Reader Question

“I’m about to lose it. I’ve been looking for a site like yours EVERYWHERE. I think the clouds opened up and you came down. At least I’m pretty sure that’s what just happened.

I read in one of your posts that the most expensive manufacturing component is the actual cases that hold the makeup. I am young – 22 years old – and looking to start my own cosmetic line with a niche clientele. The problem is the innovative part of my line is the custom design of the palettes.

Do you know any companies that offer cheap custom design? Or in what other areas should I keep costs low in order to be able to afford nice palettes?

Thanks so much! You’re AHmazing!“

It’s been a great start to the year, I’m getting lots of reader questions and comments, and just generally lots of wonderful emails thanking me for creating this blog. I suppose it just never occurred to me that this kind of information would generate so much interest among all you budding entrepreneurs, and I’m genuinely honoured you take the time out to read, digest and to comment. And hopefully, to finally take that first step to creating your very own brand!

 

OK now, back to the question at hand. Custom designing your own plastic components takes a lot of time and a lot of financial resources. There is just no two ways around it, and there is no short cut. In my 10 years in the business, thinking of all sorts of ingenious ways of reducing costs (when I first started the business, and then as the economic crisis hit & I decided the company needed to be more lean), I have never come across any manufacturer (small ones, large ones, artisans working from home, from the UK to USA, from China to Malaysia to India), who could customize a component without huge tooling costs. The smallest tooling cost we ever paid was for a single lipstick mould, and that was USD 1200. An average quote is $8000. I can think of far better ways of using that sort of money, especially when you’re starting out. You could purchase an entire starter range from a private label company to sell & generate you income!

 

OK, now the good news. You mentioned wanting to customize palettes. The one way we were able to fully design our own palettes was to have them made out of paperboard (or chipboard as some call it). We could have as many cavities as we wanted, with the option of having a mirror in any size we wanted, in any artwork, or covered in any material, with a multitude of closure options (magnetic, with ribbons, elastic, buckle, button, etc…). Don’t expect to purchase them in small qtys though (2000 pcs & above per design, and you really need to negotiate for this qty), and bear in mind paperboard components are generally more expensive (20 – 40% more) than their plastic counterparts. You would be looking at an investment of perhaps $2000 – $3000. A few paperboard manufacturers we’ve worked with before in the past (all based in China, I don’t know of any UK- or US-based manufacturers who will negotiate on small qtys at small prices) are Shantou Huajian Paper Production and Cass & Co (absolutely beautiful palettes & boxes, but more expensive than Shantou).

 

 

Tags: chipboard palette, custom design, customizing a palette, lipstick moulds, manufacturing plastic components, paperboard palettes, primary packaging, starting a business, tooling costs

Reader Question

“I’m so glad I’ve come across your blog I’ve been looking everywhere for help! I’m a 16 year-old looking to start a small business-like system just to make a small profit and possibly mess around and see if starting a makeup business could be long term. I’m at the great age where people respect kids with big ideas and where there’s no taxes and not too many consequences should it fail. I am so ready to start this, makeovers, makeup for dances and descent priced makeup etc. is in a good demand in my area. However, I’m going to need makeup that I can re-sell.I have money to invest for the cost of makeup but I’d still like to keep it low budget. Help?”

You could definitely start with all the private label manufacturers that I mention in previous posts. Another great way of getting started if you’re on a really low budget (and this is great for anyone at any age, in fact the younger you start a business, the more you learn at a greater pace), is to make your own. Go to a website like Bramble Berry where you can learn to mix & hot pour your own lip balms, lipsticks, soaps, etc… Another great website is TKB Trading, I’ve actually bought some pigments from them before to mix before I hand over to the lab to further develop into larger vats. They’re a a great place to start if you want to make your own nail polishes (it’s really quite ingenious!), eye shadows (and I mean those you press in a pan, very professional-looking albeit tedious), mineral powders, lipsticks (complete with metal lipstick moulds which are SO difficult to source for!), etc… I am quite impressed with their array of products. The only problem I find is the inconsistency in their colour pigments. Once we re-ordered the exact same red (I think it was red 7 lake), and it came out in an entirely different shade. On the whole though, cheap & cheerful ingredients to start you off.

Best of luck!

xx Susan.

Tags: bramble berry, colour pigments, eye shadows, formulating a product, kitchen recipes, lipstick moulds, lipsticks, mineral powders, nail polishes, private label, private label manufacturers, resources, starting a business, tkb trading

Starting So Susan and Sourcing For Primary Packaging

This is my first soft announcement that I’m starting another brand called So Susan Cosmetics, which follows my evolution as a cosmetics entrepreneur to cater to a more sophisticated target audience, one who still buys colour cosmetics, but with the added infusions of anti-aging peptides, amino acids and plant botanicals that target signs of skin fatigue. The past few weeks I’ve been busy testing out formulations from my 2 reliable Italian manufacturers, which is just such a delight to do, I literally jump out of bed excited in the mornings!

