How To Launch A Makeup Brand & Sell Online: The Ultimate Guide

Key Takeaways

you don't need to be estee lauder to sell your own makeup but you do need to know how to make or find good formulas have great packaging and you need to know how to market yourself this video is for the makeup lovers that are really in it and want to make their business work so in this video i'm going to teach you how to launch a makeup brand and sell online step by step [Music] hi everyone my name is michelle bally and today i'm going to take you through how to start your makeup line from scratch with expert advice and real examples from successful beauty brands i'll teach you how to position your makeup line in a crowded market how to make manufacture or white label your makeup all about building your makeup brand and everything that you need to know about ingredients packaging and labeling i'll teach you how to source and develop your packaging how to manage your inventory and how to set up your online store make sure you're sticking around until the end of this video because i'm going to teach you some tips on how you can market your makeup brand online sephora carries over 250 brands so you might be asking yourself is there really room for me and you know how can my mascara get noticed among an ocean of competitors so i'm not here to sugarcoat things it's a real challenge but the good news is that if you were in this game even 15 years ago it would have been so much harder for over a hundred years cosmetics were controlled by l'oreal unilever procter gamble and estee lauder companies these companies took home a whopping 81.7 percent of the worldwide beauty revenue in 2019 can you believe this but luckily ecommerce solutions and access to manufacturers have made it super easy for the little guy to come in and take a piece of that pie so here's how you enter the market figure out what you're going to sell so step number one is figuring out what you want to sell right up there with marketing this is one of the most important parts so if you need to take a few months to figure this out just be patient with yourself and allow yourself that space brainstorm ideas by answering these questions first how is your idea different from what's already on the market so the cold hard truth is that if you're getting a product on alibaba and you're just throwing it online without much thought you're not going to do nearly as well as a brand who's really taking the time to differentiate itself so maybe it's not your formula that's all that different but maybe you stand out because of your brand's story or your ethos or your cause can you identify a customer for your products so sometimes i hear small business owners say oh my products are for every woman of every age everywhere if you're targeting everyone the result will actually be the opposite you're just going to end up speaking to nobody in particular so to avoid this just be clear about who your target audience is this doesn't have to be this big fancy document or anything but you'll want to define who your audience is what they like what they dislike how old they are and what kind of a lifestyle they lead include relevant demographics and psychographics you'll also want to think if you're speaking to customers that are currently underrepresented by brands so for example vive cosmetics is run by women who wanted to represent latinas they found a gap in the market and they are now dominating that corner so if you can clearly answer these questions that we just talked about then you are ready for the next step finding niche markets once you've figured out what you're going to sell you've already done some of the legwork it takes to carve out your niche finding a niche means appealing to a subset of a market so for example sugarpill's hyper-pigmented colors and extreme looks appeal to a cosplay audience studio 10 targets an older customer addressing the issues specific to mature skin or what about workout proof makeup sweat cosmetics sells this and they target athletes so once you've figured out what you're going to sell and what niche you're going to go after next you're going to want to think about whether you want to make manufacture white label or resell what you decide will depend on your time skill level and how much money you have available so here i'm going to explain four ways to produce or procure your products for your makeup brand making your own cosmetics some beauty products like lip balms face oils and bath products are so simple that you can just make them at home you can find recipes on makingcosmetics.com and you can find tutorials on youtube you'll have to play around with the formula until you find one that you're happy with you'll want to play with ingredients measurements and methods that give you the right texture color payoff staying power and overall look keep a record of the ingredients and the methods that you use so that your formulas remain consistent throughout and you're also going to want this for when you're ready to grow and ready to pass off your production to a commercial facility even though your manufacturing facility may be in your kitchen at first you still want to make sure that you're following local regulations fda sets guidelines for air control and surfaces in the u.s so i'll make sure to leave a link in the description box for you guys to check out fda requirements the diy method is a really great starting point for new brands factories often have super high minimums like 20 000 units and that might be unrealistic if you're a brand that's just starting out melissa owner of the lip bar started out by making her own formulas she said i had no idea how to make lipstick but she learned the ropes through research and connecting with cosmetic chemists eventually though she hit a wall i realized there's no way that i should keep doing something that i wasn't an expert at she says in order for us to effectively sell i needed to be able to produce end mass this freed up her time for creativity and storytelling i'll also drop a link to a step-by-step guide on how to make your own lip balm at home and i'll leave that in the description box you might find it fun to make your own formulas but if it's not your strong suit or you're not really