A Guide to Kick-Starting Your Skincare Brand

The beauty industry is an industry of endless opportunities with numerous branches under it. From cruelty-free makeup to eco-friendly hair care, there’s many routes to take in the world of cosmetics. 

One of the most popular of all markets in the beauty industry is skincare. 

With more and more people taking care in their appearance, the skincare industry is simply getting bigger and better. This only goes to show that making people look and feel good about themselves is good business.

Whether you're considering going into this multi-billion-dollar industry or you’re ready to take the step that will mark the beginning of your brand journey, this article is specially crafted for you.

To ease you into the process, we have compiled a detailed step-by-step guide on how to kick-start a successful skincare brand. It will help you navigate the beauty business in the most stress-free way possible, resulting in your own line of skincare products.

We share the common mistakes new brands and business owners make and provide better alternatives to help you avoid problems when you set up your skincare business. 

So, let’s get right into it!

Step-By-Step Guide to Kick-Starting Your Skincare Brand

Whether you’re launching an online store and website or want to sell directly to retailers, these 5 steps will give you an initial understanding of how to start a skincare brand.  

Step 1: Genuine Products That Solve Real Problems Are the Most Profitable

The first step if you are going to start a successful and profitable skincare business is to generate a product idea. To fully embrace this step, begin by brainstorming and conducting market research into common skin-related issues that people face. For example, consumers require products that offer solutions to their skin care needs, such as managing dry skin, oily skin, problematic and ageing skin. 

You want to develop skincare products that genuinely solve these problems. In many cases, the quickest way to boost your business is through referrals. So, if you develop products that are resolving skin concerns, you’re sure to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing as your customers share reviews. That means more growth as more and more customers turn to you for their skin essentials. 

For a new business, launching a skincare line is exciting, and you might be tempted to release a whole product range all at once. However, this is generally a bad idea when you are just entering the skincare industry. Consumers will always choose a brand that they feel they can trust, so you need to build that trust with your consumers first.

We advise that you master just one single skincare product to start with. That product can be your signature hero product and your claim to fame. After that, you can reassess and expand from there. 

Don’t forget to determine the avenue you want to go down. Check out the latest trends in the skincare market too. For example, clean beauty is growing as consumers look toward natural and eco-friendly alternatives to mainstream cosmetics with little consideration to the environment.  

Step 2: Find A Private Label Skincare Manufacturing Company 

It’s difficult to start a skincare or beauty brand from scratch. There are things like packaging, content marketing and legal requirements to consider.

To make the job easier, many new brands partner with a private label manufacturing company. Unless you’re already successfully running a production line in your own home, beauty manufacturing companies can take over the whole process for you.

A beauty manufacturing company can develop formulas, handle packaging and even store your products. And there are many that specialise in different markets, focusing on the likes of natural, cruelty-free and clean beauty products.

The best part is, the products are properly labelled with your own logo and business name. 

Think of this company as your personal lab because they have all the things that you need to manufacture the product that you want to sell. This method is much more efficient than manufacturing products yourself. It’s also more profitable than buying branded skincare products to rebrand and resell.

A good private label skincare manufacturer has all the necessary certifications and experience that you need for your small business. They are experts in product formulations, so they know what chemicals mix well with each other. They have the manufacturing space with all the facilities required, so all you need to do is place your order and have your product delivered to you, ready to sell.

Also, as a new business, you should always start by distributing samples of your product first. This enables you to test the effectiveness of your product, determine whether consumers like it, and whether it is worth investing your money in.

It’s a good idea to include a small sum for purchasing samples in your budget to help you carry out testing. If you don’t want to buy samples, you can visit trade fairs and collect samples from private label companies that you might like to work with.

Step 3: Decide Where You Want to Sell Your Product 

After carrying out testing and ordering your product, it’s time to decide where you want to sell it and how you are going to price skincare products. 

There are a variety of options when you come to selling your product. Do you want to go direct to consumer, or through other retailers? You can choose to sell online (for example, through your online store, website, social media channels, e-commerce sites, or Amazon marketplace) or offline (local markets, in stores, to other retailers). Pick the option that will serve you and your beauty brand perfectly. 

After deciding on where you want to sell your product, you can then move on to negotiating a price.

Step 4: Put a Price on Your Skincare Product 

When fixing a price, there are a few things that you might want to consider. For instance:

• Cost of production
• Taxes
• Shipping Fees
• Any charges that your trading location might incur

When you calculate the above, you can fix a price that will help you settle these fees without tampering with your profit. All in all, you don’t want to go too high, or too low. Find a balance that works for you, as well as your target consumer.

Step 5: Market Your Product to Your Potential Customers

At this point, you’ve done a lot of research and made a lot of important decisions. Now, your skincare product is ready to be sold. The next thing to do is market your product and create awareness to potential customers. The more people that hear about your brand, the more confidence they will have to purchase the product and use it on their skin.

If your product is effective after the first marketing strategy, it will basically begin to market itself. In the meantime, you can focus on growing your business, making more money, and coming up with a new business idea to start a skincare product line in the future.

Conclusion

The skincare industry is full of big and small brands that also want to partake in the wealth of opportunities on offer. In simpler terms, you should expect competition.

However, this guide is sure to give you an advantage over other brands as you tackle the cosmetics marketplace. In following the above steps, you can give yourself a good shot at building a successful skincare brand. Create that initial hero product and your customers will keep coming back for more.

If you don’t want to go it alone and you are looking for a private label business partner to provide a manufacturing space for your skincare products, Australian Private Label could be the answer. APL specialises in clean products with natural ingredients for skin and hair, perfect if you want to launch a clean skincare brand.

Think about working with experts in the field, think high-quality, and all the perks that come with it. Think APL, and start your skincare brand today. Cheers!