Many aspiring entrepreneurs envision developing their own line of clean beauty skincare products, The process is reasonably straightforward, but for those who have never before developed proprietary cosmetic products, it can seem daunting. Particularly so if you don’t have a technical background or business experience in the development of cosmetic skincare products.
Step 1: Determine The Focus Of The Product Line You Want To Develop
There are a multitude of types of product lines you can focus on: Acne, Hyperpigmentation, Anti-Aging, Sensitive Skin, Allergen-Free, for instance. Most people focus on development of a line that solves a skincare problem that they personally identify with. They have tried multiple products on the market and haven’t found many products that work for their particular skincare needs.
Step 2: Determine What Individual Products You Want To Comprise Your Line
Let’s assume you have determined that you want to focus on a product line targeted towards hyperpigmentation. Now, you must determine the suite of products and product format you want to offer. Let’s assume you envision offering a Treatment Clay Masque, Brightening Serum and Exfoliating Toner, but are not interested in offering a Cleanser, for instance. That defines the individual products you are going to focus on.
Step 3: Competitive Market Research
Once you have chosen the focus of your product line and your product suite, survey the market to determine the Best-In-Class products and product lines that address your focus skincare concern. Research product reviews by various websites such as Byrdie and The Cut, beauty editors at magazines, and Best Of Award winning products from Allure or Beauty Independent. If you Google search for “Best Hyperpigmentation Skincare Product” you will come up with multiple reviews comprising 10-15 hyperpigmentation products that many of the reviewers at these websites consider to be Best-In-Class. Scour the lists to see the top-rated products and, in particular, note the products that appear on multiple lists. Check the consumer product reviews on Dermstore, Ulta, Sephora and Amazon.
Step 4: Select Your Competitive Benchmark Products
For each product you envision developing, based on your competitive market research, select what you consider to be the top three competitive benchmark products in each category. Study the List Of Ingredients of each to determine what ingredients are used in the benchmark products and note the product format (cream, lotion, serum, etc.). Look for key functional ingredients that are used in common across the benchmark products and note any particular functional ingredients that are unique to any one competitive benchmark. This will give you some insight into the functional ingredients that you will most likely want to use in your products to be on a competitive performance level relative to your benchmark competitors. Research to see if there are any ingredients that are targeted towards hyperpigmentation that have proven performance that your competitors are not using. This may provide you an opportunity to differentiate your product from your competitors.
In addition to understanding the key functional ingredients used by your competitors you will also want to research the competitor’s product packaging, package size, retail sales price and their competitive positioning, marketing, social media presence to see if you can determine their target consumer profile. This will help you determine your competitive positioning in the market relative to your competitors.
Step 5 Select The Key Functional Ingredients You Want To Include In Your Products
Once you have completed your competitive benchmark research, select your key functional ingredients you want to use in your products. Let’s assume you have elected to focus on Vitamin C (3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid), Niacinamide, Salicylic Acid, Tranexamic Acid and Tetrapeptide-30 as your key functional ingredients. Next, determine if there is any one of these ingredients, or some combination of these ingredients, that you want to focus on as your “Hero” ingredient(s) that will be included in all of your products and will be the focus of your marketing. Finally, select any other non-functional ingredients that you want to use in your product such as carrier oils, etc.
Step 6 Now You’re Ready To Consult A Cosmetic Chemist
You can consult with a Cosmetic Chemist at any stage of the process, but it helpful if you first have done your market research and made some decisions before approaching a Cosmetic Chemist. Having selected your competitive benchmark products and your key functional ingredients beforehand helps the Cosmetic Chemist better understand what you are seeking to develop in your own products. Providing a Cosmetic Chemist with your competitive benchmark and desired key functional ingredients is a shorthand way of communicating to your Cosmetic Chemist your preferences for functional ingredients, product form/format/function, product sensorials and target price points.
Most often, your Cosmetic Chemist will be aware of some ingredients or ingredient combinations that may yield a more effective product and she will make recommendations on emulsifiers, thickeners preservatives and other ingredients require to make a functional product. If you reach agreement with a Cosmetic Chemist on your development work and enter into a contract, be prepared to send samples of your competitive benchmarks ranked in order of preference in terms of your liking.
It is much easier for a chemist to communicate with you and come to a “meeting of the minds” regarding your preferences regarding product functionality and skin sensorials if she is able to actually touch, feel, smell your preferred competitive benchmarks as these attributes can be difficult to clearly communicate verbally without the chemist actually evaluating your benchmarks on her own skin.
Step 7A Product Development
Your Cosmetic Chemist will propose to you a list of ingredients for your own products the she believes will achieve your objectives in product format, performance, skin sensorials and fragrance and will also yield a product that passes both stability testing and preservative challenge testing. If you are aligned, your Cosmetic Chemist will procure all of the proposed ingredients and begin making prototypes for you to evaluate. This is an iterative and collaborative process with your Cosmetic Chemist making prototypes for your evaluation and your feedback to the chemist on changes/improvements you would like to make to the prototypes. You will collaboratively iterate on the formula until such time that you are satisfied with all aspects of the prototype and approve it as the formula that you want to advance to testing.
There a two main types of testing that are conducted on cosmetic products prior to manufacture: Product Stability Testing generally consists of freeze/thaw cycle testing and elevated temperature accelerated testing. The Stability tests basically simulate the different environmental conditions the product may encounter during shipping and consumer use. Elevated temperature, accelerated stability testing is evaluating the stability of your product when subject to constant temperatures of 40C – 45C for three months to determine if your product is heat stable. Accelerated testing can also be used as a guesstimate of your product’s shelf life. There are many variations on product stability testing and conditions, but freeze/thaw and elevated temperature accelerated testing are standard. Your product must also undergo Preservative Challenge Testing to ensure that it does not become microbially contaminated during use.
The Product Development Lifecycle including Stability Testing and Preservative Challenge Testing is generally a 6-month to 1-year process depending on the format of the product. But, it could be done in 4 months or so for the most simple product formats like a Toner or Serum.
Step 7B Product Packaging, Labels, Website Development, Marketing & Distribution Strategy
While your chemist is working on product prototypes you can simultaneously begin working on selecting product packaging, product label design and website design (including social media) in preparation for the launch of your product line. During this timeframe, you will also be working on your marketing and distribution strategy and pricing strategy. Once your products enter into the product stability and preservative challenge testing stage, you can engage with a contract manufacturer to price out your formula for your first production run. You will be working on all of these elements simultaneously while your chemist is perfecting your prototypes with the objective of all these various necessary activities converge prior to your first production run.
Step 8 Product Line Launch!