“Eighty percent of the products that you see in department stores we’ve created for brands.”
There is a common misunderstanding in the beauty industry—perhaps more common among people outside the circle—each brand has its own army of formulators and scientists, who work hard in some high-tech laboratories to create their products. Although this may be the case for a few of these products, the reality is that many of them are researched, created, and packaged by private label companies.
Labs like ours are B2B manufacturers, and the formulas and packaging they create can be marketed by beauty brands, and no one knows that they did not do it themselves. Consumers may be surprised to find that some of their favorite lotions and potions come from the same place and may have the same formula as other private-brand products on the market.
In the past, private-label labs have been more than happy to remain in the industry’s shadows, working discretely on formulas for a surprisingly large array of brands. Irena James, YG’s vice president of product development (who is also Nik’s wife), claims that “80 percent of the products that you see in department stores we’ve created for brands.” And after four decades in the industry spent formulating products for other companies. Based on research on the efficacy of topical melatonin for anti-aging, the couple — relying on Irena’s biochemistry and skin physiology expertise — dreamed up a formula that features melatonin as its star ingredient.
Constant exposure to light, says Irena, is interfering with our sleep, which in turn affects your skin’s ability to heal the daily damage it sustains. The research showed that topical melatonin can offer the reparative function the skin needs, despite a lackluster sleep cycle.
Says Irena, “The reason we came out from behind the private-label industry to work on this as our own brand is that we did not want this message to be diluted — we didn’t want to give that away to someone else.”
That seems to be a common theme with this burgeoning movement — suppliers and formulators creating something they were loathed to give to brands that would use it in ways that would essentially make it less effective, in their eyes wasting the potential of the innovation they had birthed.
Private Label: Getting finished products made with your label in small quantities.
Ideal for
- Beauty Salons.
- Boutiques.
- Single Stores.
- Startups.
- Beauty Brands.
- Brands that want to expand its lines and start a k-beauty line.
Quantities: a few pieces up to several hundred of each product
What you need: almost nothing but money and an idea of the types of products you want.
Advantages: gets you into the business fast without large startup or inventory costs
Disadvantages: you are limited to the shades, products, and packaging carried by the supplier.