How to Start Your Own Makeup Line

Makeup is the most visual beauty category and the hardest to get right on a small budget, because every shade is a separate product. The way through is to start narrow.

Start with lips

Lip products are the natural first launch for a makeup line. A lip gloss, a lip oil or a tinted balm has a small number of shades, a forgiving formula, cheap and light packaging, and a price point customers buy on impulse. Compare that with foundation, where you need twenty or more shades to be inclusive and each one has to match real skin.

A typical first collection we see: one clear gloss, two or three tinted glosses or lip oils, and a matching lip balm. That is four or five SKUs, enough for a collection, small enough to afford. See our lip products.

Shades are SKUs — plan them like inventory

Each shade has its own minimum order. Three lip gloss shades at 100 units each is 300 units, not 100. Pick shades that photograph well and suit a wide range of skin tones — a sheer nude, a warm pink and a berry cover most first collections — and add shades once you see what sells.

Ask for swatches on paper and on skin, photographed in daylight. A shade that looks right in the pot can look completely different on the lips and on camera.

Stock or custom?

Stock formulas with your choice of shade, flavour and finish are the fastest route. Custom shade matching is possible — send a reference — but adds sample rounds. Fully custom formulas belong later in the brand’s life.

Packaging is the brand

In makeup, the component — the tube, the wand, the cap — is what customers see first. Stock components in your choice of colour keep the minimum at 100. Custom-shaped or printed components need to be made for you and start at 1,000 units. Launch on stock, invest in custom once you have a best-seller.

Colour rules you need to know

• US: only colour additives approved by the FDA for their intended use (for example, some are not allowed around the eyes) may be used, and some must be batch-certified.
• EU: only colourants listed in Annex IV of the Cosmetics Regulation may be used, with their conditions.
• Vegan: carmine (from insects) is common in reds; ask for carmine-free if you are vegan.

We formulate within these lists and give you the ingredient declaration for your label. More on this on our compliance page.

How do you start your own makeup line on a budget?

1. Choose one category (lips) and three to five shades.
2. Use stock components in a colour that matches your brand.
3. Order 100 units per shade.
4. Spend the savings on photography and swatches — they sell makeup.
5. Keep claims to the cosmetic: colour, finish, feel. No “plumping” promises you cannot prove.

Timeline

Brief and quote in a day or two, samples in about 7 days, shade and label approval over one to two weeks, production in about 30 days. Six to eight weeks from brief to stock is realistic.