Buyer guide

How to Start a Makeup Line with a Private Label Manufacturer

2026-09-27 · Magic Color product development team

Learning how to start a makeup line is mostly a sequencing problem. Not a creativity problem. You can have a brilliant concept and still lose six weeks because the artwork wasn't ready when the sample got signed off. Here's the order we'd hand any founder planning a first range — with the actual numbers behind each step.

Step 1: Pick categories before you pick a factory

Three to five SKUs across two categories will teach you more than fifteen across six.

Tight ranges sell better on shelf. They ship cheaper, and they cost less to test. Most first launches we see cluster around a hero lip product, an eye palette and one supporting item. Already selling skincare or fragrance? Pick the category your customer already trusts you in. A lip gloss is an easier upsell than a full face range.

Browse lip makeup, eye makeup and nail polish to see which formats exist. Format drives cost far more than shade count does. A pressed pan, an extruded stick and a filled tube run on three different lines.

Good news: 500+ mature formulas already sit on the shelf, so your category choice doesn't start from zero. We build over 600 new development samples a year too, but mature bases move faster and cost less to validate.

Step 2: Private label, OEM or ODM?

Private label means you take an existing formula and put your brand on it. Fastest route, lowest development cost, least differentiation. OEM means the factory builds to your spec — your brief, your performance targets. ODM means the factory brings the product idea and the packaging, and you brand it.

Blunt opinion: for a first range, use private label on the SKU that has to be cheap and reliable, and ODM on the one that has to look different. Very few first-time brands need full OEM across every SKU. Paying for it just slows everything down.

Read the comparison pages on private label and OEM/ODM before you brief anyone. The two paths ask different things of you.

Step 3: Write a brief a factory can actually quote from

Vague briefs produce vague quotes. Vague quotes produce margin surprises three months later.

A usable brief covers target markets, retail price band, category and SKU count, quantity per SKU, packaging direction, the claims you plan to print, your launch date, and when artwork will be ready. That last one gets forgotten most often.

Two things about quotes. Ours stay valid for 30 days, because raw material and packaging costs move. And the price reflects MOQ, process complexity, material grade, and how close your spec sits to a standard one. Electroplating, 3D printing, silk-screen, embossing, custom moulds — each pushes you up a tier. Ask early what a simplified shell would save you. Sometimes the answer funds your whole launch budget.

Step 4: Sample properly, then read the reports

Samples take 3–7 days. They're free; you cover the freight. Two revisions are free too, and beyond that we charge at cost.

Formula development runs 14 days as standard, including basic testing and a preliminary report. Express is 7 days, but it skips the compatibility and stability work you'll need eventually anyway.

Here's the part founders underestimate. Testing. During development our quality team runs physical, chemical, stability, compatibility, light, drop and fit tests. A preliminary report lands at about one month; the full report takes three. If your launch plan depends on a complete stability file, book twelve weeks, not three.

Ask for the reports, not just the pretty sample. Third-party testing is available per batch on request through labs such as SGS, Intertek and CTI, with CNAS/CMA reports. Every raw material arrives with a COA. You can also book a factory visit and walk the production halls, the lab and the QC room before you commit — quality explains what gets checked at each stage.

Step 5: Build the compliance file alongside the packaging

Do it before artwork sign-off. This is the step that quietly kills launch dates.

In the EU, Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 puts legal responsibility on a named Responsible Person established in the EU, and requires a product information file plus notification before the product goes on the market. In the US you're working to FDA and MoCRA requirements. MoCRA added facility registration and product listing obligations, and the FDA cosmetics labeling rules govern what must appear on the pack. Neither agency certifies or approves a product. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you something.

We formulate to match the destination market: (EC) No 1223/2009 and REACH for Europe, EN-71 for kids' items, US FDA and MoCRA requirements, GSO 1943/2021 for the Gulf, TR TC 009/2011 for Russia, UK rules, India Cosmetics Rules 2020, and the ASEAN Cosmetic Regulation for Southeast Asia. A compliance team tracks restricted ingredient lists and labeling changes per region.

Company certifications are a separate matter from product compliance. GMPC, ISO 22716, BRCGS, SMETA, BSCI and RSPO are listed on certifications.

Step 6: MOQ, payment terms, and the cash nobody budgets for

Our MOQs are simple. Basic models with no special process: 6,000 pcs. Special processes — electroplating, 3D printing, silk-screen, embossing, custom moulds — and custom component shells: 12,000 pcs. Sets sit lower: 3,000 sets with standard processes — standard cases, sleeves, bags and gift boxes — and 6,000 sets with special processes. Price breaks at 12k, 30k, 50k and 100k.

Payment is usually 30% deposit, 70% before shipment, by T/T or L/C.

What catches first-time brands isn't the deposit. It's the total. Deposit, label and carton printing, compliance documentation, freight, duties, plus stock held back to replace damages. Sea freight to North America or Europe runs 30–45 days after customs clearance. Air is 7–15. Express 3–7. Land 10–20 in nearby regions.

If a retail window fixes your launch date, budget air freight for the first partial shipment. That single decision has saved more launches than any price negotiation.

Step 7: A timeline you can defend in a meeting

Add it up honestly and a first order lands roughly three and a half to four months door to door — assuming approvals come back in days, not weeks. Our 8-step flow, from first call to after-sales, is mapped on the process page.

Step 8: Plan the second order before the first one ships

Shelf life is 3 years unopened, 12 months after opening. So reorder timing depends on your sell-through, not on our calendar. Keep a retained sample from each batch; we hold our own in a constant-temperature, constant-humidity room with a traceability file per production batch and retain it until six months after the end of the product's shelf life. Reorders reuse the approved formula and the approved artwork, which makes them a lot faster than the first run.

One more thing, and get it in writing: ask how your manufacturer handles a quality complaint after the container lands. Ours is replacement or top-up stock plus the associated freight, provided the issue traces back to us. Damage or shortage needs photos at the point of receipt.

Who you'd be working with

Magic Color has been in colour cosmetics since 2008, exporting from Jinhua, Zhejiang — near Ningbo and Shanghai. The numbers today: 30+ automated production lines, nearly 400 people, about 30,000 m², automation rate above 70%.

All filling workshops in the current Jinhua factory are Class 100,000 GMPC cleanrooms. A new facility of about 100,000 m² with 45 lines and Industry 4.0 standards, due to open in 2027, is planned to add monthly capacity in the millions of units across lipstick, gloss, eyeshadow, pressed powder, nail polish and sets. Current set capacity? 300,000 cosmetic sets a month.

Want a quote instead of a brochure? Send a brief to [email protected] or call +86-13735758618 on phone or WhatsApp. Start with two categories and one honest launch date. The rest follows. More answers sit on our FAQ and contact pages.