Sourcing for the primary components though (the bottles, jars, compacts that will directly house your formulations) has been a huge headache. It’s common knowledge that packaging (both primary and secondary i.e. the boxes that house your primary components) generally costs more than the formulation itself (only in very exceptional circumstances have I come across a case that proves the opposite). Granted, I now have a larger budget than the GBP 700 I started with, but I still don’t want to spend it unnecessarily as in this economy, we all need financial buffers. The good news is that I’m finding lots of packaging suppliers who are also competing in this tough economy and who will go down on their minimums, from 10k to 3k for one based in Taiwan which I’ve found, and with no price increases. They’re called Chien Ching, a family business, and although they have limited choices, are easy to work with, at affordable qtys and prices. We’re talking about lipgloss containers with doe-foot applicators, fully customized with logo/brand print, at something like USD 0.20 or less per unit.

As for glass components and bottles with treatment pumps, airless containers (for primers and foundations),  this is an ongoing mission, and I will spread the word on this blog again once I’ve found a company worth touting.

Tags: cheap lipgloss packaging, cosmetics packaging, formulating a product, new cosmetics brand, packaging inspiration, primary packaging, resources, so susan cosmetics, sourcing for packaging

Reader Question

“I am a makeup artist and clinical esthetician. I have been researching products and companies for two years now with my site on opening my own cosmetic/makeup line. I want it to be unique and different from the many lines in the industry so I am taking my time. I do find it hard to find a company who will design my labels with no minimums. Do you have any suggestions? I need labels for my different products and all the companies I find require a large order. Thank you for your inspiring blog and makeup line:)”

 

You will find it extremely difficult to find a label company with no minimums. I honestly don’t believe the concept of “no minimums” exists in the cosmetics industry, especially if you want a customized product, be it packaging, labels or formulations. And I’d be wary of any printing company which claims it doesn’t impose minimum quantities, this simply means they may “hide” all their costs into setup fees, plate charges, administrative / document charges, hourly charges for tweaking your artwork, etc…

The only printer I trust is one based in Malaysia (where incidentally I’m from), and about whom I’ve written before in a previous post. A family business, I’ve never seen any other bulk printer who is as passionate about paper and ink, as much as I am about cosmetics. Another little secret which I’m sure you’re dying to know and which I didn’t let on in my previous post is that he isn’t expensive at all. His minimums are normally 1000 pcs per print run (very small compared to the 5k which some start at), and range from GBP 0.20 for something simple like a printed lipstick box with gold accents. Simple peel & stick labels are cheaper (also minimums of 1000 pcs), it goes right down to pennies for each. Nothing that will dent your budget or bank account.

Perhaps the only major cost you need to consider is courier-ing the finished goods over. It may sometimes cost more than your labels or packaging itself, but if your packaging is designed to be flat-packed (and it always should!), then this will save you a considerable amount of money. In any case, as a company policy, we do comparison costs every year to ensure we’re on the right track with all our suppliers in terms of cost (and are not paying more than necessary), and Optima Printers has consistently been the most economical, including shipping.

 

 

Tags: industry heroes, printing resource, resources

Reader Question

“Hi! Just found your blog and truly enjoyed your honest entries about starting a makeup business. I am interested in finding a company that specializes in high performance eye cosmetics (I have a niche clientele with many eye disorders and sensitive eye issues)that I could private label to start my line. I have tried Grafton, Your Name Pro, Lady Burd. Are there any others that you would recommend? Thanks so much!”

I am an avid believer in not overloading your skin with products, particularly if it is already sensitized. Unless you’re working with a cosmetic chemist, a general rule for startup entrepreneurs is to ask the manufacturer for their ingredients listing and to go for the one with the shortest list in its base (i.e. excluding colour pigments which are classified under the “+/- (may contain)” portion). You may find “fragrance/parfum” even in eyeshadow powders, so a formulation which omits that will be your priority.

Grafton, Your Name Pro and Ladyburd are all decent companies, Your Name Pro being the most expensive in my experience, but also the most innovative & sophisticated in every way, from their formulations to their private label packaging, to even their marketing material that is provided free. I have also come across Audrey Morris recently, they have added a mineral line with very simple ingredients that is worth trying out.

Tags: audrey morris cosmetics, formulating a product, Grafton cosmetics, Ladyburd cosmetics, private label, resources, Your Name Pro cosmetics

Inspirational Entrepreneurs : Jeanine Lobell

I’m really loving this article here about Jeanine Lobell and how she first founded Stila Cosmetics. It wasn’t the same brand it is now (the entire line really is full of copycat products, non-inspiring, unimaginative in all sense of the word, whether it’s to do with the product concepts, ingredients or philosophy. What do you expect from an owner who manages a private equity firm for a living?).

