How To Get Your First Cosmetic Product Ready For Retail

If you’re a cosmetic fan and know your lipstick range from your compact cases, why not launch your own brand? It’s not an easy project, but anything is possible. There is plenty of space in the beauty industry for new brands to pop up and offer something completely different.

So, where do you start, and how do you look at launching something fantastic? Let’s look at some beauty product tips to get you started.

#1 Building The Brand

Building a brand can be a dilemma, but one that is worth the journey. Creating a ‘Brand Name’ takes time and discipline. The message and product have to be right, and your target market even more so. You need to have an agenda and work towards building a reputation. To get started and gain traction, it might be a good idea to offer your products on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, car boot sales, small marketplaces or craft fairs. You may even consider exhibiting and offer your beauty products to resellers. Try not to feel overwhelmed when creating your new brand. Our top five Brand tips:

1. Keep your brand name simple – try not to overcomplicate your message and name.
2. Pay for a designer to create your logo and help with brand name ideas
3. If your budget is low? Try a logo building app on your favourite app store
4. Check to see if the domain name is available for a future web presence
5. Think about what your logo or brand name will look like on your products.

#2 Building A Retail Website

Once you have made a small profit, you could consider opening an online shop. Companies such as Shopify or SquareSpace offer simple and intuitive CMS (content manage systems) e-commerce capabilities. You can add product SKU’s, photography, price points, create top-level pages and allow for online – search engine optimisation through writing relative titles and descriptions in the metadata boxes.

Our top 5 Website tips:

1. Shopify and Squarespace are easy to use online platforms. They have payment gateway systems, domain name purchase options, plugins to help with conversions, website templates you can purchase and much more. Everything you need to get online is under one roof.
2. Find a design agency or freelancer to help if you’re struggling and work on an organic content marketing framework. Write about your product and all its benefits.
3. Take beautiful photography shots of your products
4. Think about your SEO and how to apply target keywords into your metadata
5. Use targeted social ad campaigns to drive traffic to your website.

Building an online presence also takes time. In today’s web matrix, you will need to consider digital content marketing. You can also consider social media targeting to get brand exposure. Some brands can hit it off quickly, while others can take years to build.

#3 The Product

First, you want to start off with a product in mind. There is a whole world of packaging cosmetics to choose from. You might be thinking Mascara! or perhaps some kind of classic coloured lipstick scheme. You may even have an idea for some sort of organic liquid moisturising solution. There is plenty to choose from. Here are some basic colour cosmetic products that Berlin Packaging | Raepak can help you with:

1. Lipstick
2. Lip-gloss
3. Compact Containers
4. Cosmetic Jars
5. Cosmetic Tubes
6. Cosmetic Pens
7. Eye Liner / Dipper
8. Powder dispenser
9. Cosmetic roll-ons
10. Mascara.

Our top 5 Product tips:

1. Check out the reputation of the company you want to order from – Google reviews, customer service, quality of samples ordered
2. Company benefits – some companies will offer free storage, free sample requests, fast delivery options and finance deals
3. Min and max MOQ’s (minimum order quantity) available and price points depending on how much you order
4. Quality and sustainability of the cosmetic product chosen
5. Product range for future developments and expansion of brand.

Finding a reputable packaging company with authority and extraordinary benefits can be a difficult process. Don’t worry, our team can offer all the above.

#4 The Packaging Design

Once you have decided on the product, it’s time to develop the cosmetic packaging design, labelling and colour scheme. This is an exciting process, and plenty of companies can help get your product to market. Berlin Packaging UK offers plenty of benefits. Some include free storage, free sample requests and dedicated account managers. Alternatively, you may want to use a supplier such as allinpacking.co.uk. This company allows you to buy directly online and deals with minimal orders.

You might want to be in a position where your supplier talks to your labelling company. This way, once you grow, you can order larger numbers to deal with any spikes in demand.

Some product decoration options can include colour matching, hot foil blocking, silk screening, water transfer or metallisation. All these techniques can make your product design look amazing.

Our top 5 Packaging Design tips:

1. Hire a graphic designer or use a professional product label company
2. Stick to your brand guidelines and understand your target market
3. Think about creating a family of products and keep your labels and brand consistant
4. Understand what important content needs to be on the label
5. Be creative and explore colours, fonts and graphics.

#5 The Product Contents

Once you have settled on your product design, it’s now time to fill it with liquid or solid contents. You will need to talk to a filling company. Again, there is plenty to choose from. A good packaging company will recommend someone to you that is easy to work with.

Finding a good filling company will help with what you have in mind. They can talk to you about many different options and show you ideas you haven’t considered.

Our top 5 Filling tips:

1. Does you product carry all the neccessory certificates (dermatologically tested)?
2. Is your contents sustainable and environmentally friendly?
3. Understand your filling company’s time projections, they may be busy and need weeks or months of notice before they can to fit you in
4. Have you tested your product on potential consumers and gained consumer group feedback?
5. Did you make any changes based on the consumer testings?

#6 Price Points and Market Segment

It might be wise to compare your product to what’s on the market today. Get some price points and try to position yourself to tempt buyers into choosing your product. A big brand with years of experience should have higher price points. If you’re starting out and no one knows who you are, it might be wise to have a lower price range.

It would help if you had an understanding of your target market. This could be age range, gender, luxury, affordable or mid-range. You can even consider trending factors, locations or focus on a niche market.

Here are some marketing ideas to consider:

Our top 12 Marketing tips:

1. Holiday sets
2. Club scene – nightlife
3. Everyday wear
4. Teens
5. OAP
6. Sophisticated – luxury
7. Timeless or modern
8. Vintage
9. Seasons – Winter – Summer
10. Beauty hacks or trends
11. Domestic & Commercial
12. Skincare, beauty, hair and hands

This article should give you a basic insight into what it might take to get started. If you would like further help with getting your cosmetic product out into the retail world, please give us a call. We want to grow your business and be your cosmetic product partner.