How to pick the best skin care line????? does anyone test professional lines?
I have done lots of research on different companies. the problem is, unless you know ingredients like the back of your hand, its hard to tell.
is their a company that tests and rates professional lines? if not , how do we tell?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Susan Nathan on
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Mariah,
I have seen several websites that test and rate different products but not one that does a whole line. I am a licensed ethetician degreed in microbiology, thus I pay strict attention to ingredients and in what form they are provided. Several years into my practice, I created my own skin care line, Nutrient Skin Care. You may contact me for an order form. Nutrient Skin Care products are created to be used with any product line. We have five nutrient boosters for facial cleansers, all in potent, concentrated powders. Contact me for a sample packet. Our Basic Skin Care Regimen is based on the simplicity of infusing high concentrations of fresh nutrients at every step of the skin care regimen. This line is effective as well as affordable.
Susan Nathan
Formulator
NutrientSkinCare.com
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Permalink Reply by Vanessa Barrientez on
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Marty, I am newly licensed esthetician. You mentioned private label negatively a couple of times. First of all, let me say I am,enjoying this discussion.
what is the problem with private label companies?
I said Marty, but anyone.
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Permalink Reply by Marty Glenn on
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Vanessa
Within the US the FDA does NOT regulate skin care so basically I can say and do whatever I want. And so can any Esty who starts her own line and does by private label.
Do produce a professional line it should cost about $500,000 at a minimum and upwards of a $1,000,000. If it is custom and a large line, then those figures are accurate.
For example: My 'Skin Soothing Cream' is 10% Avocado and 1% Vitamin K
That product gets its color FROM the vitamin K. Now I could do 'Yellow' and .01% Vitamin K and claim the same benefits and nobody is going to stop me. But then that is a lie and well we all know about the marketing side of skin care right?
Also...
I do not care about the cost of goods on my products. I want the active I want at the percentage I want and whatever it costs, well that is what it is. Private label works in the opposite direction. Cost of good is everything and also they have many other ingredients that they add which do not need to be included. So what you have is cheap products with very little active and a host of other ingredients only to make it have a long shelf life.
Now for the last part.
A Skin Care Mfgr will sell you and ANY BODY who comes in and then you will claim maybe what they tell you to but also what you feel as well. So now what you have is hundreds of women or esty's who want their own line all from the same place, trying to be custom and unique while the reality is they are not and they are selling a product they claim is a professional one because they are a professional but the reality the line is nothing more then a mass produced product that really anybody can use and does.
There are specialty private label companies that do carry SOME unique stuff but I can almost guarantee you its really far far off the mark. I am very extreme when it comes to my products and how they are mfgr'd and what is in them and the protocols. I am just that way.
This is a very short version of an answer and I hope it helps. if you need more details let me know.
Marty
SkinCareScience.com
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Thanks, Marty. Here is my deal. I have narrowed down the companies to 2 for my private label. Neither sale to just anyone. I did have to produce my license before they sent samples or any other info. Now, what you are saying about the private label companies regarding ingredients can also be said for other companies, correct? I really dont know whether the ingredients that either company, private label or not, said is in their products are really in their products. Does that make sense?
I will say I want a product line that is affordable for my clientele and delivers what it says, whether private label or not. AND does not sale online or to anyone.
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Vanessa
The most important point is to know who you are dealing with but also, I think if a skin care pro or derm wants to do their own line, they have not found the right one.
Are you in the skin care business or the facial business? :)
As for not being sold online or next door, well I get that too and that is a big deal for sure but again that points back to finding the right line. This is a very hard subject and I see the struggles on this forum for sure and to be honest most on this board do not understand the realities of the skin care business from the point of a mfgr. And I am not just talking about dealing with the chemist either. I am talking about understanding the ingredient mfgrs and what they do and where they come from.
The key point you said: "Deliver what it says"
Maybe this document I wrote will help shed some light as to what I believe and how I think it should be done.
I am not gods gift to skin care. I just have a very specific and what I think, unique, way of looking at it and doing business within the industry.
Marty
SkinCareScience.com
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Thanks. I will look at in. gettting ready for a meeting at church. Right now I'm not working in the industry at all. Just trying to save money to purchase everything.
Too bad Im not closer, I checked out your website & I, would love to take your training cause what I learned in school, I could write a sentence about it.
