use.

• Thirdly, are your DIY cosmetics in compliance with the law? That includes each ingredient in the formula and the percentage used, in addition to proper adherence to the FDA’s labeling laws. Learn more about the FDA’s labeling requirements here. 

Learn more about the dangers of formulating at home here. 

Cosmetic Manufacturers Produce Preformulated Cosmetics On A Turnkey Basis  

One of the main advantages of working with a professional beauty lab is the opportunity to buy preformulated cosmetics on a bulk or private label basis. Are you brand new to the industry, or maybe you have just grown tired of making every single product yourself from scratch? 

Choosing the preformulated route over custom formulating or formulating at home offers several benefits: 

• The beauty lab has already conducted all of the research and development and perfected its formula recipe in advance. Not only does this save time in the production process, but it also reduces the cost relative to custom-formulated products.

• Additionally, preformulated products are tested according to safety and legal guidelines in advance for your peace of mind (including potential PET and stability testing). 

• It’s easy to try before you buy! Every quality cosmetic manufacturer should offer easy-to-order samples of their preformulated cosmetics. Testing samples thoroughly provides assurance about the look, feel, and comfortability of each formula on the skin.

• A longer, more in-depth sample testing process also provides the opportunity to assess whether or not the formula can generate real skincare benefits for your customers.

• Preformulated cosmetics are ideal for beginners who feel out of their depth. Starting your own beauty brand can be intimidating if you are new to the industry. It’s natural if you are not up to speed yet on every single anti-aging ingredient or the correct emulsification temperatures.

• Ordering from a catalog of tried-and-tested preformulated products is an effective way to block some of that beginner’s imposter syndrome and take the next steps. 

At Genie Supply, we understand that most home-to-lab brands operate with limited funds in the beginning stages of this transition. That’s why we created four different clean and cruelty-free preformulated product tiers to accommodate as many budget levels as possible. Learn more in our product catalog here. 

Bulk vs Private Label 

There are two primary methods to source preformulated cosmetics: 

• 1. Buying ‘in bulk’ refers to purchasing large quantities of preformulated products in large unbranded drums. 

The ‘bulk’ option allows you to benefit from economies of scale while sourcing skin care for in-clinic treatments. This method is also ideal if you are a small brand owner with a filling and packaging contract already in place. 

• 2. Private label involves adding your own unique branding to a cosmetic manufacturer’s preformulated products. 

Private label is ideal if you are searching for turnkey production on a budget. Turnkey manufacturing involves hiring just one manufacturer to complete every single step of the product production process.

It includes: 

• Preformulated cosmetic formulas

• Batch, safety, and legal testing

• Packaging with personalized branding

• Product filling services

At Genie Supply, we offer over 60 clean and cruelty-free skin care and color cosmetic products to choose from on a bulk or private label basis. Order samples easily and directly from our website here. Learn more about our private label service here. 

Beauty Labs Develop New Innovative Products From Scratch  

Do you have an innovative idea for a skin care or makeup product, but you are not sure if it’s a viable concept, or just feel out of your depth when it comes to the formulating process? 

Hiring a cosmetic manufacturer is the perfect opportunity for even complete beginners to create high-quality original products that truly stand out in the market. 

Hiring A Cosmetic Manufacturer For Custom Formulating 

Custom formulating involves collaborating with a professional cosmetic manufacturer to create brand-new skin care or makeup from scratch.

This includes a team of professional cosmetic chemists with the complex formulating knowledge required to develop unique beauty products, not to mention access to better equipment, the latest technology, and the best ingredients suppliers. 

The combination of professional knowledge and state-of-the-art resources results in a much higher quality product compared to most at-home DIY manufacturing.

Additionally, working with a cosmetic manufacturer ensures your new products will be correctly tested according to both safety and legal guidelines. Proper testing is much more difficult to conduct at home. Learn more about safety and legal testing at Genie Supply. 

At Genie Supply, we specialize in custom formulating novel chemical research, clean beauty, hybrid beauty products, and new-to-market concepts and formats. Learn more about our custom formulating processes here. 

A Budget-Friendly Alternative: Custom Product Creation 

Is it your dream to bring custom-created products to market, but custom formulating is currently outside your budget? Consider custom product creation instead! This process involves adding a limited number of customizations on top of a lab’s existing formula.

Although the customization options are limited, it’s a quicker and much more budget-friendly way to bring (semi) unique products to market.

At Genie Supply, we offer two different tiers of custom product creation to suit different budgets. The customization process is quick - averaging just 4-6 weeks (not including full product production). Learn more about our custom product creation packages here.  

Scaling Up Production With Contract Manufacturing 

What if you have already perfected your formula, and are currently not interested in expanding your product range? Is it worth hiring a cosmetic manufacturer in this case? 

Picture this: you wake up one day and your brand has gone viral on Tiktok overnight! Suddenly you have your most exciting - yet most stressful - day of your career so far. If you are feeling overwhelmed with the volume of orders, now is the time to hire a professional cosmetic manufacturer. 