In 1994 when Jeanine founded the line, like all great entrepreneurs passionate about making their ideas work regardless of how little money they had, she packaged her lipsticks and eyeshadows in little paper tubes sourced from Custom Paper Tubes (in their website, they continue to show Stila off as the pioneer in this type of packaging). Jeanine also talks about how they managed to get a contract manufacturer to do only 500 pieces per shade for them, an amazing feat considering minimums are now 3000 per shade! When I manage to find out who this lab is, I will sing its praises right here.

I remember coveting every single thing Stila came out with, from the incredible eyeshadows with inspiring quotes from women inside the caps (genius, genius, genius!), to the All Over Shimmer (the blue tube that Jeanine talks about in her interview), I swear it was the world’s first illuminizer.

It was because of women like Jeanine and her incredible story of creation and success that I was inspired later on in life to create Jelly Pong Pong. A line with soul, that tells a story, and that inspires the creative in you.

Ever the avid Stila fan, here are some catalogue pages I still keep (scanned and forever etched in my hard drive!) :

OK, so the concealer pots and loose powders were teeny-tiny, but you can imagine how covetable they were in a sea of boring plastic packaging and super serious makeup lines.

And here the wonderful All Over Shimmers in blue metal tubes. Whoever thought of using metal tubes to packaging cosmetics in those days?

And remember these awesome Stila cans, used to hold everything from brushes to sets of their products? Cans were big in the 90′s, remember Jaqua Girls? The (now defunct line) had a line of Spa Pamper kits (miniature bath soaks, creams, sponges and toe separators) all packaged in a giant paint can for women to have DIY spa days together at home, and was so popular that even Oprah featured them on her show!

Amazing women with amazing stories of entrepreneurship in the cosmetics industry. Thank you Jeanine for having inspired me and so many others to follow their dreams, for always breaking barriers and for creating a line worth touting.

Tags: industry heroes, inspirational entrepreneurs, jeanine lobell, memories, packaging inspiration, starting a business, stila cosmetics

Inside Look : Products which never made the cut

One of the best things about owning a cosmetics company is that you get to see the creations in your head come to life. From concept to sample production of an entirely new product (not a colour / ingredient tweak), it takes us an average of 6 months, down from 9 as we now work within our in-house lab.

However, it can be frustrating as for every product we release, at least 10 are disposed of for not being commercially viable (this can range from not performing well with our test panel of 200 fans, to being too expensive to release, to the ingredient supplier not being able to meet our timelines). Here are some of my favourites which I will cherish forever :

Our Soft Focus Kabuki Brush. The most beautiful synthetic fibres ever, tightly packed so it doesn’t bend all over the place when you buff your face. We don’t get to release a lot of tools in our collection, so when this came out, boy was I excited! Unfortunately, our supplier wasn’t able to meet our super-tight delivery deadline, and this was abandoned.

The Geisha eyeliner holds amazing memories for me, most notably because it was formulated by Terry, my right-hand man & all-round multitasker (nothing goes out of the office without Terry getting involved somehow). He used Date Palm in the formula which maintains the hold on the colour pigments so you could draw the thinnest, most accurate line…with a shaky hand! And look at the precious packaging, thank  you Erin, our design extraordinaire who managed to make a lightweight, damage-resistant japanese pouch out of creased cardboard and some elastic!

Remember our Egg Confettis? Well, these handpainted Ballet Eggs were my plans to extend the sell-out line, with amazing bath confetti that fall out and foam when you crack the eggs open. There’s a reason why we were the only ones who ever came up with this product : It’s really expensive to produce and with the high egg loss during shipping, unless we doubled the retail price, we were not going to make any profit. Unfortunately, good business sense had to win sheer delight at the end of the day!

A foundation so soft, we called it Marshmallow Skin. This was a delight to formulate and to test, we infused it with botanical oils like rosehip and camellia and made it SPF 30 without it looking pasty (the trick of course is to use micronized, coated zinc oxide especially Z-COTE by BASF or Zinclear by Dow. A whole other post needs to be dedicated to this amazing ingredient). The only reason why we haven’t released this yet was because I turned 30, discovered a line on my face, and am now working desperately hard to infuse an anti-aging peptide into this amazing formulation!

Tags: 3D renders, formulating a product, inside look, memories, products we cut

Britain’s Next Top Model Live Show & our 3D designs

One of the moments I most look forward to in the Jelly Pong Pong office is when our resident 3D designer Ben, calls me up and tells me a render is ready. I literally hop & skip to his desk to check the image out & it is almost always what I envision.

This time is no different. As you all know, we’re participating for the first time in Britain’s Next Top Model Live Show at London Excel Centre. It promises to be 3 fun but entirely exhausting days of putting up & decorating the booth, meeting & greeting our biggest fans and selling limited-edition show-only bags.

