Ever since I was in middle school I have been in love with makeup! I remember always taking my mother’s makeup and playing around with it, and when I was done with one look I’d wipe it off and then start a new one. I loved how beautiful the eyeshadows were, how pigmented the lipsticks would be, and I love how you could enhance your favorite features, and conceal your flaws. I have always wanted to start my own makeup brand, I even put it on my bucket list! Although, I never quite knew how these geniuses would do it and be successful, I never realized how much work had to be put into it.
There is so many rules and regulations that go into creating a makeup brand! You have to know all of the rules and regulations set into place by the FDA, if you don’t abide by the rules it could cost you thousands of dollars and potentially ruin your brand. They have rules for everything! From what ingredients you can use to how you do your packaging. The FDA is going to be one of your biggest hurdles, but once you have all that out of the way, it should be relatively easy.
Your next hardest step is going to be finding a lab to make your cosmetics. These labs also have to follow the FDA rules and regulations. Although you may be able to start off by making certain products at home, after a while you’ll hopefully have more customers. By having a lab make and package your makeup, it’s going to be faster and you’ll be more productive. It’s very simple, just look up one online and there should be plenty. The lab will be more than happy to give you a tour, especially if your a potential client. They should also let your test out samples of your cosmetics to see if it is the right consistency, or right color, or see how long it lasts.
Next are your ingredients! What are you going to use? Will it be vegan? Will it contain latex or any parabens? These are important questions that you have to ask yourself. Certain ingredients will open you up to more and more possible customers. Certain people are going to be allergic to latex, and some people simply don’t like parabens in their makeup. Your biggest one is “Is it vegan?”. This is going to give you an edge.
By making your brand vegan you open yourself up to a wider spectrum of consumers, but it may causing you a little bit of a hassle. One reason is because its going to be harder to formulate certain products. An example is anything that is a red shade or has red undertones. These are going to be harder to create if you decided to go vegan. The biggest ingredient used for red pigments is called mica. Mica is just instants that are smashed and grinded up to make a fine powder. Although they are just insects, they are still creatures and will cause your brand to no longer be considered as “vegan”.
Although being vegan may help your brand, it definitely isn’t going to hurt you if you’re not. There are many brands out there who aren’t vegan that are still very successful! Even though being a vegan brand may help you out, it certainly isn’t going to hurt you. It is definitely harder find a vegan supplement for certain ingredients used, I mean this is true for anything that vegans try to use or eat. Not being vegan won’t kill you, but sacrificing the quality of your product due to making it vegan will.
Next is packaging! You have to spice up your packaging if you want to make it. Packaging is going to be another key player in whether your brand flops or not. Nobody is going to want to buy a plain, old, boring white box that says “lipstick” in a crappy font. You half to make it interesting! You have to make it catch the consumer’s eyes. You want the customer to think “Wow, that looks very nice! I want to buy it.”. People are going to pick the products in nicer looking packaging. When you buy nicer looking makeup, you expect it to be nicer than your typical drugstore lipstick/eyeshadow/ect.
Plus people are going to pay more for nicer look products, and that goes for anything you buy in life! If you want a nicer looking car, then you’re going to pay more for that luxury lambo rather than that beat up prius down the street. Same goes for makeup, if you want a nicer looking eyeshadow, you’re going to have to pay more for it. Packaging is a key factor with everything, especially makeup! 
This leads me into a very crucial point, money. This key, you’re going to have to spend money in order to makeup. You’re going to have to pay for your lab, ingredients, packaging and more. You’re not going to get things for free just because you’re starting a makeup brand. Now you can get loans and have people fund your cosmetic line but they may be harder than you think. Some banks as well as people may find is hard to throw money into an up and coming brand. I mean, what if it flops?
All that money is then wasted and is thrown in the garbage. The best thing to do is to simply save up your money and try to fund as much of it by yourself as you possibly can. Another important thing about money is, the more you put into your product, the more you should get out. Higher quality makeup is going to cost more, but in return should be making more as well. One of your end goals of making this company and brand should be to make a profit. Yes, following your dreams and starting a brand is amazing and all, but don’t you want it to be successful? By creating a brand, you should be creating a profit. The more money you make, the more that can go back into creating your cosmetics, therefore making you even more money and making the brand even more successful.
Wolves Weekly 