Find The Best Wholesale Skin Care Ingredients And Manufacturers [5 Steps]
High-performing skin care begins with excellent wholesale ingredients.
But if you are new to the skin care game, it’s not easy to find the best ingredient suppliers and product manufacturers.
Genie Supply is here to help.
Our in-depth guide below provides a step-by-step guide on how to vet wholesalers and manufacturing labs based on ingredient quality.
We discuss accommodating budget constraints, differentiating between high and low quality ingredients, the importance of ‘clean’ skin care, and much more.
Whether you are sourcing ingredients to create your own skincare at home, or looking for manufacturers that use the best wholesale skin care ingredients for your business, we have got you covered.
Just keep reading!
Finding Wholesale Ingredient Suppliers And Manufacturing Labs
Whether you choose to formulate at home or with a lab, the search process for suppliers is straightforward.
You can find potential product or ingredient wholesalers in directories, through word of mouth, or in person at trade shows, however, the most common method to find a supplier is a simple online search.
The Google search term ‘wholesale skin care ingredients’ pulls 13,700,000 results alone, and features labs that formulate products on your behalf and suppliers that solely provide ingredients for you to formulate at home.
In either case, there’s no shortage of suppliers to choose from. The real difficulty is narrowing down a shortlist and finding the best wholesale skin care ingredients suppliers or labs for your specific brand.
How To Identify The Best Skin Care Ingredients
To find the best wholesale skin care ingredients for your business, vet the ingredients of each supplier or lab based on the following criteria:
Product alignment
Quality/effectiveness
Safety/clean credentials
Ethics
Price
Ingredients That Align With Your Brand & Product Vision
Even if a supplier offers high-quality ingredients, the right wholesaler for one brand isn’t necessarily the best choice for another.
Your ingredients should be safe and effective, but must also be suitable for the specific skin concerns of your target demographic.
Market research is the crucial first step to identify your target audience and the types of skin care products you want to create before you begin the supplier search.
For example, imagine that brand X conducts market research and finds a gap in the market for niche skin care products made from sustainable upcycled ingredients.
In this case, brand X would narrow its ingredient search to the limited number of suppliers and labs that specialize in upcycled ingredients.
Sourcing High-Quality Wholesale Ingredients To Create Effective Skin Care
A wholesale skin care ingredients supplier could seem perfect on paper, but the quality of ingredients can tell a different story.
Distinguish Between High And Lower Quality Ingredients
If you plan to formulate at home, take the time to thoroughly research the ingredient options for your product line. Two different ingredients can serve the same purpose in a formula - but with a significant gulf in quality and/or cost.
Understanding these subtle differences is key to creating high-quality formulas and finding ingredients suppliers that provide real value for money.
For example, L-ascorbic acid and tetrahexyldecyl (THD) ascorbate are both forms of vitamin C.
As outlined by research from 2021, L-ascorbic acid is a pure vitamin C, however, it is difficult to formulate with other products.
On the other hand, THD ascorbate is a newer form of vitamin C that is easier to formulate with and is also less irritating on sensitive skin. Learn more about our THD ascorbate vitamin C serum at Genie Supply here.
The UL Prospector database is a great resource to learn more about ingredients, differentiate between alternatives, and find the best ones for your products.
Skin Care Manufacturers Offer Samples To Gauge The Effectiveness Of Ingredients
The vetting process is more straightforward if you are manufacturing your skincare in a lab. Quality suppliers offer samples to gauge the quality of the ingredients and the efficacy of the formula.
Order plenty of samples and trial the products for a couple of weeks to determine the performance on the skin over time.
At Genie Supply, we formulate using the highest-quality ingredients to create effective skin care that generates real results for your customers.
We believe transparency is key, and list all of the ingredients and highlight the benefits of each preformulated product on our product pages. Test our high-quality formulas for yourself - order samples directly from our website here.
Clean Ingredients For Safe-For-Skin Formulas
With consumer awareness about the potential dangers of skin care ingredients at an all-time high and ever-increasing legal restrictions on cosmetic formulas, opting for clean and safe ingredients is more important than ever.
