Beauty brands are increasingly turning to turnkey and contract manufacturing service providers to help them nimbly navigate through a still-evolving, post-Covid beauty landscape with the goal of getting the next big thing in the hands of beauty lovers ASAP. 

One of the biggest trends impacting the current beauty and personal care segments is the flurry of new celebrity and social media influencer brands. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Actors Scarlett Johannson, Idris Elba, Brad Pitt and Courtney Cox, singer John Legend and even retired pro-football player Michael Strahan have attached their names to personally inspired skincare brands. There have also been cosmetics launches from Gwen Stefani, Vanessa Hudgens and model Kate Moss, plus haircare debuts from Priyanka Chopra Jonas and La La Anthony.

Indie and established beauty brands need innovation and speed to market to help claim their own piece of the beauty industry alongside that star power. Enter turnkey and contract service providers. With a laser-like focus on cutting edge packaging and formulating trends and an ability to handle some or all of a brand’s formulating and packaging needs, they’re built to help brands develop and produce products that speak to modern consumers while accommodating “need-it-ASAP” turnaround times.

Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, a cult favorite among social media beauty influencers, sought the turnkey expertise of HCT by kdc/one to produce a portable, refillable configuration for three beauty stick essentials—a highlighter stick, lipstick and cheek stick–all housed in a chic case. HCT produced the case, and also the assembly of the filled sticks into the case and its luxurious secondary unit carton.

Anita Yuen, sales director, HCT by kdc/one, says the brand pre-composed five looks, which customers can also customize. “From an initial loose concept idea from the brand, HCT’s creative team came up with several design options, all unique and original considering the brand’s identity,” she says, adding that like every new project, there were challenges. “We had one case to fit three different formula types and one needed airtightness [so] our engineers spent a lot of time fine tuning and made it happen.”

HCT then coordinated components from four global locations to complete the assembly job. 

Trend-Savvy Responsiveness

Beauty trends are fickle. What’s hot one month, can be “cringe” the next. The agility required to navigate the whims of this market head-on is a baked-in competency for turnkey service providers. 

“We’re operating in a fast-paced and challenging environment and the definition of turnkey has morphed beyond simply supplying components and products,” observes Doug Rofheart, senior sales executive, JP Packaging, a producer of unit-dose, multi-dose and sample packaging solutions. “Beauty and personal care brands are depending on us to leverage our knowledge base and experience by providing additional assistance in design, engineering, material selection, compatibility testing and graphics, as well as package ideation and creation.”

Full-service partnerships are another stress-free component of turnkey services. “We do see a correlation to these newer brands that prefer to work with us full-service turnkey rather than just customizing packaging,” says Amanda Deak, senior marketing manager, SeaCliff Beauty Packaging, which takes a “complete package” approach to customized color cosmetics, skincare, haircare and more. “It is easier for these newer brands to work with us so we can take on the logistics and operations when it comes to developing a formula/packaging and making sure they are compatible and arrive in a timely manner.”

SeaCliff has been busy helping Manny Gutierrez prep for the holidays with a 12 Days of Lunar Advent Calendar filled with 12 individual shades of cruelty-free and vegan eyeshadow formulas in matte and shimmer finishes. Each item is tucked behind paperboard doors that are opened one by one during the 12 days of Christmas. The package also includes a palette for consumers to accommodate the individual eyeshadow shade pans.

As color cosmetics continues to regain popularity within the industry after the pandemic when skincare took the lead, Deak says SeaCliff is also experiencing growth in the haircare category. “Many of our existing customers are developing haircare products, such as Rodan + Fields who just launched into that category,” she comments. “Additionally, we are working with haircare brands like Sugar Bear, XMONDO and more.”

Deep partnerships within the trend-setting K-beauty segment have proven advantageously cutting edge for CTK Corp., which has more than 20 years of experience in providing complete turnkey product development services for global and indie beauty brands.

The company’s Jackie Paterno, vice president, says she’s seen a shift in market power with the rise of Gen Z consumers and their purchasing power. “The generation before them was about the perfect Instagram aesthetics–think avocado toast and It-Girl aesthetics, all which Gen Z have developed a strong distaste for as they gravitate towards things less staged, filter-free and ‘under the radar,’” she says. “For the beauty supply sector, this means that we are seeing the rise of indie brands as well as influencer-brands that are looking to serve this emerging generation of consumers.

“Unlike big corporations and players with red tape and calendars, these brands require speed-to-market and immediate access to information…pressuring the supplier side to speed up R&D efforts and crunching timelines.”

