Ready to bring your new beauty solution idea to life? Then you’re probably looking for a partner that can help. But know this: your custom beauty manufacturer should do much more than just manufacturing!
A custom beauty manufacturer is an end-to-end partner for future-thinking beauty brands like you. When you want to introduce a new innovative beauty or skincare product to the market but aren’t sure of the steps to get you there, you need an experienced partner. A custom manufacturer (also referred to as a contract manufacturer) is a partner who has extensive manufacturing industry knowledge and works alongside you from concept and development to production and delivery.
While manufacturing is an important step, there’s a lot before and after the physical production that your partner should help with. Let’s take a look at each service.
5 Services Your Custom Beauty Manufacturer Must Offer
#1 – Innovative Research & Product Development
Choosing a partner with an in-house product development team puts your brand at an advantage.
A custom contract manufacturer with an in-house R&D team focuses on the following aspects even before you come to them with an idea:
- Developing new product concepts
- Knowledge of the beauty industry and forecasting patterns
- Awareness of consumer trends and analyzing data
- Researching innovative ingredients
- Establishing stock formulas
- Understanding material science to create and/or new materials
- Vetting vendors and partner factories
- Maintaining relationships with vendors and factories
Having this R&D team do the preliminary work behind the products makes bringing your beauty concept to life quicker, with a higher quality. Sometimes a beauty concept is fully fleshed out and can be easily manufactured, while at other times it’s just in the beginning stages, and requires more planning and innovating. Either way, a partner with an R&D team can help you navigate how to make the product in the most efficient way possible thanks their extensive experience.
What happens if your partner of choice doesn’t have an in-house product development team? Well, they’re probably going to be more expensive if they outsource that service to somebody else. Or, they’re going to produce a poorly vetted, low quality solution that doesn’t do your idea – or your customer’s – justice.
Plus: Once you have an established partnership with your custom beauty manufacturer, the product development team can present new ideas to you, helping you continue to be the innovative brand that you are.
#2 – Design & Consulting
You have an innovative idea and R&D has confirmed that it works. What’s next? It’s time to put the vision together.
This custom beauty manufacturing service is called design and consulting: a step which is all about the partnership and the communication between you and your brand.
Together, you will discuss things like:
- Product formula – Actives, concept ingredients, textures and other formula elements
- Product materials – For example, products like masks, patches, and wipes require a non-woven material that perfectly matches your chosen formula and application
- Product testing and regulatory requirements
- Packaging design and requirements
- Product minimum order quantities (MOQs)
- Product marketing
- Final pack out requirements
Each one of these areas require a specific set of knowledge, and your custom manufacturer should be able to fill any of these gaps for you. You’ll get to voice your needs and your custom manufacturer will ensure that product concepts are precisely outlined before bringing them to life.
#3 – Development
The moment you’ve been waiting for… getting to physically hold your solution in your hands.
Development involves important detailed analyses that help vet and improve a product’s formula, materials and other specifications. For custom products, this step can’t be skipped. You need a partner with chemists and scientists on their team to help you incorporate the right ingredients into your formula to achieve an efficacious, safe product. During the development process, your manufacturer should offer product samples that you can test to ensure all product requirements are met before moving forward to full-blown manufacturing and sales.
If your custom beauty manufacturer doesn’t offer samples or prototypes of your solution, run. It’s critical that you get to see the reality of your vision before scaling to full manufacturing.
This is because you might have additional questions or adjustments once you see it in real life, or face unexpected development obstacles that require changes.
#4 – Manufacturing
The manufacturing process itself is (of course) an integral service you’ll get when working with a custom manufacturer. But not all manufacturers are created equal.
When looking for a partner, you should look for (at least) these three aspects, which are indicative of an efficient, meticulous manufacturing process:
Quality Management
The best custom beauty manufacturers will have a quality management system in place to ensure that your product is created properly. This system should touch on four main stages:
- Quality planning
- Quality control
- Quality assurance
- Quality improvement
Certifications
Manufacturing certifications are a must. A risky venture is one with a manufacturer that’s uncertified. While your beauty manufacturer might have more, these are table stakes:
- ISO 9001 – The international standard for a quality management system (QMS)
- ISO 22716 – The international standard for good manufacturing practices (GMP) for cosmetics
A GMP-Compliant Facility
All beauty manufacturers must register their manufacturing facility with the FDA, who has the right to conduct unannounced inspections and audits. The site regulations that GMP addresses include:
- Building conditions
- Equipment design and maintenance
- Employee practices
- Sanitation conditions
- Raw ingredient sourcing
- Maintaining strong production controls
- Records and reports
A transparent custom manufacturer will speak openly with you about any GMP-related questions or concerns, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask. If a manufacturer is hesitant to share this kind of information, it’s a red flag.
#5 – Logistics & Delivery
Your product has been successfully manufactured. Now what? How do you get thousands of products to your warehouse?
The answer is logistics and delivery, and hopefully your custom beauty manufacturer can help with that, too. High quality logistics and delivery is all about making sure your products always get to their destinations on time and unharmed.
Here are three common scenarios with which your custom manufacturer should be able to help.
International Shipping
If your manufacturer is based in a different country than the retail store that wants to sell your products, delivering them will require harmonized tariff codes (HTCs).
The FDA uses these numbers to identify and classify imported items. Cosmetics have many different HTC codes depending on category and materials. There are many different subheadings that you can use to classify your specific product, and your custom manufacturer should be able to take care of this process.
Temperature Control
Some beauty products have high percentages of active ingredients and must remain a specific temperature while being transported. In many cases, a manufacturer will use temperature-specific containers and small refrigerators to meet these requirements.
Retail Packaging Requirements
Beauty products often need to meet specific packaging requirements due to retail demand. Retail stores have their own unique delivery standards and will only accept boxes of a specific size and weight, and packages with a certain number of products inside.
For example, some stores may accept hundreds of your products at one time, while others want to receive them in quantities of 50 or 100. Every store is different, and your custom manufacturer should have the ability to create boxes, containers, and other unique packages to meet these demands.
Final Thoughts
Partnering with a custom manufacturer is an important step in bringing your innovative idea to life, but they need to be able to do much more beyond production. By looking for a partner that offers these indispensable services, your beauty brand’s concept will be better positioned for success.
Ready to create a custom beauty or skincare product that will meet and exceed consumer needs? Start a project with TaikiUSA.