How To commence a Skin worry Line in 11 Steps (2025)

Megan Cox woke up one morning to discover she had made $10,000 in sales overnight. At the period, she was an MIT learner with a newly launched skin worry line, Amalie Beauty—her first foray into entrepreneurship.

Over the next few years, Megan grew her brand into a six-figure business. But even as her lash serums and face oils kept selling out, she was losing profit in running a direct-to-buyer (DTC) skin worry brand. She was at a crossroads: expand or sell.

Megan decided to sell, diverting her attention to another skin worry assignment she had been growing on the side. That business is Genie Supply, a tidy beauty lab that manufactures products for hundreds of other founders who started the same way Megan did—with an concept and a thrill for skin worry.

Now with encounter in both direct to buyer (DTC) and manufacturing, Megan has no shortage of advice for those curious about how to commence a skin worry line. Here, she shares the challenging lessons she learned along the way and tips on everything from labeling to finding a skin worry manufacturer.

How to commence a skin worry line in 11 steps

1. Just get started (even if you don’t feel ready)
2. Do your research
3. discover your skin worry niche
4. Invest in your skin worry brand
5. Use the resources you’ve got
6. Get hands-on with skin worry product formulation and manufacturing
7. Develop a connection with your skin worry manufacturer
8. Put your skin worry formulations through rigorous testing
9. comprehend safety and labeling laws in the skin worry business
10. construct depend with your customers through transparency and content
11. Lean into what makes you distinctive

Founding a skin worry brand means researching things like basic chemistry, production standards, and sourcing ingredients. You may also require a significant upfront resource.

But getting started on a meager budget is feasible, as Megan found, if you’re passionate and resourceful. Here’s how to commence a skin worry line from scratch, with lessons Megan learned throughout her career in beauty.

1. Just get started (even if you don’t feel ready)

The global skin worry industry is expected to be valued at $204.61 billion by 2030. Much of the growth in the history few years can be attributed to independent brands. “The traditional brands—Estée Lauder, L’Oréal—are not growing,” says Megan. “Indie beauty and tidy beauty are carrying the entire beauty industry’s growth.” And the legacy brands are reacting, snatching up smaller companies to keep their footing.

Tarte, a natural beauty line started in founder Maureen Kelly’s one-bedroom apartment in 1999, joined Sephora’s lineup in 2003 and grossed $12 million in 2008. It sold the majority of its shares in 2014 to global beauty behemoth Kosé. Maureen started the business with $18,000.

As you’re looking into how to commence a skin worry line, recall to factor in navigator period. It takes no less than 12 weeks to develop a skin worry product. However, most skin worry lines require much more period for research and advancement, testing, and leave-to-economy. Skin worry products also require comprehensive testing, which takes period.

With skin worry trends evolving rapidly, it’s better to jump on a great concept now than wait until everything’s perfect.

2. Do your research

economy research is especially significant in beauty—the industry is saturated and trends shift quick. But the constantly evolving landscape means there are still opportunities for newcomers to commence skin worry lines. Pay attention to trends by following beauty publications and influencers, and using a tool like Google Trends to validate your ideas.

“There’s this really large shift in how people are spending their money as Gen Z comes of age,” says Megan. “There’s a lot of room for innovation.”

Competitive analysis

When Megan developed her skin worry brand, she ordered every top-rated lash enhancer on Amazon. She also pored over the MIT research document database and found that essential fatty acids showed commitment in studies, but no other corporation was using them in lash products at the period.

I had some chemistry background, but really, all the research is out there. There are a lot of intelligent people on the internet sharing information for free.

Megan Cox, Founder, Genie Supply

Her formal science education did assist her with product formulation, but she found the most useful information on the web. “I had some chemistry background, but really, all the research is out there,” she says. “There are a lot of intelligent people on the internet sharing information for free.”

Your research should include competitive analysis, economy research, and keyword research to determine the viability of your concept. This is also the stage where you’ll desire to crunch the numbers: How much will it expense to commence a business and how will you pool it?

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3. discover your skin worry niche

Where newbie skin worry founders can triumph is in identifying audiences underserved by the current brands on the economy. There’s no more obvious example of this than in the cosmetics industry, where indie brands led the fee on inclusive cosmetics for a wide range of skin tones.

Spotting trends as they emerge is significant, but beware of fleeting trends and ensure you have a sustainable schedule. “Recently, I’ve seen people get too hooked on whatever ingredient is warm at that instant,” says Megan.

While the product advancement life pattern has sped up in recent years, it can’t always keep up with flash-in-the-pan trends. “You’re already four months behind,” Megan says she tells these clients. “By the period you actually hit the economy, that pattern might be over.”

innovation, versus a bandwagon way, is how indie skin worry brands can avoid these pitfalls. Whereas legacy brands are casting a wide net, independent brands have the ability to get close to a niche economy or tackle a specific issue—and problems transformation less frequently than trends.

