Have you always dreamed of creating your own skincare line? Do you need help knowing where to begin? Congratulations! If you’re reading this essential guide, then you’ve already taken the first step towards building your private label skin care line.
The beauty industry has seen a dramatic increase in skincare sales in recent years. By 2025, the global skincare market is estimated to grow to 189.3 billion U.S. dollars. Breaking into the skincare market has never been more lucrative for beauty entrepreneurs. Likewise, with the rise of TikTok and other social media platforms, small businesses have a greater opportunity to compete with top beauty brands.
However, you might be deterred from starting your own private label skincare business by perceived costs and risks. That’s why we’re here to show you easier, less expensive, and less risky ways to start your dream brand! In this ultimate guide, we share 6 important tips for how to start a skincare line with no money:
- Identify skincare market trends
- Find a skincare supplier
- Develop your brand
- Costs and pricing
- Order fulfillment
- Pick where you want to sell!
1. Identify skincare market trends
To start, the first thing you can do when starting your skincare business is to identify trends in the market and figure out where you can fit in. Doing this research will help narrow down what products you want to offer in your own skincare line. Some of the ways you can find out what’s currently trending include:
- Identify what’s missing in the market
- Following industry-leading blogs
- Surveying the people around you
- Using consumer market data
In general, think about the type of customer you are trying to sell to, and explore what product qualities they care about. More than ever, consumers are leaning towards products with ethical labels such as “vegan skincare”, “cruelty-free skincare”, and “clean skincare”. For example, one study by Nosto they found that “clean” (68%) and “cruelty-free” (65%) are ethical labels that are most likely to drive online purchases. Studies like these provide valuable information about consumer wants and can help guide your search for a supplier in our next step
2. Find a skincare supplier
Now that you know what type and quality of product you want to sell, it’s time to find a supplier. Using private label skin care manufacturers is one of the easiest ways to create your own skincare line. With private labeling, you can put your own logo on already formulated, FDA-approved products. This cuts out the cost and time it takes to develop your own products and get them legally approved to start selling.
Are you looking for a supplier with no minimums or MOQs? Blanka is a private label skin care manufacturer that offers cruelty-free, clean products for you to build your own brand. All you need is a logo and voila! You can now have your own branded skincare line without the hassle of creating products from scratch. Plus, Blanka also handles shipping your products straight to your customers!
3. Develop your brand
A brand is so much more than just a pretty logo. Your brand should be a reflection of values, ideas and colors that inspire you or allow you to inspire others. Previously, we’ve discussed how finding your brand voice can give you a sense of direction, build trust, and connect with your audience.
Your brand voice is derived from both internal and external qualities. Some examples of internal factors include your mission statement, story, and values. For now, we are going to discuss developing your external, or customer-facing, branding such as content and copy.
As one of the first places customers can find you, social media is an important area to have consistent branding. Your public image makes an impression, creates recognition, and ultimately can drive sales. When creating a social media account for your new private label skincare line or business, you need to give your company an identity:
- What colors are associated with your brand and what do they represent?
- What tone of voice and language do you use?
- What fonts or other visual brand guidelines do you have?
- What types and styles of imagery?
These are all important questions to ask when curating your skincare brand’s image.
Moreover, your external branding doesn’t just apply to social media, but also to how your products look. When private labeling, you can add your brand’s personal touch with custom skincare packaging. This involves creating a unique beauty product logo that fits with your brand identity. Blanka recommends you design a skincare logo that is bold, scalable, and can look good on any product or background!
4. Costs and pricing
As with any business, you want to price your private label skincare products so that you are covering your expenses AND still making profit. Consider costs of private labeling, shipping, and other business-related fees.
Blanka tip: Check out our article on pricing private label products! We even include a FREE template to help you get started.
If you’re wanting to learn how to start a skincare line with no money, the first thing you can do is avoid ordering too much inventory. Try looking for private label skincare manufacturers with low minimum order quantities or “MOQs”. Many private label cosmetics suppliers will require you to purchase a minimum of 500+ products. This can be impossible for new entrepreneurs who are building a business from the ground up. In contrast, Blanka is a private label skin care supplier with no minimums. This means that you can order as much or as little inventory as you want, when you want!
5. Order fulfillment
Before you start selling, you need to figure out exactly HOW your products will get into your customers’ hands. Order fulfillment is the process of receiving an order, picking out products, packing, and shipping to the end customer. When it comes to distributing your branded skincare products, there are two routes you can take.