interested in that just know when it's time to outsource if you're looking for a cosmetic chemist to bring your formulas to life check out a cosmetic chemist the owner is named sherry she's worked on well-known brands for years so if you want to start a project with her i'll be sure to drop her website below in the description box and that's for everyone located in canada but for everyone else just simply type in cosmetic chemist plus your location into google to find the right candidate white label manufacturing white labeling or private labeling refers to taking a generically manufactured product and selling it under your own branding so this can be customized slightly with color or fragrance but many brands will use the same formula by the same facility as yours white label is an ideal option for brand selling a novelty item versus a unique product so for example if you were to launch a unicorn theme store maybe you'd sell private label lipsticks with unicorn packaging and unicorn inspired names so really the lipstick itself is not as important as the branding or the concept white label is a really great way to move quickly from idea to finished product especially if you're jumping on a hot trend check out megan cox's white label company called genie supply so it's a beauty lab for entrepreneurs that specializes in providing clean cosmetics for small brands that are making their first foray into private labeling they also do semi-custom formulations which can range anywhere from fifteen hundred dollars to seven grand and the timeline from that is anywhere from two to nine months to get one of those projects finished complete custom formulations can be anywhere from three grand to a hundred fifty thousand dollars it's quite a bit but this can take anywhere from six months to a year manufacturing unique cosmetic formulations here we're referring to making formulations from scratch in a manufacturing facility when kate launched redhead revolution she was producing products at home which she eventually outgrew kate eventually settled on a manufacturer after having done plenty of research i knew i was looking for companies that focused a little bit more on higher quality and more natural ingredients she says finding a local manufacturer was important to her so that she could stay very close to the process i was actually able to go to the factory in person and meet the people and create a relationship with them when building vive leslie says that she and joanna did research and reached out to several manufacturers sometimes being ignored but requested many samples before finally settling on one we went with the manufacturer we felt gave us the most attention and could deliver quality products there are many online resources to help connect you with manufacturers both in north america and overseas so you'll want to start with these manta is a list of cosmetic manufacturers in the united states and then you'll also want to check out maker's row curating and reselling cosmetics you can also resell and skip the manufacturing altogether buy wholesale items from multiple brands to make a curated shop to focus your offering think in themes local only brands is a great place to start you can try natural or organic products or products for specific skin types or skin concerns so for example india is the owner of india rose a clean cruelty free beauty boutique that specializes in coveted labels for her over the border canadian customers she says i started pretty low-tech i had a whiteboard in my dining room with a list of the brands that i wanted to contact and whether or not i had heard back from them curating your own shop is a really great way to break into the beauty industry building your makeup brand in any image based industry brand is especially important so consider how your packaging branding voice and your website design can help reflect your brand values tell a story and create an experience for your customers your brand is a feeling you want customers to have when they think of you so is that you know wow they're doing really innovative stuff or is it oh they really care about animals differentiation in this space is so important and in some cases it can be even more important than the product itself so think carefully about what sets you apart in this really crowded space and then tell that story tell it on social tell it on your website tell it on your packaging just tell it everywhere and your photography your photography also tells a story so be sure that the aesthetic and the models look like your ideal customers and represent their lifestyle and their values ingredients packaging and labeling because cosmetics are applied to the body it can be a bit of a risky space to play in because of health and safety concerns in order to stay safe follow laws around how cosmetics must be manufactured tested labeled and marketed refer to your local legislation and regulations on where you plan to sell choosing cosmetic ingredients and building formulations if you're white labeling research ingredients and suppliers thoroughly just to be sure that the claims that they're making are accurate you might also want to hire a third-party firm to do an audit on any manufacturer or vendor before you start working with them so here's a couple of things you're going to want to consider before looking at ingredients are the ingredients skin care grade and or approved for use in skin care in your country okay so for example coconut oil may be sold in both food grade or skin care grade versions think about what preservatives you will use if any and how that might affect your shelf life will your products make organic claims and be sure that if you do go the organic route that the supplier possesses the appropriate certifications these will differ from country to country trace the supply chain is the supplier reputable can they provide references also think about the labeling laws in your country and the countries on where you plan to ship also are any ingredients known as common allergens for this you're going to want to check out ewg skin deep cosmetics database for information on the safety of ingredients and also names list and directory of cosmetics ingredients is another great resource sourcing and developing