Ready To Hire A Skincare Lab? Read This First
Hiring a skincare lab is the next step for rapidly growing cosmetics brands that are still formulating from home.
When production takes up all of your time and batch consistency becomes a struggle, it’s time to bring in the professionals.
But hiring a manufacturer is a significant investment, and if you don’t understand the exact product creation process, it’s easy to feel like you’re not getting your money’s worth.
Innacos is here to help!
Our in-depth guide below outlines the five key functions of skincare labs so you can decide when to make the switch and what type of manufacturer is right for your brand.
1. Formulating Services
For any growing skincare business, creating your own products can take up a huge chunk of your time.
That’s why moving to a skincare lab is a game-changer for founders. Skincare labs don’t just mix a few ingredients - they formulate, manufacture, and fill the final product into your packaging.
That frees up time for you to focus on what drives income for your business: marketing, sales, and building a community.
If you’re launching a new brand from scratch, partnering with a manufacturer from the beginning can save months (or even years) of trial and error in creating your products.
Instead of learning the chemistry behind skincare, you can work with a team of professionally trained chemists who handle every stage of product development while you focus on growing the business from the ground up.
At Innacos, we are specialists at working with home-to-lab brands and new brands looking for a high-quality, clean manufacturer with a broad range of formulating methods and formulas suited to every budget. Learn more about the right path for your brand in our quiz here.
2. Research and Innovation
Skincare labs don’t just contract manufacture brands’ existing recipes - they also develop new ones.
Innovation begins with intensive research and development. Teams of chemists study new ingredients, test ingredient combinations, while also balancing performance with cost, to produce formulas that work for budget-friendly brands as well as luxury.
By outsourcing this R&D and formulating process, you gain access to professional levels of skincare innovation: think advanced actives, biotech ingredients, or hybrid products that you wouldn’t be able to create on your own.
You can choose to buy from a skincare manufacturer that only sells its own formulas, or work with one to innovate your own.
Some skincare labs only offer one manufacturing method, while others will offer a range of choices:
Preformulated Skincare
Preformulated formulas are standardized products created in advance and sold to many brands. The two preformulated paths are buying in bulk or private label:
Buying in bulk involves purchasing large quantities of preformulated product in large unbranded drums. It’s the best method for spas and estheticians - professional service providers who need large amounts of high-quality skincare at a lower cost to perform their treatments.
Private label involves adding your own unique branding to a lab’s preformulated product. Although the formula will not be unique, it’s the cheapest and quickest method to market.
Customized Skincare
Custom product creation involves adding a limited number of ingredients to a lab’s base formula. It’s not quite as quick or inexpensive as private label, but with the right ingredient choices, it can genuinely make your products stand out from the rest.
Custom formulating involves working with a team of highly trained chemists to create brand new skincare from scratch. It’s the most expensive method with the longest timeline; however, if your products are unique enough and meet demand, these formulas can result in a successful (and even viral) product line.
At Innacos, we provide as much manufacturing choice for our clients as possible. Our manufacturing services include bulk, private label, custom product creation, and custom formulation. Love the formula you create from home?
We also provide contract manufacturing services, where we will recreate your formula as close to your exact specifications as possible. Find the best manufacturing method for your business in our quiz here.
3. Safe and Compliant Products
With the enactment of MOCRA (the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act) in 2022, cosmetic compliance in the US has become more complex than ever.
For brands earning over a million per year, formulating from home is no longer a viable option. Read more about MOCRA in our full blog post here.
Skincare labs make complying with the law much easier. Licensed manufacturers ensure your products meet all the safety and labeling requirements under US law.
If you plan to export products, many labs will help you conform to the correct regional standards (across the US, UK, or Canada).
However, keep in mind it’s ultimately your responsibility to verify compliance with the law in every region your products are sold.
At Innacos, we are fully GMP-compliant, FDA-registered, and we have an A+ BBB rating. Planning to export your products? We can formulate to virtually any region's standards. Learn more about certifications and standards on our website here.
4. Scaling Production
As your business grows, it simply becomes unsustainable to produce your products at home. Beyond the extra workload, product consistency becomes a major issue.
Working in larger batches can influence the heating, cooling, and mixing process, and a tiny mistake can ruin a whole batch of your skincare.
Skincare labs are designed to handle all of these scaling issues. They have industrial-grade equipment, lab safety protocols to prevent contamination issues, and quality control processes to ensure every batch is identical to the last.
At Innacos, we can formulate large quantities (over 120kg) of consistent, batch-tested skincare. Learn more about our costs at each quantity level in our private label catalog here.
5. Testing Services
Testing is one of the most overlooked parts of creating skincare - even though it’s legally required and essential to ensure your products are safe.
Skincare manufacturers will handle both of the necessary forms of testing:
Regulatory testing: includes mandatory stability testing, preservative efficacy (PET) for water-based formulas, and any other test required for your particular formula
Batch testing: checks to ensure the consistency, texture, and general safety of each batch before it heads to the filling production line
At Innacos, we list every test (and the cost per test) clearly on our website to provide clarity for our clients. Learn more about our testing services here. Not sure which tests your products will need? Download our testing cheat sheet here.
In sum, skincare labs have five main functions for small to medium beauty brands:
Formulating: creating the products for your brand so you can focus on sales and marketing
Research and innovation: experimenting with ingredients and creating new formulas to sell to clients through both preformulated and customized manufacturing
Safe and compliant products: formulating to MoCRA standards or other regions’ standards, ready for export
Scaling production: taking your homemade skincare formulas from small batch to ultra large batch using industrial-grade equipment and managing the correct heating, cooling, and mixing processes at scale
Testing: conducting the necessary formula and batch testing required by law to ensure each batch is safe for human use
Ready to hire a skincare lab to create your skincare so that you can focus on growing your business? Innacos would love to work with your brand! Get in touch via email: customerservice@innacos.com or by calling: +18123291105
