Create Your Product or Product Line
For many, starting a skincare business line involves sharing knowledge about natural solutions they find effective for their own skin health. Finding a skincare solution that already works well for you is a great start if you are willing to share the idea with the world.
Not only can your idea become a profitable business, but it also is a great way to help people who have similar skin goals, which makes it worth the try. Your main focus might be on the quality of the product in terms of ingredient sourcing, sustainability, or something similar.
You will ultimately want to have a product that solves a problem, one that not a lot of successful solutions are offered for if at all. There should also be a market demand for the product or product line and a high-profit margin.
Determine the Purpose of Your Product
Whether you are starting off with a single product or are planning to launch a whole skincare line, you’ll need to determine the main purpose of the product you are offering. Even if you are going for an entire collection, keep in mind that it’s advisable to put a focus on one main product.
You need to determine the purpose of your product accurately. Is it an efficient anti-aging formula for the skin that promises fast results? Is your product intended for everyday care but is free from harsh chemicals? Is its purpose is to deliver matte or dewy skin?
Whether your product is effective in treating skin problems or focuses on alternative manufacturing approaches, you should establish a purpose to be able to brand and advertise your product to the right audience.
Know Your Niche Market
Whether starting off with a specific idea or an aspiration to launch a personal skincare line, your product(s) will fall in a particular niche market with a certain customer demographic. The direction of your skincare line can be determined by your initial product idea, while your product development might be directed by your niche of choice.
For example, if your initial idea is to create a face cream without any chemical additives, it will fall in the natural cosmetic niche. On the other hand, if you wish to start a skincare line in the organic skincare niche your product development will be predetermined by the standards and regulations for organic skincare.
Determining the direction of your skincare product/line and placing it in a specific market niche is important in terms of brand vision and promotion. This decision will also dictate where you will sell the products, what price you’ll set, and more.
Organic or Natural Skincare Line
If you are opting for an organic and completely natural skincare line, you need to comply with the regulations and the standards regarding how the ingredients are sourced.
Organic skincare means your product is made from organically grown ingredients and might use natural oils. In order to be able to label your product as natural and organic, it needs to be tested and validated by third-party companies that are authorized to issue certifications for organic products.
Vegan Skincare Line
If you are interested in offering a product for skin that is cruelty-free, you should look to develop an animal-friendly skincare formula.
A vegan skincare product needs to be made without any animal products and steers clear from product testing on animals.
Same as with organic skincare lines, in order to issue your collection as a certified vegan product, it needs to be inspected and tested by third-party companies authorized to issue the vegan certification label.
Age or Gender Specific Skincare Line
You can decide to start a skincare line that is intended for women or men only. On the other hand, you can even put your focus on a specific age group or skin concern that is most likely to use your product.
If you have an effective acne formula, you can advertise your product as manufactured for young, acne-prone skin with your main target customers being teenagers and adolescents.
Sustainably Sourced Skincare Line
If you want to develop a natural skincare products with an additional purpose, you can create a formula that provides optimal skincare while being sustainably sourced.
The sourced ingredients should come from farms that use renewable resources that do not harm the earth, while also being mindful of human labor exploitation.
Learn Everything There Is to Know About Your Niche
You do not necessarily have to have previous knowledge of developing chemical formulas or what the effects are of the ingredients commonly found in products similar to yours. However, once you decide to launch your skincare line, your success is very much predetermined by your research and knowledge of the field.
You can work closely with a professional to develop your formula and manufacture your product, but it still is your creation and any improvements and changes of the formula should be finalized by you.
You should be knowledgeable about your product, startup costs, all the ingredients it consists of, what the manufacturing process is like, and the main purpose of the product. Moreover, you should be aware of the similar products on the market and know their pros and cons for different skin types.
Learning everything there is to know about how to start a skincare brand is not an easy task. Deciding what ingredients will do the job and getting your brand seen in the cosmetic market, requires time, research, and a good deal of thinking before taking action.
Be patient and do your homework so you can be a master of your craft and come up with a seriously competitive product line.
Develop Your Branding
Once you have established the purpose of your product and placed it in its specific niche, you should now think about branding as well as your story.
Your skincare product or line needs an interesting and catchy name that will preferably summarize the type and purpose of the product in a short one- or two-word brand name that also describes your brand’s story.
Along with the name, you’ll need a suitable logo. You should prepare all of this before you start planning and choosing the right package design for your products.
Organize Your Packaging
The packaging part might seem like the least difficult part of the process. But in reality, you might face serious difficulties when it comes to finding the right product package and packaging manufacturer.
Most packaging manufacturing companies will have a minimum order of at least a several thousand pieces in order to develop the packaging you require. This might not be the best idea as you might find out that the initial packaging choice was not the right one for the product.
To avoid such a huge investment, and possibly on the wrong packaging, always look for a manufacturer that is willing to make several prototypes and listen to your needs.
Packaging can become a big issue. Despite how great your product is, you customers may not be satisfied with it if the packaging is impractical. Make sure to perform quality control by yourself and conduct sufficient tests on the chosen package before deciding it’s the ideal solution.
Manufacture a Small Number of Products First
It’s important to take the time to find suppliers or manufacturers that are willing to manufacture small batches of your product. If you are not investing much into your product, it is of utmost importance that you aren’t putting a lot of money in production before getting the chance to see how your product performs on the market.
If you find that consumers are interested in your product, you can proceed with mass production. However, if you notice that your product is not performing well, you can always improve and change your formula before you are left with thousands of products without interested buyers.
Launching a Business
When developing a skincare line your main focus should fall on the product and the manufacturing process. You would ultimately want to produce a high-quality and competitive product with a purpose. Not only is this a very daunting task, but it also is very time-consuming and requires a lot of attention to detail.
Therefore, in order to establish a quality skincare line and a successful business, it’s advisable to find a mentor that is an expert in launching a new company in the beauty industry.
You can use their expertise to help execute the main steps of launching a successful business in the beauty industry. This includes a great business plan, determining the target audience, and all sorts of advice regarding branding.
You could even split the workload where you focus on the product development while leaving the business development to an experienced individual. Additionally, a major factor that will transform a new company into a successful business is the advertising process.
Once you have everything ready, you need to advertise your product using marketing tactics such as social media marketing, blog posts, and email campaigns to work on brand awareness to up your sales. This can be through paid or organic traffic based on the content you post about the types of products you are selling to customers.