packaging packaging is extremely important for makeup because it serves several purposes you know your packaging helps application it helps preservation and brand appeal it protects fragile items like eye shadows and it could also be the factor that makes your product innovative packaging does a lot of the heavy lifting especially with makeup so the details do matter if you choose a clear container consumers can see which color they're choosing right away and if you choose a teardrop applicator the lip gloss can be applied really precisely so for simple items you can easily source empty containers and print your own labels when you're just starting out but you may need to work with a supplier to create custom packaging if you're really wanting to stand out be sure to test out your packaging before bringing it to market so megan cox discovered that the glue in the brush applicator was not compatible with the formulation of her brand's eyelash serum and so then the bristles just began to fall out so she says packaging was a really big issue for me i lost a lot of customers because it was unreliable after the experience megan conducted her own quality control flying frequently to her manufacturing partners facilities and just maintaining a close relationship labeling requirements each country has its own rules governing packaging requirements for beauty products so within your country there may be state or region specific rules as well these regulations are in place to protect consumers and that covers everything from packaging language weight or volume labeling ingredient listing and safety or allergen warnings now i'm not going to go into too much detail in this video because i think this video would be too long but i'll make sure to link those resources in the description box for the us uk and canadian regulations managing inventory managing beauty inventory can be a little more finicky than with other products so here are a couple of tips for you keep an eye on shelf life natural products have a shorter shelf life so to start just order smaller quantities so that you're avoiding waste watch temperature and humidity be sure that your products are stored away from the heat or sunlight and moisture because that can damage or melt them so somewhere in a cupboard is a great idea stay organized create a system that allows products to be really easily accessed and really easily identified so if you have all your outside containers the exact same buy a couple of stickers that go in the bottom or on the sides so that you can easily identify which product and which shade you're looking at and this is also going to help you avoid shipping the wrong product out to your customers setting up your online store first let's get you set up with shopify it only takes a few minutes and we have a free 14-day trial for you to get started test it out see if you're into it i'll leave a link in the description box for that but having your online store made with shopify is gonna help take your makeup brand to that next level and i'm not just saying that there are so many apps there are so many features that make running your online makeup store very convenient and very beautiful to look at so if you want to learn how to set up your shopify store from scratch i will have a whole video just up here that you can click on later to learn how to do that it's very in-depth and it's great for beginners here are a couple of pro tips to get you started product descriptions are super super important especially for makeup you're going to want to use this space to describe the texture the finish the application and how they should use the product if you're selling makeup online customers don't have the access to be trying your product on their own skin so use this space to be as detailed as possible use a free app called tabs by station to organize your topics like ingredients warnings how to apply and claims you can also help visualize color variations through swatches using bold product options enhanced product pages with large super clear images of the product on a clean background also include lifestyle images that capture the product used on a model so that they can see the texture and see how it wears on the skin ideally this could be on several models with varying skin tones consider additional media too try videos you can try lookbooks and makeup tutorials and these can live on your product pages or they can live in a gallery on your site also try embedding photo reviews that's going to help with conversions by quite a bit and also embed a live instagram feed that's going to help take your customers from your site to your instagram shopify apps for makeup stores apps can add a lot more functionality to your store to help you make that sale here are some shopify apps suggestions for your makeup brand prominently feature large lifestyle photos with the free shoppable fashion galleries app it's amazing because customers can click right on the image to get the look and buy that product in order to achieve what the model is wearing upsell and make product recommendations using limespot personalizer you can also allow customers to virtually apply cosmetics before they buy from you so for this check out decorative cosmetics try on this can be a little bit pricey so install this app once you have traffic choosing a theme for your makeup store themes are the skeleton of your website design many are fully customizable and can accommodate your brand's logo fonts colors and your entire design in shopify theme store you can try by filtering through makeup industry so i myself have used debut and i got a really great result debut is a free theme but if you're looking for something a little extra you can try envy vantage and you can also try simple and simple is actually free marketing your makeup line target your niche this is where the work that you did in the beginning to define your niche is going to pay off find out where your audience hangs out do they go to trade shows are they on instagram a lot do they spend their time on tick tock speak their language and be strategic with your partnerships leverage reviews over 70 percent of americans say that they look at product reviews before they actually make a purchase so for this you can try