Private label cosmetics are beauty products manufactured by a cosmetic company and sold under your brand’s name. You can learn how to sell private label cosmetics profitably by finding the right supplier, developing a brand, and marketing your private label products.
Here’s how to sell private label cosmetics in six steps:
1. Identify Profitable Products
The first step in selling cosmetic successfully is ensuring there’s high consumer demand for the products you want to sell.
It’s possible to have a profitable private label line with a few individual products. However, the best way to sell private label cosmetics successfully is by finding a niche and building a product line around a certain category or interest.
2. Find Private Label Cosmetics Manufacturers
Before you start looking at manufacturers, refer to your chosen niche to define exactly what you want in your private label cosmetics line. For example, do you want only organic products? Do you need skin care products, makeup, or both? Are there specific ingredients you want or don’t want?
It’s important to consider consumer preferences to avoid unnatural ingredients and chemicals that may turn potential buyers off.
You’ll also want to vet your manufacturers to make sure they can be a compatible and profitable business partner. Here are a few more questions to consider when researching private label cosmetics manufacturers:
- Are they compliant with CGMP?
- Do they print labels and packaging for you?
- What are the order minimums?
- What are the label and packaging fees?
3. Request Samples & Review Products
When you acquire samples, your next step is to thoroughly review each product to see if it meets your expectations and fits your beauty brand. Here, your opinion matters most, but getting input from others is also a good idea.
If you have a shop, spa, or set of clients, you can get them involved in trying different products to see what everyone likes. After all, they’re your potential buyers. If you don’t have an existing clientele to tap, gather some friends to try products and provide feedback.
It might take a few rounds of reviews and maybe even a few rounds of sample items from different suppliers, but eventually you’ll find a collection that defines your brand.
4. Decide How to Sell Your Cosmetics Line
Before placing your initial order, you need to decide how you want to market and sell your private label cosmetics line. You can start small with one sales channel, add products to an existing shop, or set up multiple sales channels at once.
Popular channels for selling cosmetics include:
- In-store: Sell cosmetics at a salon, spa, specialty fashion boutique, or natural foods shop
- Online through your own website: Create a website using an ecommerce platform
- Social media: Sell products directly through a Facebook Shop, Instagram account, or on TikTok.
- Sell to other retailers: Because you are developing your own line, you can sell those products wholesale to boutiques, spas, and brick-and-mortar stores.
5. Design Your Branding, Logo & Packaging
As you explore potential manufacturers, you’ll find that most take care of the labeling and packaging process for you; you supply your logo design and they do the rest. This is the simplest way to label and package your private label cosmetics—it produces a professional look and ensures that your labels are correct (i.e., ingredient lists and other requirements).
Many private label cosmetics manufacturers also provide free images of your branded products.
6. Order Private Label Cosmetics
After you’ve selected your private label cosmetics manufacturer, decided which items you want to carry in your line, and designed your branding, you’re ready to place your first order. By this point, you likely have spoken with a customer service representative, so this step should be simple.
In most cases, after your private label cosmetics order is placed, you’ll have a few weeks until it arrives. Use this time to launch your website and get your social media pages up and running—or work on your store or spa setup for your new beauty line display.
Bottom Line
Learning how to sell private label cosmetics is a simple and low-cost way to build your own beauty brand.
Entry costs to private label cosmetics sales are low, and the variety is so great that even fashion boutiques, healthy living brands, and active lifestyle businesses are expanding into this high-demand market. Once you’ve selected your manufacturer and products for your initial line, you need to design your logo, place your order, and plan your selling strategy.