Paterno says that need for speed was exactly why CTK took to the internet with CTKCLIP.COM, where more than a thousand formulas, 200 partner vendors and over 100 patents from the company’s in-house R&D labs are all digitally available for customization 24/7. 

CTK’s latest fully sustainable collection is called Green Utopia and consists of a packaging lineup that’s recyclable, reusable, refillable and compatible with CTK’s curated clean and organic formulations. Among the refillable compacts and lipgloss offerings is the popular Bottoms-Up Sticks, which are made of PCR resin and mono-material for easy recycling. They also feature a sophisticated mechanism to raise and lower the formulation for use that contributes to zero product wastage.

Renowned for its turnkey single dose and multi-use fragrance, personal care and skincare samples, Arcade Beauty recently expanded its packaging options for body and haircare applications, launching a new production line for closure-topped, 3D spouted pouches in sizes spanning 150- to 500mL sizes. “These larger-sized product options result in less waste by reducing the use of rigid packaging and introduce the use of mono-materials,” says Larry Berman, SVP sales North America. “This technology also replies to the refill trend that is and will continue to drive the market.”

Arcade Beauty also recently worked with NEST New York to blend, formulate and fill The Perfume Oils Collection, a fragrance discovery kit consisting of five, 0.1 oz/3mL perfume oil rollerballs. This set complements the standard range of 10- and 100ml products Arcade Beauty previously completed for the brand.

Navigating Supply Chain Issues

Every GDP segment has had to find creative ways to circumnavigate ongoing supply chain issues. And although some are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, disruptions remain in the form of labor shortages and inflation.

“Overseas, while production timing and delays have improved markedly, freight is still challenged, particularly air freight [while] ocean freight has begun to normalize,” observes Daniel Wolfe, senior vice president, business development, Cosmopak. “By understanding timing implications and managing risk factors, clients can still receive their goods on time for their launch.”

He adds that a major turnkey trend is the combination of speed to market with rapid yet risk-reducing development that minimizes wasted time and money. “At Cosmopak, our processes combine speed and risk mitigation by always making sure the right hand of packaging development and production is talking to the left hand of formulation,” he says. “There are many elements to a complete goods, from the bottom label to the primary to the formula, and all need to work in concert.”

Cosmopak aims to inspire brands by developing annual collections that showcase fresh formulas and innovative packaging examples to serve as a creative starting point for brands. The company’s latest turnkey launch is a project called Beauty In Bloom and it’s comprised of four collections: Color Me Color Cosmetics, Glow Me Skincare, Renew Me Personal Care and Relax Me Self-Care. Wolfe says the products feature a variety of botanical and fruity ingredients, and many of the formulas were also developed with clean retailer compliance in mind.

“The packaging, both beautiful and functional, is carefully selected to best protect and deliver the formulas,” he says, noting that the collection also includes a rose quartz mini face roller, recycled cotton zipper makeup bags and outer packaging concepts to highlight additional product services that Cosmopak provides. “All the products we present are custom made to order so clients can customize both the packaging and formulation to better suit their needs. Additionally, our tooling services provide brands the opportunity to create never-seen-before packaging.”

JP Packaging is also addressing the ongoing supply chain issues with a proactive and creative mindset. “We are finding some easing in lead times for certain components but are still facing cost increases on a regular basis,” Rofheart says, adding that paper and foil costs seem to be on the rise due to the Anti-Foil Dumping Tariff imposed by the Department of Commerce. “Our purchasing team has been on top of these cost trends and has been able to work with our suppliers for some positive outcomes as communication is key as timing matters in these cases.”

The current economy heavily depends on the unparalleled efficiency of supply chain, says Tritia McArthur, SeaCliff Beauty’s director of operations.

“In the past year, we have seen how supply chain delays can cause a ripple effect anywhere from manufacturing to logistics and shipping [and] although we are hopeful the road to recovery is on our horizon and most businesses can slowly return to normalcy, there are still many factors that continue to disrupt worldwide supply chain,” she comments. “Shipping and logistics have played a major role in the delays [while] port congestions and shortages on container availability globally have disrupted the beauty/personal businesses tremendously.”

Eco-Optimized Options

Issues surrounding sustainable packaging have been a major topic of discussion. “Some may say they are seeing increased lead times and pricing for sustainable packaging,” says McArthur. “Many companies are finding it more difficult to procure eco-friendly manufacturing methods, which have been dramatically driving lead times and cost.” 