an app like yatpo to embed reviews on your product pages you can also link up with beauty influencers to review your products for you so for my own brand i started reaching out to youtubers and i contacted this one creator her rate was eight thousand dollars per video but she did have half a million subscribers which makes sense um but if something like that is out of your price range just contact smaller accounts they would be more than happy to make review videos in exchange for your products in addition to working with other social media personalities i used my own social accounts to grow my audience so for me i focused on tick tock for my own brand and i recommend you do the same social media marketing social media is a great place for budding brands to market themselves for free so for me and my brand we use tick tock and with tick tock i gained 13 000 followers in three days and i made 400 in sales in my first day of using tick tock at first i didn't want to use tick tock because i already had instagram to worry about i already have facebook to worry about but i decided that i would give it a try i think it is important to get on tick tock and to get on that trend right now because of the level of engagement is what instagram would have been five years ago tick tock has also helped me double my followers on instagram so the crossover really is there as well now i didn't write the algorithm so i'm going to share some tips with you but these are speculations so keep that in mind but these are some tips that i'm using to make my account grow like wildfire tell a story i made sure that my content told a story the way that i produce my packaging is very innovative and it's very visually stimulating so i explained the manufacturing process from start to finish i included visuals of the machines and the people who created my packaging i would recommend that you explain the problem and end with the solution so in my video you can see that it opened with a problem creating the makeup with recycled process and then i showed my personal solution at the end present your brand ethos so i do go in to explain that this process isn't the easiest or the cheapest one but i did feel that it was the right one i also decided to make my video really snappy so i did a lot of shortcuts and information presented really quickly which helps stimulate this generation that has a very short attention span so that's a quick little tip for you right there present your product at the end of my video i show a final result and i introduce the product without being overly salesy i think it's important to emphasize that tick tock right now is not a place to be salesy people are going there to be educated or to be entertained whereas instagram is full of ads now and you kind of expect to be sold to tic toc is still very much community based some other tips i made sure to break down this video into steps and then show them as subtitles i also use the whole caption section for relevant hashtags in this case i mixed popular hashtags with more niche hashtags that all related back to the content use a viral song and put the volume super low behind your voice so that you up your chances of getting on the page for that song and that's going to help you with exposure once you find the combination that works for you just continue making that same type of content in different ways so for me for example i tried to create a get ready with me video where i put on makeup and did an entire look and people didn't really seem to care so i just did not continue down that way but as soon as i created process videos those seem to be the ones that really stick so i just continued with that theme the good news is that i don't think i'm a unique case i think it is really easy to grow on tick tock right now you don't need to be a content genius you don't need to have the best equipment i think you just need to show up and provide value so i urge you to hop on and try it out for your brand how much does it cost to start a makeup line the cost of starting any business depends on several factors in the cosmetics industry the barrier to entry is very low if you opt to start from home create your own formulations and bootstrap your growth but you could require significant upfront capital if you plan to manufacture commercially i myself spent five thousand dollars my biggest costs were labor shipping ingredients and a photo shoot however i was super careful not to overspend so five thousand dollars is pretty low as far as startup costs go leslie and joanna also started small when they created vive they got a ten thousand dollar small business loan that they secured with a solid business plan we had to start small with only one lipstick formula and only five shades for melissa of lipbar her forecasting fell short and she ran out of money quickly i had saved what i thought was a year's worth of expenses she says it lasted six and a half months but her drive to build the lip bar encouraged her to find creative ways to keep the lights on she and her roommate shared a bedroom renting the second room out on airbnb to cut costs look for manufacturers or white label companies that can accommodate lower minimums find opportunities to barter and also team up with other brands to share costs on things like photo shoots and marketing campaigns if this is something that you're passionate about and you're headstrong on making this happen then i fully believe that you will make it happen when i started out i knew nothing all i knew was that i loved makeup and i had the drive to learn how to run an e-commerce business on my own so tell me what products you're gonna sell in the comments section i cannot wait to hear about all of your brands and congratulations on getting one step closer to starting your own makeup brand as you go on this journey you might want to subscribe to this channel so that you can learn how to grow your online business we have videos on everything we have videos on facebook ads we have videos on how to write a business plan and we even have a video which might be helpful to a lot of you is how to take product photography at home with just your smartphone thank you guys so much for watching my name is michelle bally and i'll see you in the next one