Fluctuating demand is part and parcel of running a small business.  Busy periods are some of the best opportunities to grow your business and attract new loyal customers - but that’s just not possible if you cannot physically fulfill all of the orders coming through on your own.

Promising orders within a set time frame and not delivering is a PR disaster waiting to happen. 

So how can we capitalize on these periods of high demand? It’s time to scale up - the right way. Working with a professional cosmetic manufacturer can help maintain product quality through proper batch testing, all while rapidly scaling up production to meet your future delivery deadlines.  

What Is Contract Manufacturing? 

Contract manufacturing involves working with a professional cosmetic manufacturer to recreate your formula recipe as closely as possible to your original instructions.

Work with qualified chemists who have access to state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and efficient production processes to bring your small at-home formula to life on a grander scale. Not only will this allow you to produce much larger quantities of your product, but you will also benefit from better batch consistency thanks to proper quality control processes. 

Due to differences in professional measuring methods, the end result may not be an exact carbon copy of your recipe at home. However, at Genie Supply, we aim to make the replica as close as possible to your instructions, and we offer a sample for feedback and confirmation along the way. Learn more about our contract manufacturing process here. 

Why Choose A Beauty Lab Over Independent Chemists? 

Now that the benefits of collaborating with a professional cosmetic manufacturer are clear, let’s discuss the potential pitfalls of working with an independent cosmetic chemist instead. 

The rise and use of independent cosmetic chemists really took a firm hold during COVID, when viewers had a lot more time at home to explore and learn about topics they normally wouldn't have time for.

Tiktok also took off at the same time, and it was relatively easy to garner millions of views with relatively little effort, so first movers took advantage of this opportunity.

Individual brand founders may choose to align with the chemist whose personality they like best, or who - on the surface - may have the most fitting ingredient ethos for their brand. So, from a founders' perspective, this is an improvement over the black box of working with a contract manufacturer's development chemist (or team of chemists) with very little personal interaction.

It's easy to work with people you like, and with little overhead, the price is usually right, but charisma can't fill in a skill gap and the road ahead can be rocky.

The problem with working with independent cosmetic chemists is that - some, not all - lack the training, background, experience, resources, and lab equipment to do what formulating chemists need to do best, which is: formulate with target costs in mind, mitigate formulation risks, prepare for scale up. There's a difference between having a chemistry degree and a hobby, and being a great choice for formulating and preparing for a seamless CM handoff.

The Dangers Of Working With Independent Chemists 

When it's time to hand off the formulation to a CM, then and only then will the problems surface:

• Perhaps the formulation comes out way too expensive, filled with high percentages of actives and specialty ingredients.

• Did you have the MSRP / cost chat with your chemist or did you tell them to shoot for the moon? Even if you had the talk, how can they know how CM's charge for manufacturing, especially if they've never worked at one?

• When it's time to hand off, if testing hasn't been conducted (PET, stability, RIPT), that could also put you back at square 1. Did your chemist formulate with your requests in mind only, or with stability in mind?

• Did they conduct any preliminary tests to predict or ensure stability? What about preservative efficacy? A great chemist will have difficult conversations with their clients, discussing when and where clients will need to compromise for the sake of stability and preservative efficacy.

• When it's time for scaling up the formulation, how much work or predictive work did the chemist perform? Is this formulation even viable beyond a 1L beaker?

• Not every formulation is easy to scale, and sometimes very special equipment or processes are needed, which may preclude a brand from using certain CMs who lack the equipment or don't want the hassle. Beyond your formula's chemical composition, it's important to understand how it will be manufactured at scale.

These are only a few of my main concerns. I've seen even worse, as some independent chemists don't make samples (only hand over formulas on paper, which rarely work as written) and clients expect their formulations to work on round 1 and pass all tests with no adjustment.

Also, poor record keeping and no GMP oversight in small labs means incorrect ingredient usage, amounts, manufacturer listings, and therefore large variations between batches.

To ensure consistency and risk reduction from step 1, it's best to formulate and manufacture all in one place. CM's aren't the sexiest choice of formulator, but you'll be thanking yourself when your concept can turn into a finished product, ready for retail, with very few hitches, setbacks or redos.

In sum, the benefits of hiring a cosmetic manufacturer include: 

• Formulating, manufacturing, creating custom packaging, and filling your cosmetic products all in one place for ease and efficiency 

• Sourcing high-quality preformulated products on a bulk or private label basis

• Creating brand new skin care and makeup from scratch with expert chemists and professional legal-compliant testing 

• Scaling up your current at-home production to fulfill more orders with proper consistency thanks to professional batch testing 

Are you ready to hire a professional, clean, and cruelty-free cosmetic manufacturer? Genie Supply would love to work with your beauty brand! Please call: (812) 329-1105 or email: customerservice@geniesupply.com for more information.