SeaCliff Beauty has been working to help mitigate these challenges in a variety of ways, including securing tight partnerships with companies such as #TIDE, which improves the accessibility of sustainable packaging to the next level with Ocean Bound Plastics.

JP Packaging has also heeded the call for greener product offerings. After speaking with a few of its beauty brand partners, Rofheart says JP discovered that its push to expand its current line of beauty packaging had to be leaner and greener. “The challenge was to eliminate as much plastic and landfill space as possible,” he says. “Since we specialize in flexible packaging and pouches, our engineering team custom designed a piece of equipment that produces four new sizes of stand-up, gusseted zipper pouches quickly in-line, eliminating the need for pre-made pouches.”

Rofheart says the new pouches represent a significant reduction in plastic use, offer a better product-to-package ratio and reduce plastic waste at every stage of the package lifecycle.

After having created the first refillable eyebrow pencil more than 50 years ago and now specializing in wooden pencil beauty and other beauty technologies, Tokiwa is responding to the rising demand for clean, vegan, eco-friendly and sustainable products via its Turnkey Innovation Lab in East Hanover, NJ.

As a full-service provider, Tokiwa supplies almost 90% of products on a turnkey basis at its state-of-the-art facility with new machinery. The facility allows for products to be created and innovated using Tokiwa’s proprietary and patented formulations, packaging and filling expertise, or on a contract manufacturing basis. Dana Di Somma, director of sales and business development says Tokiwa leverages its large geographic footprint for supply with R&D and manufacturing throughout Southeast Asia as well as R&D and innovation capabilities in New Jersey, which she says have not been impacted by supply chain issues.
  
Di Somma says the company also observes “Tokiwa Clean” practices like CO2 emission reduction, responsible sourcing, sustainable packaging and the reduction of micro-plastics, which emulate Japanese standards for quality and sustainability amid the rising demand for clean, vegan, eco-friendly, and sustainable products.

Entering into a turnkey/contract manufacturing relationship can meet a wide variety of product needs in a relatively short amount of time. “In addition to delivering a great product,” concludes Rofheart, “we emphasize the support and collaborative experience, which is the backbone of a trustworthy and successful full service and turnkey proposition.” 

Carving out a Niche in a Crowded Beauty Landscape

Brands seeking to create specialty beauty products with clean and green designations can face unique challenges. Luckily there are turnkey service suppliers ready to help.

Quality Resourcing Services (QRS) prides itself on offering turnkey services that are a bit more niche than the “all or nothing” approach, and the company has a particular affinity for working in sustainable, CBD, clean beauty and benefit-driven product niches. “We appreciate that working in a turnkey fashion can mean different things to everyone, so we have developed a flexible process to accommodate this,” explains Jennifer Corey, the company’s director of business development. “Regardless of the path chosen to best accommodate the customer needs, they will always benefit from our team’s extensive knowledge of both product and package development steps and our handling of all aspects of the project. 

With the QRS team managing the moving parts, brands can relax after placing a single purchase order. “We timeline each project and have weekly meetings with our customers to ensure they are on the same page as we are on all aspects of the project—you can be as involved as much or as little as you prefer,” Corey says. “Ultimately, we want our customers to feel as though we are an extension of their team that happens to sit in a different office.”

Turn to Turnkey?

How difficult was it to get that product through the development process, and out the door? Think of the challenges you faced. Worrying about delivery, testing protocols, ensuring all parts and pieces work together… Well, you are not alone. We are all faced with doing it the “right way” vs the need for “speed to market.” Someone once said to me, “You never seem to have enough time to do it right but somehow you find the time to redo it when things go wrong.” In my experience at Estee Lauder and later at Crabtree & Evelyn, I faced this question time and time again. Eventually we learn how to avoid the obstacles and stop making mistakes. But that takes years to fine-tune.

Turnkey is defined as handling all aspects of the product, carrying it through to shipment of the final finished good. This includes design help, development of the package and product, overseeing testing, and managing the final production. So, you might ask why one company might be better than another. The answer is baked in the experience of your turnkey partner. At QRS we have decades of experience in dealing with these issues and it is imperative to us that we form a true partnership with our customer. By Turning to Turnkey, you get that “one-stop shop” experience and the comfort of knowing your team is there every step of the way.

Cliff Davis is the CEO of Quality Resourcing Services (QRS).

Contact us at 860-963-1200 or visit our website, www.qrsllc.net.
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