Skip to Content

How to Start a Makeup Line at Home With No Money

If you like to experiment with different beauty looks and also like to try them out on people, you may want to start developing your own makeup line. If you want to start your own make up line, first decide on a specific and unique solution that you will provide to your customers. There are so many makeup products on store shelves today that unless you have a unique selling proposition, your product will get totally lost and unrecognizable in the market.

If you have a product idea in mind, but you are not sure whether customers will buy it, you can do some low-cost market research by checking out online makeup forums. Read forum discussion threads and you will easily find out what the market is concerned about and what they are interested in – simply by what users are saying. More and more people are now looking for makeup with special features like natural or organic ingredients or convenient packaging that basically translates to higher value.

What It Takes to Open a Makeup Line Successfully?

To be sincere, developing your own makeup line from total scratch takes time, may take around 9 to 15 months. Market research, product development, packaging and promotion all need to take place before your product hits the market. You need patience and determination to get through the launch phase of your business. That said, you do not need to spend years developing your product line, as you can achieve it either in a matter of month or even years.

15 Steps to Starting a Makeup Line Business from Home

1. Understand the Industry

Makeup has become an extremely important part of our lives. The girls and women feel themselves to be incomplete without decorating their face with a number of shades. We cannot ignore the significance of makeup in our lives. It plays a vital part in self-grooming and personality development. Women always look for the quality makeup items.

Interesting Statistics About the Industry

If you look at the entire worldwide cosmetic industry, sales reach about $170 Billion dollars a year. It’s distributed pretty uniformly around the world with ~$40 billion in the Americas, ~$60 billion in Europe, $60 billion in Australia & Asia, and another $10 billion in Africa. The Western world spends a bit more per person but india and Asia are quickly catching up.

The cosmetic industry (aka beauty industry or personal care industry) can be broken down into 5 segments. The five segments are; hair care which accounts for 20%, skin care 27%, fragrance 10%, make-up 20%, and Other small niches makes up 23% of the 170 billion dollars in sales.

The color cosmetic market represents about 20% of the cosmetic industry and includes anything from lipstick to nail polish. Included are things like blush, eye shadow, foundation, etc. The array of products is vast and the number of color variations is practically infinite. You can spend a lot of time as a cosmetic chemist working on new shades of familiar products. The market is highly segmented so there isn’t really one dominant player.

Massive multinational corporations dominate the makeup industry, but in recent years they have been creating or acquiring boutique brands in order to crack the market for premium makeup. Estée Lauder and rival L’Oréal have realized that, like the spirits industry, the key to success lies in offering a suite of products targeted at a wide range of customers, but with special emphasis on the growing luxury sector.

Data from the NPD Group, a marketing information company based in Port Washington, N.Y., indicate that the luxury cosmetic industry has grown 6% since 2004, and luxury cosmetics have grown at an annual rate of 4% to 7% since 2002. Nevertheless, the North American market is struggling, dropping from 31% of global sales in 2002 to 27% in 2004, based on data from London-based market research CompanyEuro monitor.

2. Conduct Market Research and Feasibility Studies

  • Demographics and Psychographics

The demographic and psychographic compositions of those who need make up products are diverse but majorly women. This is because they are the ones who are basically inclined to use makeup. This is not to say that men do not sometimes use it.

Below is a list of the people and organizations that need the make-up products;

  • Women and Men of various age
  • Celebrities
  • University Students
  • Actors and Actresses
  • Broadcasters

3. Decide What Niche to Concentrate On

Every business has different niches under it, and this is the same as the makeup industry. The makeup line business can be divided into different niche such as;

  1. Primer
  2. Lipstick
  3. Concealer
  4. Foundation
  5. Face powder
  6. Rouge
  7. Highlight
  8. Bronzer
  9. Mascara
  10. Eyeliner
  11. Nail polish production
  12. Setting spray
  13. False eyelashes
The level of Competition in the Industry

The beauty industry is highly competitive and at times changes rapidly due to consumer preferences and industry trends. New entrants products face, and will continue to face, competition for consumer recognition and market share with products that have achieved significant national and international brand name recognition and consumer loyalty, such as those offered by global prestige beauty companies Avon Products, Inc., Elizabeth Arden, Inc.

The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., L’Oréal S.A. and Neutrogena, each of which have launched and are promoting mineral-based makeup brands. These companies have significantly greater resources than 70% of the other brands. These competitors typically devote substantial resources to promoting their brands through traditional forms of advertising, such as print media and television commercials.

Because of such mass marketing methods, these competitors’ products may achieve higher visibility and recognition than our products. The Cosmetics Industry is a fragmented sub-industry within the Household and Personal Goods industry.

Although the number of companies competing on the local, regional and global levels is immense, 49% of the cosmetics market is controlled by eleven companies, of which six are registered in the US. These companies differentiate themselves from each other based on their brands, product assortments, innovation, pricing and marketing techniques.