If you do desire to leave wide or stick to basics in terms of formulation or product type, you can lean on a powerful philosophy and brand narrative to connect with your spectators. “If you’re going to formulate a sure way or exclude or include sure ingredients, you should really be considerate about that,” says Megan.

Vegan skin worry products

Appealing to a specific diet or lifestyle selection is a popular way to discover a niche in the food business. But the same is factual in skin worry. Cruelty free and vegan beauty and skin worry products are slowly becoming the norm versus the exception. Ensuring your products meet this standard at the outset means you don’t have to adjust later when the economy demands it.

Natural skin worry products

The tidy beauty pattern is showing no signs of stopping. The wellness movement has spilled over into skin worry, with many consumers paying attention to what goes on their body—and not just what goes in it. If you’re looking to commence a skin worry line within this niche, pay careful attention to your inventory and supply chain—products without synthetic preservatives will spoil more quickly.

Other trends and niches in skin worry

discover a niche for your skin worry business by researching current and emerging trends as well as underserved markets. Some ideas include:

• Skin worry for specific skin conditions (e.g., oily skin, eczema, arid skin, or rosacea)
• Adaptive skin worry (e.g., ingredients that respond to your skin’s needs)
• Multi-use products (e.g., all-over face and body balms)
• Skin worry cosmetics products (e.g., cream blush with moisturizing properties)
• Innovative products (e.g., hydrocolloid patches, skin-centric vitamins, spa grade tools for home)
• Skin worry marketed toward a specific niche spectators (e.g., cancer survivors)
• warm ingredients (e.g., retinol, probiotics, hyaluronic acid)
• straightforward formulations that exclude ordinary allergens or are offered at lower worth points (e.g., organic ingredients, natural ingredients, tidy cosmetics)

📖 Read more:

• discover a Product to Sell: 12 Strategies for Finding Your First Profitable Product
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4. Invest in your skin worry brand

Before you even consider product advancement, decide what you stand for. You can develop your skin worry brand and develop an spectators well before you manufacture products or launch an online store. This period will let you get to recognize your spectators, gather feedback, and construct depend. Use this period to hone your brand narrative and generate hype around your upcoming launch.

Megan assumed that her customer persona would look much like her: younger people with natural lashes damaged through lash extensions or trichotillomania (a disorder characterized by pulling out one’s own hair).

Surprisingly, her product attracted another spectators.

“We found that it really resonated with older women and people who had just gone through cancer treatment,” says Megan. “I didn’t really expect that at all.” She embraced this unexpected economy and actively supported cancer survivors by donating one product to a cancer survivor for every bottle sold during the campaign.

This brand and marketing pivot was feasible due to Amalie’s size, but it’s critical to establish a few key elements early on. Maintaining a consistent brand voice and presence can boost recognition in the economy and construct depend.

Visual brand identity is also extremely significant in the skin worry industry. Compelling packaging that speaks to your target spectators’s aesthetic gives your brand a professional edge. Be sure to develop a obvious set of brand guidelines to ensure that wherever your brand shows up, it’s adhering to a set of rules.

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• How to commence Your Own Brand From Scratch in 7 Steps
• How to Design a Visual Identity for Your Brand: Ideas for Every budget and Skill Level
• How to Craft an Authentic Social Media Presence That Benefits Your Brand
• What are Brand Guidelines and How to construct a Style navigator

5. Use the resources you’ve got

“I didn’t have any money or encounter,” says Megan of her selection to commence a business. Her initial resource was exactly $1,812 (a 10th of Tarte’s original recent business costs)—it was every penny she had.

Megan incorporated the business for $700, bought 500 bottles and a few thousand boxes, and paid for her first month’s subscription on Shopify. She had $6 left to her name.

With no money left for marketing, Megan needed to get creative. She went on an online forum for cancer survivors, which resulted in a few sales. It was a straightforward call to her hometown’s local document, though, that was the catalyst for her large breakout. The document interviewed her, bringing in yet a couple more sales, but the turning point was when the narrative was picked up by the state document and the Associated Press. “I went to sleep, and when I woke up, we had $10,000 in sales and we had sold out,” she says.

When starting your own skin worry line, discover creative ways to stretch your dollar, whether that’s starting your business from home, trying organic marketing ideas, or bootstrapping your growth.

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6. Get hands-on with skin worry product formulation and manufacturing

There are a few methods for formulating products: making them by hand at home, renting a dedicated manufacturing space, working with a lab to make custom products, or taking a private label or white label way with a beauty manufacturer.