If you wish to formulate your products at home, spend time researching clean wholesale skin care ingredients as alternatives to harmful additives like petroleum, mica, and drying alcohols.
Thankfully as clean beauty rises in popularity, these cleaner alternatives are increasingly easier to find.
For example, the glycol ether phenoxyethanol is an effective and safer alternative to traditional paraben-derived preservatives. Learn more about the safety and efficacy of phenoxyethanol in our full blog post here.
If you formulate with a skin care manufacturer, the search for clean ingredients is more straightforward.
Simply partner with a manufacturing lab that specializes in the clean beauty niche and prioritizes clean formulas from its preformulated range through to its custom formulated products.
At Genie Supply, we specialize in clean, safe, ethical, and sustainable skin care.
We formulate much of our products to meet (and exceed) the strict clean beauty standards of retailers including Credo, Sephora, and Whole Foods. Read more about clean beauty at Genie Supply here.
Skin Care Ingredients That Align With Your Brand’s Ethics
Ethical skin care brands need ingredient suppliers that align with their values.
For brands that prioritize animal welfare, choose wholesale skin care suppliers that specialize in vegan and cruelty-free ingredients.
If sustainability is a core value of your brand, look for wholesalers that prioritize ingredient transparency and traceability.
Quality suppliers take steps to prevent the overconsumption of non-renewable resources and ensure all labor involved in the ingredient extraction process is compensated fairly.
The origins of your ingredients could also be important if you want to make the ‘Made in USA’ claim on your products.
According to the FDA, in many cases, a product can only make the ‘Made In USA’ claim if “all or virtually all” of the labor and materials included in the product are domestically sourced.
At Genie Supply, ethical considerations run at the heart of our skin care manufacturing business. Not only can we create cosmetics using 100% vegan and cruelty-free ingredients, but we also prioritize sustainability and manufacture our products in the USA. Learn more about moving from home to lab at Genie Supply here.
Finding Suppliers That Accommodate Your Budget
A wholesale skin care ingredient supplier could tick all of the other boxes, but if they cannot accommodate your budget, it is not the right match for your business.
It’s no secret that there is a perceived trade-off between cost-effectiveness and ingredient quality in the cosmetics industry.
For example, based on the comparison of two different forms of vitamin C above, THD ascorbate versus L-ascorbic acid, the former seemed like the obvious choice.
What if I told you that, according to RootScience, THD ascorbate is 17 times more expensive than L-ascorbic acid?
Your budget will determine whether or not the improved ingredient quality compensates for the price increase in most cases.
It’s important to note that a trade-off between cost and quality doesn’t always exist.
For example, when it comes to humectant ingredients, some dermatologists prefer the less expensive glycerin over the more expensive hyaluronic acid.
Dr. Houshmand tells Harper's Bazaar that data suggests glycerin is “the most effective humectant available” to increase skin hydration.
Whether you formulate at home or with a manufacturer, it’s normal to operate on a limited budget at the beginning of your business journey.
Look for suppliers that offer ingredient price tiers, low minimum order quantities, and flexible pricing structures to accommodate a tighter budget during the initial business phases. This flexibility allows your brand to scale easily with the same supplier and upgrade your ingredients over time.
At Genie Supply, we specialize in working with small home-to-lab skin care brands.
With a preformulated range featuring four different pricing tiers and low minimum order quantities (MOQs), we can provide skin care to suit virtually any budget. Learn more about our pricing in our product catalog here.
In sum, finding quality wholesale skin care ingredient suppliers and manufacturers to create your products involves:
Choosing ingredients that align with your niche and brand vision
Distinguishing between high quality ingredients and lower quality alternatives
Vetting suppliers based on the ingredients’ clean credentials
Understanding the importance of ethical sourcing, including sustainable, traceable, vegan, and cruelty-free ingredients
Looking for suppliers that accommodate your current budget restrictions
Are you searching for a manufacturing lab to source quality ingredients and formulate skin care products for your brand?
From preformulated skin care to customized products, Genie Supply is here to help. Get in touch via email: customerservice@geniesupply.com or call: (812) 329-1105 to learn more about how we can formulate your skin care line.