Could you send me info on your products. I can email you a copy of my license.
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Vanessa
Go to the website and to the 'Contact Us' and send me a message.
Marty
SkinCareScience.com
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Marty,
I agree with much of what you say about private label companies, a few of which will do contract manufacturing as well as formulation requests.
Just an introduction to me and my company. I am an esthetician with a background in microbiology and years of lab experience. Thus, it is difficult to answer your question: Are you in the skin care business or the facial business? Because the answer is, "That depends on the day of the week you ask." I divide my week between being an ethetican and formulator (bottler, labeler, graphic artist, marketer and mentor to my assistants).
Regarding Vanessa's question about private labeling and your response, my experience is limited to one great California company from whom I have taken classes. Lots of skill and precision with this company, but I find it difficult to encourage estheticians to apply their name to a product they did not create. My clients remark to me about a local physician who has 'private label' products, and my clients know it is a private label set up....even though the owner is an M.D. What I am trying to say is: The public is savvy, much more informed than in decades past. They catch on quickly. On the other hand, my clients know that my formulations are from my own hand and their skin improvements are the testimonials to my products. As long as I continue to see improvements in my clients' skin, I will grow my business based on my knowledge of skin anatomy and biochemisty as well as the confirmed improvements experienced by my customers and clients.
I look forward to continued discussions.
Susan Nathan
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They dont have to be savvy, it says right in the container "manufactured for ..."
Thanks, Marty, Im doing that now. I have considered something other than pl, but I didn't want to do skin script or image. Seems like everyone is doing those. And while I like both, I want something that not everyone I went to school with is using.
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Susan
This is good stuff: "I am an esthetician with a background in microbiology and years of lab experience. " and great experience but it does not address some issues.
So here is a point that might help some Esty's out there. :)
The skin and the conditions that affect it are not new. And the skin care actives that treat them are not new. They are more then 20 - 30 years old. And BORING. Skin care that works is BORING. Results driven lines are BORING.
My line is BORING but it works and is backed by the medical findings of more then 25 years. Do I know about the new ingredients? Of course I do and when they have 10+ years of proven results then I will consider using them... Until then I will leave them to the marketers of private label and the uninformed. To me it is as simple as that.
You see there is no need to have microbiology or years of lab experience when it comes to skin care. There just isn't. What do the medical and peer review dr reports from all over the world say? What is the common active ingredient and at what percentage is proven time and time again to work? Then that is what you build. That is what I build... BORING products that work!
Your not using lab experience or microbiology when developing skin care. Your just not. Unless your the one actually heating up phase I and then cooling down and adding phase II and then completing phase III in the lab to complete the product then everything is just a little grand standing. When your lab presents an ingredient to you that is being sold to them, that is the skin care industry and that is how ingredients are pushed to the end user and private label creation and lines that have 100 products and or 10 different types of Serums with 3 - 5 actives in each one are created. My lab tries all the time to sell me these new ingredients, I always decline.
As for lab experience, well I guess that has its place but the only time I have found it matters when I told my lab to use one ingredient when they wanted to use another and the one ending in a "B" was the right one because it would dissolve better then the other in my formula. I had just done more homework then the chemist but then again that is my job.
I hold the top two most expensive products at my lab and not because that is my goal or I want to spend lots of money but I did the research and the research said to do "A" so that is what I did. It just so happens that my 'Cost of Goods' for the base formula goes through the roof. Buy it or don't buy, I don't have a choice. The findings are this, the corrective measure is that, so I do it.
No fancy names. No Fancy packaging. No fancy state of the art ingredients made by the labs who supply my lab with the next and newest greatest ingredient to come along and only tested within their lab on a very small group of testers.
One Purpose. One Result. Beautiful Skin. TM (My Company Slogan)
Marty
SkinCareScience.com
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Marty,
Thank you for your input. I sense there is no room for facts relating to another's experience, products or skin care philosophy. Hats off to you and your slogan. And I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.
SN
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Susan
Its not that... :)
Really its about reality within the skin care business and when you consider there are 10's of thousands of lines all saying different things but trying to treat the same conditions and then you have proven medical conditions and science... You have to go with what is proven. Right?
I hear your tone and I get it a lot. Trust me. A lot!
Marty
SkinCareScience.com
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