Connect With Vendors For Skin Care In 5 Easy Steps
Connecting with the right skin care vendors can make or break your small business.
Imagine you have the choice between two moisturizers: A and B.
Both are the same size, feature similar packaging and marketing, and cost the exact same price to produce.
Despite having the exact same price tag, A outsells B by a landslide.
Why? It all comes down to one difference: A and B were made by two different vendors, and the product quality is miles apart.
How can you choose the type of vendor that produces moisturizer A over B? Our guide below outlines five fool-proof steps for finding the best skin care vendors for your small business’ unique needs.
Establishing A Clear Direction For Your Brand
What’s the most common mistake at the beginning stages of a small cosmetics business? Jumping into a supplier contract without a clear business plan in place.
Take some time to get specific about where your brand is headed. Questions to answer include:
What is your niche?
Who is your target market?
Where do you plan to sell your cosmetics?
Will your brand prioritize any specific ethical concerns?
What is your budget?
How many products do you want in your first skin care line?
Do you have an outline for a 6 month, 1 year, and 5 year plan?
Without a set strategy, it’s virtually impossible to assess whether or not a supplier is a good fit for your brand’s specific needs.
Picture this: you sign a contract with a supplier before making a clear plan. Thankfully, it's a professional beauty lab that creates high-quality skin care at an affordable price.
There’s just one problem - you have now decided that your brand is all about 100% vegan and cruelty-free skin care, and your manufacturer does not have the supply chain to produce products that reflect those ethics.
This is merely one example of the issues that arise if you fail to plan before hiring a manufacturer. How can you prevent this? Establish your niche and identify your target market long before you search for your supplier.
Careful planning in the beginning stages will help identify your non-negotiables moving forward.
Start by conducting your own market research. This includes a deep dive into beauty consumers’ habits and opinions, as well as learning more about the current economic climate in this industry, and where it is projected to grow.
2. Can This Beauty Lab Fulfill Your Product Vision?
Now that you have identified a niche, target market, and have a short-term plan in place, it’s time to get specific about the type of skin care you want for your brand.
Are you creating a luxury line of anti-aging skin care aimed at the wealthy 40+ market?
Look for products like luxurious retinol creams, lifting eye creams, and ‘filtering’ serums. Narrow your search to skin care vendors that source high-quality ingredients and preferably have experience in the luxury anti-aging niche.
Or maybe your brand is all about gender-neutral and affordable skin care for all ages?
This line could include basic 3-step routine products like cleansers, toners, and moisturizers, with some additional wildcard products like anti-blue light serums. In this case, look for vendors that offer a wider variety of basic products, with a focus on quality relative to the price.
At Genie Supply, we will create skin care with your brand’s specific needs in mind. Not only do we sell over 60 clean, cruelty-free, and vegan preformulated products with different price ranges to suit different budgets, but we also offer customized skin care. Learn more about our services here.
3. Does The Vendor Offer Your Preferred Manufacturing Processes?
Once you have a solid idea of the types of products you want to sell, it’s time to decide if you want to source preformulated products or if you would prefer to create your own.
There are four main manufacturing paths available to small skin care brands. Be sure to learn about the pros and cons of each path before you start the vendor selection process. Remember - not every vendor will offer all four paths, and this can be a dealbreaker.
Custom Formulating
If you have a completely original product idea in mind, custom formulating is the best manufacturing process for you. This involves collaborating with a team of professional chemists to create skin care that the market has never seen before.
Offering a truly original product is an effective way to stand out in the crowded cosmetics market and generate buzz around your new business.
While the idea of creating brand-new customized skin care from scratch is exciting, this route is both more expensive and more time-consuming, which is understandably off-putting at the beginning stages of your brand.
At Genie Supply, we specialize in novel chemical research, new-to-market concepts and product formats, making skin care ‘clean’, and hybrid products. Learn more about our full custom formulating services here.
Custom Product Creation
Do you have your heart set on custom-made products, but you just don’t have the budget or time for custom formulating?Custom product creation is the next best alternative.
This process involves adding a limited number of customizations on top of a manufacturer’s base formula.
Although this process won’t create an entirely new formulation, adding a couple of extra ingredients can be enough to make your product stand out from other brands on the (virtual) shelf.
At Genie Supply, we offer two separate custom product creation packages to reflect different budget constraints. Learn more about our full custom product creation services here.
Private Label Or Bulk
Are you on a tight budget? Or hoping to meet a tighter production deadline? Private label is the best option for you.