Strategically though, when planning how the booth will look like, we need to ensure it will fit all our stock (as you’re not allowed to trolley extra stock in from your storage area, you want to ensure you maximise your revenues by not running out in the middle of the day!), our sales team & their personal belongings (coats, bags, etc.. .), display cases, paper bags, etc… At the cost of £240/m2 + VAT (and another £150 for lights) , you really want to ensure you utilize every single square inch!

Ben makes my job 1000 times easier and more accurate simply by rendering a 3D image of the booth (see below) and according to scale so I can see how things fit. It also gives me an accurate portrayal of whether the booth in its entirety will look good with the decorations we’ve chosen. After all, for these 3 days, it will be a retail environment for our customers and we need to ensure it sticks to Jelly Pong Pong’s fun, flirty ethos.

 

So here’s another handy resource you can use, as Ben works freelance. Big drumroll & say hello to our 3D extraordinaire!

Benjamine Lim

Email : wanderer.thewmddeveloper@gmail.com

Tags: 3D designer, Britain's Next Top Model, resources, retail shows, trade shows

Is it right to brand private label cosmetics as your own?

 

I’ve recently been asked whether it’s “ethical” to use private label cosmetics, especially when you’re starting out in this investment-heavy industry and don’t have the funds to purchase large minimums from contract manufacturers. As one of my readers put it : Is it right to take credit for someone else’s work?

As you all know, I started Jelly Pong Pong with the most minimum of funds. I was after all, still at university and other than a very strong passion and conviction that I was meant to be in the cosmetics industry, I really didn’t have the funds to back my ambitions up. The first people I started stocking from were private label companies, namely Ladyburd and Grafton. What I did do differently, was to repackage their formulations. Since I didn’t have control over the ingredients, I was determined to put them in packaging of my choice. How that was done deserves another post altogether!

Last year, Space NK started stocking Lime Crime, a cosmetics line known for its unconventional colour choices. It has however, created huge waves of resentment in the States, especially among bloggers, for using private label products and not admitting to this practice. When exposed, the founder threatened to sue the blogger. Really not the best option knowing that bloggers root for each other and word of such naughty corporate behaviour spreads like wildfire over the blogosphere.

I  honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with using private label cosmetics, whether it’s ready-packaged or whether you repackage them yourself, as long as you do not claim to have made the formulations yourself, and are honest with those who actually bother to call in to ask. After all, it’s a wonderful business opportunity…Private label manufacturers put these products out there in order to make a profit, and brand owners  launch their lines with quality cosmetics at minimal costs, enabling them to focus on growing their company to a stage where they are finally able to formulate on their own. A few other companies who used private label companies when they first started are Pixi Cosmetics (they used Ladyburd) and Napoleon Perdis (he had a selected range from YourNamePro). Both are now stocked in hundreds of Target stores after having exited Sephora. Closer to home, we have Daniel Sandler, a talented makeup artist who very obviously takes from YourNamePro.

 

 

Tags: formulating a product, Grafton cosmetics, Ladyburd cosmetics, Mana cosmetics, private label, resources, Your Name Pro cosmetics

Jelly Pong Pong’s Very First Website!

I can’t even begin to tell you how many memories finding this piece of my very first website brings me. Because I was on such a shoestring budget, I couldn’t afford a website designer, and had to develop the entire thing myself. Paying for the domain name & hosting it was all I could afford with my teeny tiny budget of GBP 700. I borrowed a friend’s copy of JShopPro (can’t believe they’re still in business after so many years), which allowed me to put shopping baskets into my HTML pages created in Microsoft Frontpage. I don’t know if you recognize the colour swatches, they were nicked from Sephora.com! I see that Sephora’s now changed all their swatches into rectangular little pieces, I honestly prefer them as they were so many years ago.

I didn’t know how to program discount codes or customer loyalty programs, and couldn’t afford any sort of value-added services (such as free shipping), so I offered our little paper bags free instead, thinking if it didn’t generate sales, then at least people would use it & carry it around, doing some form of marketing for me.

At that time, HSBC’s online transaction costs were really expensive compared to their offline ones (meant for a brick-and-mortar store, with a physical credit card terminal). So I applied for a physical card terminal, and fixed that right at home on my work desk (yes, was very much still working from my little apartment). It could take CNP (Cardholder Not Present) transactions, like catalogue and phone orders, which I did. So in actual fact, my website took “catalogue orders” instead of live, online ones!

I spent nights upon sleepless nights just building that website up, page by page. I had a total of 11 pages by the end of it, an accomplishment as far as I was concerned, and launched it to the world by 2001. It would take me another 4 years to build the business up so I could comfortably afford a proper website developer, but I will always remember my first homemade one.

Tags: building a website, memories, starting a business