4. Know the Major Competitors in the Industry

When you talk of makeup brands, names such as L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble, Maybelline, Clinique, Shiseido and Estée Lauder comes to mind. Other popular brands in the industry include;

  1. Auraline Beauty
  2. House of Tara
  3. Lady Burd
  4. Avon
  5. Dove
  6. Neutrogena
  7. Lancôme
  8. MAC
  9. Olay
  10. Smashbox
  11. Benefit cosmetics
  12. Bare Minerals
  13. NYX Cosmetics
  14. Laura Mercier
  15. Mary Kay
  16. Lush
  17. Sephora
  18. Guerlain
  19. The Balm
  20. Lorac
Economic Analysis

The cosmetics business is less sensitive to economic cycles compared to other open items like automobiles, and demand falls slower in times of recession and picks up rapidly in times of economic recovery. During the 2008-9 recession, growth in the Beauty and Personal Care industry fell moderately compared to the drop in the global GDP growth rate.

5. Decide Whether to Buy a Franchise or Start from Scratch

In order not to encounter any form of problem with the government and most especially your business growth, it is advisable to start your make up line from scratch instead of buying a franchise. If you buy a franchise, it is as if you are making yourself a distributor or salesperson for the franchise. It is even pertinent to note that franchise does not exist in the make-up manufacturing business. So you are left with only an option, to start from the scratch.

6. Know the Possible Threats and Challenges You Will Face

Every business has different challenges they are subjected to face. Here are some of the challenges that one might likely face;

  • Intensified media focus on the issue of toxic materials in products, involving workplace safety standards as well as product liabilities.
  • Nail product ingredients are allegedly tied to cancer, miscarriages, birth defects, skin diseases, among other dangers. Seventeen of 20 nail product ingredients were listed as harmful to the respiratory tract in a safety brochure from the EPA.
  • Nearly all the human interest features involve Asian and Hispanic women who may not have mattered once upon a time. Fortunately, they matter now, to U.S. Presidents among others. With research suggesting that nearly half of cosmetic industry professionals are Vietnamese, the link between the potential increase in industry litigation and immigration is undeniable.

7. Write a Business Plan

The fact that this kind of business requires huge start – up capital, and rigorous planning makes it very important to draft a very good makeup line business plan. The need for a good business plan can’t be over emphasized if your desire is to build a business that can grow big and well accepted in the global market.

As a matter of fact, it will pay you to hire expert to help you draft a workable business plan that can assist you to access loan from the bank or attract serious investors.

If you are looking towards starting a makeup line, then one of the first steps that you are expected to take is to consult experts to help you write a good and workable business plan. The truth is that, in order to successfully run a makeup line, you would need to have a good business plan in place.

These are the key areas that should be covered in your business plan;

Executive summary and Company’s descriptions

You are expected to write about the concept of your business, descriptions of your company, your company’s vision statement, mission statement and where your company will be located and also if you intend selling out franchise or opening outlets in different cities in the United States of America and in other parts of the world.

Other key components that should not be missing in your business plan are products and services offering, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, marketing and sales analysis / strategies, target market, market goals, pricing, costing and financial projection, publicity and advertising strategy, expansion and growth strategies, budget and start – up capital generation et al.

8. Choose a Suitable Location for your Business

Leasing premises can be expensive at the start. One option can be to rent space in an industrial kitchen or a laboratory to test and make your products, then have these stored somewhere safe and dry before shipping to the sales locations. If you do want to rent premises, keep the overheads low and don’t try to move into an area that is expensive––start at the lower end and change to more expensive premises when you can afford more.

No doubt getting an ideal facility for your makeup line business requires huge capital and perhaps it is one of the areas that you would have to spend large chunk of your start – up capital on. The good thing about makeup line is that you don’t necessarily need to locate your production factory in the heart of town.

If getting a facility is cheaper in the outskirt of town, it is better you save cost. The important thing is that you must get a facility that is conducive to build a standard lab et al. If peradventure you need a showroom to showcase your line of products, then you can rent a small outlet in town.

9. Hire Employees for your Technical and Manpower Needs

One of the more challenging aspects of being a makeup line owner will be hiring and retaining good employees. This can seem like a daunting task, not just because both of these responsibilities can be very time-consuming but also because there’s so much riding on employees’ skills.

Their ability and talent, as well as their attitudes and work ethic, will influence every aspect of the business, from client retention rate to the bottom line, so you’ll need to choose your employees very carefully.

The whole issue of hiring is further complicated by the point that there’s a lot of competition out there for qualified cosmetology personnel. It’s not uncommon for rival make up line owners to try to lure away talented cosmetic chemist from each other with promises of more money and better working conditions.

Then there’s the issue of walk-outs: when the best of your cosmetologist—usually stylists—decide they can do better on their own and leave the line to start their own businesses. Not only does the original make up line lose its qualified staff, but it also then must compete for new staff members with the turncoats who left.