First, you can choose to fulfill orders yourself. This is a good option if you have the time, storage space, and money needed to pack and ship your products yourself. Some questions to ask yourself when deciding whether to handle order fulfillment yourself are:
- How much time will fulfilling orders take?
- Do I have a spacious area to store inventory and pack orders?
- Will this take away from other important tasks in building my business?
- Do I have the time to track and manage shipments that have issues with delivery?
- Do I have the money to buy shipping supplies?
On the other hand, if you don’t want to take on order fulfillment yourself you can choose to outsource this task. Sometimes, the cost of outsourcing order fulfillment is worth it when considering the cost of your personal time, energy, and resources. Although, we understand you need to do what it takes to get your skincare line off the ground. If you feel like this strategy is better suited to your needs, seek out a third-party fulfillment service.
Third-party fulfillment
Using a third-party fulfillment service involves working with a person or company who stores and ships your products on your behalf. This is a hands-free approach, as your products can be sent from your manufacturer to the fulfillment center and then to your customer. Going a step further, you can also cut out the middleman by looking for a private label supplier that also offers order fulfillment services.
Dropshipping is a popular ecommerce option where your supplier ships orders directly to your customers. Dropshippers also act as a third-party fulfillment service with the added bonus of not charging to store your products there in most cases. Compared to traditional shipping options, the benefits of dropshipping include:
- less inventory fulfillment burden
- lower start-up costs
- better scalability
To learn more about dropshipping options with Blanka, check out this article here!
6. Pick where you want to sell!
Your brand is created, your business plan is sorted, and your private label skin care products are sourced. It is time to take them live and start selling! You can either choose to sell in person, sell online, or do a combination of both.
Selling in stores
Selling in a physical store provides some advantages that online stores can’t replicate. For example, having a physical store can be more convenient for nearby customers, lets them test products before buying, and removes shipping costs. If you are worried about costs, selling in-person doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a store dedicated to your skincare brand. An easier and less expensive alternative is to negotiate with retailers to carry your products in their stores. You can try starting out by pitching to local boutiques, shops, and pop-ups in your area!
Selling online
Increasingly, however, business owners are foregoing or supplementing selling in traditional brick-and-mortar stores by selling their products online. By selling online, you can avoid the operational costs of renting a space to sell your products and purchasing enough inventory to stock it. Additionally, you can expose your skincare business to a larger market as you are not physically limited to customers in your area.
If you decide to sell online, you will need to pick a platform to run your website. The most popular (and some of our favorite) ecommerce platforms for small beauty businesses are Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and WooCommerce. When creating your ecommerce site, try using a visually-pleasing theme and product descriptions that match your branding.
Blanka Tip: You can connect Blanka to your Shopify store with our 1-click integration. Learn more about our Blanka app integration here.
To help build your site, check out our other resources:
Conclusion
With current market projections, expanding into the skincare industry is a great move for small beauty businesses in 2022. However, figuring out how to start a skincare line can be a complicated journey. From initial market research to launching your new skincare line and selling; hopefully, by breaking down the process into 6 simple steps, we can help get you started!
Are you ready to build your skincare line? Blanka has a wide range of skincare products to choose from ready to brand with your logo. With 200+ other cosmetic and beauty products, no minimums, and fast delivery times, Blanka is a low-risk and low-cost way to build your beauty business.
Build your private label skincare line today!
Zero minimums. Zero commitment. Zero risk.
Before you start selling, you need to figure out exactly HOW your products will get into your customers’ hands. Order fulfillment is the process of receiving an order, picking out products, packing, and shipping to the end customer. When it comes to distributing your branded skincare products, there are two routes you can take.
First, you can choose to fulfill orders yourself. This is a good option if you have the time, storage space, and money needed to pack and ship your products yourself. Some questions to ask yourself when deciding whether to handle order fulfillment yourself are:
- How much time will fulfilling orders take?
- Do I have a spacious area to store inventory and pack orders?
- Will this take away from other important tasks in building my business?
- Do I have the time to track and manage shipments that have issues with delivery?
- Do I have the money to buy shipping supplies?
On the other hand, if you don’t want to take on order fulfillment yourself you can choose to outsource this task. Sometimes, the cost of outsourcing order fulfillment is worth it when considering the cost of your personal time, energy, and resources. Although, we understand you need to do what it takes to get your skincare line off the ground. If you feel like this strategy is better suited to your needs, seek out a third-party fulfillment service.
