Wednesday, May 11, 2011

sourcing a cosmetic contract manufacturer

Knowing very little about the industry I was about to step into I needed to put my detective cap on to find out who were the best manufactures of cosmetics in Australia and who could meet my needs for MOQ, natural product, take a concept formulation to production, in-house lab, inventory management etc.

As outlined in my biz plan, i did the bench top development of my lippie range so I could create an innovative concept without being led or blinkered by cosmetic chemists - ie many formulations are 'stock std' with a 'brand make over' to highlight a new potent beneficial ingredient. This meant I did extensive online research of ingredients, their attributes, skin benefits and performance & compatibility.

From finding the ingredient suppliers (base oils & waxes, actives, colours, flavours)  I tapped into expert knowledge on who the best manufactures of cosmetics are in Australia. All I had to do then was start calling & emailing but to kick off the project 2 key things needed doing:

1) Create my brief of exactly what I wanted made, and
2) Get a NDA (non disclosure agreement/confidentiality doc) prepared and signed before I shared any info. (it helps if one of your best friends is a lawyer!)

I have attached both these documents so you can see what I did:
Contract Manufacturer Brief (contains just the heading for data I included not my hard work!)
Reciprocal NDA -  shows that the relationship I want to enter is a partnership.

From there it was a site visit to meet the people, see facility, understand capabilities.....make a decision

Happy reading!

bench top concept development of makeup made from skin delicious foods 


3 comments:

Milliscent Morgan said...

I love this page so much on the other hand I'm interested on FDA approved contract manufacturer, so keep it up!

Unknown said...

pretty interesting to get a glimpse of how cosmetic contract manufacturing works I know that a really great company can really help do a lot of good, especially in this type of industry

general manager said...

I really like your article,....We should use cosmetic after reading "cosmetic formula development"