10. Write a Marketing Plan Packed With ideas & Strategies

Cosmetics is a field already full of people vying their products. What sets most successful cosmetics apart from the rest is the marketing––from packaging to promises of ever-lasting youth, you’ll need to find the right hooks to draw in your future customers. And ask yourself the tough questions:

  • What is so special or different about your product over others?
  • Why a customer should try your line and forgo using another line they already enjoy using?
  • What sort of packaging will create a recognizable brand for you that have the wow factor, trustworthiness and reliability all rolled into one?
  • What special ingredient or factor are you focusing on? Many products choose something that they sell as their special niche, such as “organic”, “natural”, “rose infused”, “macadamia nut softening”, or whatever! And do you have scientific facts to back up your claims that your product will do what you’re promising?

Sell your cosmetic line in as many ways as possible. This includes visiting department stores directly to ask them to stock your cosmetics, selling online in your own shop and through auction or consignment stores and even through parties at which you demonstrate the cosmetics.

Have key selling points clearly in your mind. Have about five major reasons ready to tell people as to why your cosmetics line is amazing and worth trying. Be honest and have a background story as to why you started this business.

11. Develop an Iron-clad Competitive Strategies to Help You Win

There are a variety of ways you can bring your makeup line to market, even if you are starting small. Before going to major retail stores, reach out to smaller retail shops, salons or massage parlors in your area that may be open to consignment arrangements. You could open a mall kiosk, hold private home parties or set up or own website.

Packaging is important, as it is what your customer will see first. You also want to have a business name and logo that grabs attention. While you want a name and design that stand out, you also want to make sure that shoppers can easily understand what the product is and the benefits it provides by reading the label.

For home-based entrepreneurs, the internet makes packaging and design much easier. You can find wholesale packaging suppliers online for items like bottles, jars, lip balm tubes and plastic containers. You can also save hundreds of dollars on logo design by creating your own logo at websites like Logo Maker.

12. Brainstorm Possible Ways to Retain Clients & Customers

When it comes to business no matter the industry you choose to pitch your tent in, one of the easiest ways to increase customers’ retention and perhaps to attract new customers is to satisfy your customers always. If your customers are satisfied with your services delivery, they can hardly source for alternative service provider or products.

Statistics has it that one of the major reasons why customer’s source for alternative service provider or product is when there is a drop in quality. Another reason is poor customer service. If you can continue to improve on the quality or your services and your customer service delivery, then you won’t struggle to maintain your loyal customers.

Part of what you need to do to achieve this is to track progress, results or outputs with the aim of improving on them quickly as the case demands. When it comes to managing your customers and building loyal clientele base, you should purchase a customized CRM software.

With a customized CRM system you can easily stay in touch with your clients (you can carry out quick survey, you can introduce new products and prices to them without any hitch, you can felicitate with them on their birthdays and other anniversaries, you can keep track of their progress, you can send bulk text messages and customized e – mails and above all you can easily receive compliant and feedback from them).

13. Develop Strategies to Boost Brand Awareness and Create a Corporate Identity

When it comes to creating brand identity for a makeup line, the caliber of your customer and price is a huge determinant. It is pretty important to work with your consultants to help you map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help you walk your way into the heart of your target market.

First and foremost, you should ensure that your brand is visible and well communicated which is why you should make provisions to work with different class of people in the society. All your publicity materials and jingles should be done by some of the best hands in the industry.

Below are the platforms you should leverage on to boost your brand awareness and create a corporate identity for your make up line;

  • Advertise your business in relevant magazines and websites
  • List your business on local directories / yellow pages (both online and offline)
  • Promote your business on satellite TV stations and radio stations.
  • Attend beauty related expos, seminars, and business fairs with the aim of creating awareness and promoting your brand
  • Engage in direct email marketing
  • Leverage on the internet (social media platforms and your official websites) to promote your business

Ensures that your workers wear your branded shirts at all times during working hours and also make sure you brand all your company’s official vans, trucks and cars et al.

14. Create a Suppliers/Distribution Network

One very important area in the makeup industry is for you to be able to break through the existing market. As a newbie in the industry, you should come up with a good marketing strategy to gain your own fair share of the market – the truth is that the makeup industry is highly competitive and it requires consistency to establish your brand.

Part of what you need to do to gain market acceptance is to visit salons and other places where you can give out free sample of your makeup products for people to try out, and also you can go on a road show to promote your products. It is also important to spend money to place adverts on fashion magazines, fashion radio shows, fashion TV shows and fashion expos. That is why it is very important to prepare a rich budget that can accommodate promos.

15. Tips to Run your Business Successfully

It is important to note that starting a makeup line business is not one of those businesses that can guarantee you instant profits. With makeup line business, you must be ready to plan, work hard and wait for a while before you can start reaping from the business. The good news is that once your product has been accepted in the market, and then you can be rest assured that the profits will start rolling in.