Creating a skin worry line at home

straightforward formulations like facial oils can be made from home. However, to manufacture cosmetics in the US, you’ll require to pursue FDA guidelines for ventilation, air control, and surfaces. While your manufacturing processes should adhere to FDA standards, there is flexibility for businesses that manufacture in spurts. Mobile tidy rooms—essentially pop-up tents—are designed for this purpose and ideal for tiny businesses.

“If you’re starting tiny, there is worth in working with the ingredients hands-on and trying to figure that out,” says Megan. “But at some point you’re still going to require to work with a manufacturer.” Many successful beauty founders, like The Lip Bar’s Melissa Butler, started their lines from their own kitchens but moved to a manufacturing facility as they scaled.

Experimenting with formulations yourself will assist you comprehend the properties you’re looking for in a formulation—consistency, appearance, scent—positioning you for informed conversations with your manufacturer.

7. Develop a connection with your skin worry manufacturer

While she owned her first business, Megan worked with manufacturers in both the US and China. There are pros and cons to both, depending on your production runs and how close you desire to remain to the procedure. Megan spent much of her period in China, overseeing production. “I wanted to recognize where my ingredients were coming from. I wanted to have everything documented. I wanted to be there,” she says.

Megan has since softened her stance. “I do ponder that it’s significant to discuss all of your standard control points and to be really upfront about what you expect,” she says. But at some point, you require to depend the manufacturer to do their job. “You can’t debate about every little point or nickel-and-dime them.”

Beauty manufacturing, in general, is benevolent of a black box.

Megan Cox

While there are benefits to working with manufacturers in China, such as worth and available options, Megan and her associate moved Genie Supply to the US to assist bring manufacturing closer to its customers and enhance the overall encounter.

“Beauty manufacturing, in general, is benevolent of a black box,” says Megan, who had to discover the ropes on her own. That’s why her recent corporation invests resources in educating its clients and providing transparent information correct on the website. If you’re recent to skin worry, discover a manufacturer like Genie Supply that can assist walk you through the procedure.

White label or private label skin worry lines

White labeling involves applying your own branding and limited customizations to an existing product. This is a beneficial way for those looking to monetize a personal brand (but have less profit in product advancement). Popular creators and influencers often use this way to monetize their large audiences.

Private label skin worry lines work in a similar way but are more customized to brand and product specifications. They are generally developed in collaboration with a private label lab like Genie Supply. With these models, you can still commence your own skin worry line with zero encounter.

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8. Put your skin worry formulations through rigorous testing

Megan learned the challenging way that testing at every stage of the procedure is significant. While the formulation for Amalie’s products and its packaging were tested, when the two interacted, it was disastrous. The product turned out to be incompatible with the glue—and the brushes fell apart. “Packaging was a really large issue for me,” says Megan. “I lost a lot of my customers because it was unreliable.”

Experienced labs are an resource to industry newbies. Manufacturing in North America can be more expensive, but the upside is the access to the factories and the ability to be hands-on with the testing procedure.

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9. comprehend safety and labeling laws in the skin worry business

Like starting a food business, launching in the skin worry industry carries hazard—you are making products that could potentially damage people. It’s significant to educate yourself on preservatives, shelf life, allergens, and proper storage and handling of skin worry products. And to research labs carefully so you recognize you’re working with a associate knowledgeable in these areas.

Product shelf life

Customers often expect products labeled “natural” or “organic” will be free of chemical preservatives. However, omitting preservatives can greatly impact stability. When Megan launched Amalie, her products had a 12-month shelf life.

When her distributors couldn’t shift product quick enough, Megan was on the hook to replace expired units because it would impact her beauty brand if she didn’t. “I bit a huge expense there, but I’m not going to let someone have a impoverished product with my name on it,” she says.

No one’s checking for you. You should do your investigation and make sure that you’re following the FDA labeling laws.

Megan Cox

Labeling laws

Legal requirements can be daunting for those starting a skin worry line from scratch—and each country or region will have their own rules. Megan, who had the encounter of navigating these laws on her own, developed a visual navigator on Genie Supply’s website to assist her clients. “I would’ve killed for a navigator like this five years ago,” she says. “That’s why I made it.”

A reputable lab can assist ensure your packaging meets standards and that products are properly labeled, but ultimately the responsibility is yours. “No one’s checking for you,” says Megan. “You should do your investigation and make sure that you’re following the FDA labeling laws.” Or, talk to a lawyer.

Skin worry product stability and safety

While it’s feasible to dabble in skin worry from your own home, there are limitations. “If your products contain water,” says Megan, “you are potentially putting your customers in a lot of danger.”

Genie Supply and other reputable labs will put ingredients and formulations through rigorous tests to ensure they’re free from yeast, mold, bacteria, and fungus during a product’s shelf life and use. “We also run microbial and viral pathogen testing,” says Megan. “If you are doing anything with water, don’t be silly—work with a lab.”