This process involves adding your own custom branding to a manufacturer’s preformulated products. Although it’s less expensive and much speedier, it leaves no room for any customization (with the exception of potential scent choices).
Maybe you are searching for preformulated skin care for an in-clinic treatment service? Benefit from the economies of scale by purchasing unbranded skin care in larger unbranded drums - this is called buying in ‘bulk’.
Bulk is also a viable option for consumer brands if you already have a packaging and filling contract in place.
At Genie Supply, we offer over 60 preformulated clean and cruelty-free skin care products on a private label or bulk basis. We have four different pricing tiers to suit a range of different niches and budgets. Learn more in our product catalog here.
Contract Manufacturing
If you own the exclusive rights to a cosmetic formula, through working with another lab or formulating your own at home, then contract manufacturing is the next step.
This involves the skin care vendor recreating your formula as closely as possible to your exact recipe and formulation specifications.
Learn more about Genie Supply’s contract manufacturing services here.
4. Finding Potential Vendors For Your Shortlist
Once you have a brand vision in place, a clear idea of the products you want to sell, and a set preference for your manufacturing process, it’s time to begin the search for skin care vendors. Learn more about the best methods to find potential wholesale skin care vendors in our full post.
You can find high-quality skin care manufacturers through word of mouth, by networking at trade shows, or even on online wholesale marketplaces, but generally, the best place to find a suitable skin care vendor is through a simple Google search.
Not only does this provide a wider variety of choices, but looking online is also a good opportunity to vet your options carefully and make a more informed decision.
First, search for skin care vendors in your country. Search terms could include variations on the following:
‘Skin care vendor USA’
‘Skin care manufacturer US’
‘Cosmetics supplier United States’
Start a new spreadsheet and track each potential vendor on your shortlist. Evaluate each option based on your deal breaker criteria.
Maybe you have your heart set on preformulated products, but you notice a lab only offers custom formulating? Or maybe the cost is simply outside your current budget? Remove that supplier from your short list immediately.
You can learn a lot about a skin care vendor based on its website. Key green flags to search for include:
Is the website well-designed?
Does it provide detailed information about all of the lab’s services?
Is the ‘About Us’ page up-to-date? Are they thought leaders in their field?
Does it list all pre-formulated product options with a list of ingredients and skin care benefits?
Is it easy to order samples?
Does the website have an informative and up-to-date blog?
These factors suggest a level of professionalism that typically translates over to the actual formulating section of the business.
At Genie Supply, we provide a detailed overview of all of our manufacturing processes, all of our preformulated products (including the ingredients and skin care benefits), and we keep our website and blog up-to-date. We also make it easy to order samples directly from our website.
5. Connecting With Vendors On Your Shortlist And Testing Samples
Now that you have a shortlist of potential skin care vendors that fulfill all of your deal breakers, it’s time to identify the cream of the crop.
This includes taking a closer look at the production cost relative to your budget, the location of the manufacturing factory, the production timelines, and the values of the company.
There are two key factors that can help you decide which skin care vendor to pick - product quality and professionalism.
Product Quality
The first is product quality. You need to thoroughly test product samples before you make your decision.
Take the time to carefully evaluate the ingredients in multiple formulas before you sign any contract:
If you are a clean beauty brand, look out for ‘greenwashing’
If your brand prioritizes animal rights, it’s important to remember that a formula can be vegan but not cruelty-free, and could also be cruelty-free but not vegan
Test the products on your own skin (if safe to do so). How does the formula feel? Is it luxurious and hydrating? Too runny? Drying? Do you notice any changes to your skin with repeated use over time?
If the ingredients are not up to scratch or if the product does not produce adequate results, you can remove that vendor from your shortlist.
Professionalism
Secondly, it’s important to test a supplier’s level of professionalism. Try contacting the business via email, phone, or their website form with any questions you may have.
Does the customer service team provide prompt and professional responses? Do they outline a clear path from onboarding right through to the product completion stage?
Any unprofessionalism is a potential red flag about the level of professionalism on the manufacturing side of the business. Remove unprofessional suppliers from your shortlist.
In sum, there are five essential steps to choosing the best skin care vendor for your brand:
Establish a clear direction for your brand
Evaluate if this beauty lab can fulfill your product vision
Does the vendor offer your preferred manufacturing processes?
Finding suppliers and shortlisting the best options
Connecting with the vendors on your shortlist and testing samples
Are you ready to connect with a skin care vendor that delivers services to suit your needs? Genie Supply would love to work with your brand. Please contact us via email: customerservice@geniesupply.com or phone: (812) 329-1105 for more information.