Business licenses for skin worry brands

You don’t require a federally recognized license to sell homemade cosmetics and skin worry in the US. However, the FDA carefully regulates this industry and requires you to have approval for sure ingredients. The laws differ depending on the country where you are manufacturing and selling your products. Be sure to do your homework or seek the advice of a lawyer.

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10. construct depend with your customers through transparency and content

The beauty customer, faced with conflicting information and overwhelming choices, tends to be discerning and naturally skeptical. Building depend with your spectators is key to forming long-term relationships and securing repeat business.

Under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act in the US, the FDA requires manufacturers to list every ingredient in its products. That’s a truth, Megan says, many skin worry brands try to manipulate.

“Why are you putting honey and metals and all of this garbage inside your product? It doesn’t even work,” says Megan. “They’re just trying to confuse consumers on purpose.” She built depend for her first brand on the transparency of the ingredients and uses the same way with her B2B clients.

Content marketing and customer education

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Content marketing is not only a way that can assist potential customers discover you (more on that later), it also builds authority for your brand. Megan has used this tactic to develop her business and personal brand, tapping into the popularity of beauty reviews and unboxings at the period. 

The way established Megan as a trusted specialist, and she dedicated much of her blog to reviewing products other than her own. At her peak, she was blogging four times a week, sending her organic traffic soaring. She also used content to develop her newsletter, offering downloadable content in the form of beauty guides.

Other brands are succeeding at this way as well, creating blog posts that propose worth to the spectators and product pages wealthy with information that boost purchase confidence. 

Reviews

Positive reviews are another signal to potential customers that your product delivers what it promises. The number of options on the economy, unpronounceable ingredients, and smoke-and-mirrors marketing copy drive skin worry consumers to online reviews before buying.

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• Organic Marketing Ideas for Entrepreneurs on a budget
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11. Lean into what makes you distinctive

Marketing is one of the biggest challenges for many recent founders. And because it’s competitive and constantly evolving, skin worry is an industry that requires consistent attention to this facet of the business. 

It’s not enough to have a great product—to achieve in the skin worry industry, beauty entrepreneurs require to invest much of their attention in defining their spectators and understanding its distinctive needs.

As the traditional model of selling cosmetics wanes—“slapping a celebrity on the brand and hoping it sells,” according to Megan—the period is now for niche brands to shine. Consumers are looking to connect and to identify with a brand. It’s not enough to have a great product—to achieve with marketing, beauty entrepreneurs require to invest much of their attention in defining their spectators and understanding its distinctive needs.

Whether or not you decide to tie your personal brand to your business, you should still use brand storytelling to make your brand human. Engage in comments and conversations, characteristic real people like your customers or relevant influencers in your content, and remain open to feedback.

Charlotte Cho, founder of Then I Met You, infuses her household history and elements from her Korean heritage into her product formulations and brand. She has even published a book to distribute the philosophy behind the brand. Charlotte’s customers not only buy her products for their skin benefits but also because of her narrative.

Uniqueness can be achieved through product differentiation, brand narrative, branding design, or marketing.

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discover more about our skin worry specialist

Megan started her first business to solve a personal pain point: after she destroyed her natural eyelashes with extensions, she couldn’t discover a restorative product that worked. The science-turned-business learner went into research mode and found a gap in the economy, developing her own line of lash serums.

Megan would eventually expand to manufacturing her skin worry products in China, living there for six months out of the year to be closer to the procedure. She grew her business over the next few years from her household farm in Indiana, a tiny apartment in Shenzen, and on countless flights in between.

The issue solving and science of skin worry enthusiastic her the most, and it drew her away from the DTC marketing that was essential to Amalie’s growth. She sold the brand and jumped into her growing manufacturing business packed period. 

We’ve really been able to prove that there is a require for niche indie beauty manufacturing here in the States.

Megan Cox

With Megan focusing solely on Genie Supply, she and her co-founder husband decided to shift the corporation from a consulting agency in China to a lab in the US. The growth of the indie beauty economy saw a surge in 2020, translating to massive growth for the couple’s business. 

Genie Supply now manufactures for more than 200 brands. “The orders from our clients are getting bigger and bigger,” says Megan. “We’ve really been able to prove that there is a require for niche indie beauty manufacturing here in the States.”

The beauty of starting up

Beauty is a quick-moving industry with lots to discover. While you won’t have the encounter or the budget of global businesses, you aren’t carrying their baggage either. discover solutions for customers who can’t get what they require from major skin worry brands. And engage with those communities directly by being helpful and personal. Launching your own skin worry line is as straightforward as finding a fresh concept and running with it. 

characteristic illustration by Islenia Mil