Would you want your own beauty brand? Forget about reality, if you could have it, would you want one?
Yes and no. There are many aspects that are appealing and seem fun, but truthfully, it’s a lot of hard work, and I don’t know if I could bring enough to the table to differentiate it from all the other brands out there.
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Yes! So so much! I want to make a brand with extremely pale and dark foundation shades that are split between cool, neutral, and warm and and offer customizable foundation services. I’d also want to split it into 2 sections, one for bold and fun, and the other for more girly, natural, pastel shade. They would have non silicone counterparts of face products and actually dewy cream blushes. I also want it to be accessible and offer booklets of actual useful and good informations and offer (free to affordable) classes/private sessions.
I quite agree. 🙂
Are you kidding me? Absolutely! I’m always going “man, I wish someone would make…” or “it would be so cool if there was a brand that did [X] with their marketing.” The workaholic in me would LOVE it!
Of course, it would probably also drive me absolutely nuts, but shhh. We’re forgetting about reality, after all! 😛
I honestly would want my own beauty brand. It would be hard work, but I have a ton of fun ideas that I think I could bring to it. I love being hands on with that type of stuff, but I honestly wouldn’t expect to get rich off of it.
I think I agree–yes and no.
While I have no problem with the the difficulty and the amount of time/work it would require, I feel like there are already so many brands out there and there is such a variety, I don’t see the need for any more. I think what we need now is for someone to be willing to put the right amount of time and thought into current brands to make them the best that they can be. I think a lot of brands are getting (honestly) lazy and too hung up with making as much money as possible that they’re shirking on quality. If they’d take the time to listen to consumers, they’d know that the vast majority of us want quality, not quantity, when it comes to our products. We don’t need 47 new collections a year or 176 different shades of eye shadow if they’re all mediocre. It’s a very clever marketing tactic, creating an insane amount of new ‘limited edition’ products that people feel they need to have because they won’t be around in six months, even if they’re not good products.
So I guess my real answer to the question is “no.” Ideally, if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t choose to market my own cosmetics brand, I’d rather work with an existing company to improve what’s already there, both in terms of the company itself as well as the products put out by that company. But unfortunately I am well aware that that is never going to happen. I would care too much about product quality and customer satisfaction and not enough about maximizing revenue to be of any interest to them 🙂
Why not if it was ecofriendly, vegan, high end & ethical. Idealist.. Just for profit no, ( I mean no way ), but an innovative and luxury bio make-up brand yes certainly !
It is my biggest dream!! I have a lot of ideas that are just waiting to be realized! But how do you get started??
Although there is certainly lots of competition out there, I really would love to have my own brand. I’d just want to make sure that I people working with me who knew how to get the formulas really top-notch.
I agree with you, Christine. I think that it’d be a TON of hard work. I think It’d be a ton of fun though, too. ^^ Just wondering… If you DID create your own beauty brand, what market would you gear it towards? I think I’d like to take mine in an Estee Lauder type direction. I’d want it to be a very classic brand. 🙂
I’d want something just on the edge of high-end. Quality would be the biggest factor, and I’d never want to feel like I had to make a certain profit margin or reduce costs to sell at a low price. I’d really want to be able to innovate and develop, so I’d think a higher price point would make more sense. I’d want a sense of luxury without a true luxury price tag, and more a sense of luxury by the feel of the products than just the look (like packaging). I’d want a brand that could experiment but could be classic – you don’t have to wear all bright colors, but you don’t have to wear just brown either. I would probably cater to a slightly younger market but ideally there would be plenty for everyone.
I know cosmetics have a high markup, but that’s on a price vs. materials basis, so I don’t know how much of that gets eaten up by overhead, employees, marketing, etc. (I know marketing can be a big area). I’d have to see projections and material costs to determine whether I could go more affordable/mid-end on the price (I just know that I want the future freedom to use whatever ingredients I thought would be best in the formula).
this is something i would want to do. not necessarily a make up brand, but my own perfume line. I think it’s so fascinating and i can explore so many different scent ‘genres’.
yes, i would love that. i would only make perfect formulas
Nonsense, Christine! I think you’d do an amazing job if you had your own brand. You already have a blog (a brand in and of itself) which requires you to work hard, research and test products. There’s so much about this blog that sets it miles apart from other beauty blogs that I’m sure it would translate positively to a (hypothetical) beauty brand. I’m amazed that you spend so much time on this blog and you’re not a hermit. You have a fiance and Mellan still gets fed and walked every day. Also, you have high standards for quality and performance–a big plus for success. I remember how dedicated you were in the process of creating Jealousy Wakes. If you had your own line, I’d buy for sure.
Thank you for your vote of confidence, Pamela! 🙂
OMG definitely! The only catch is that I’d want my brand to be carried at Sephora, so it has the proper promotion, safety requirements, guidance of any sort. This way I’d be sure that I know everything is safe and ready for use as well as having excellent quality. I think Sephora is very open about creative direction. I wouldn’t want my own makeup brand if it was indie (like Sugarpill, makeupgeek, etc). I’m just not into that sort of thing for my own line 🙂
I agree. It sounds like a ton of fun, but also a ton of work (but fun work). The biggest issue is that the market is so saturated, it would be almost impossible to get started.
no way. the makeup I wear is pretty simple, so I’d try to release products that I’d use into an already saturated market full of them. I’d do a collaborative collection with a friend who had a beauty brand, but I wouldn’t want to have one myself.
Absolutely; I would keep it fairly small though, in terms of the amount of products in any line, except foundation & concealer-those would span the spectrum. Also, a foundation color matching system would be ideal; instead of buying one bottle of foundation, a peson would get 2 at the same price in a “starter kit” so they can be blended. It’s not a “novel” idea, but from what I read on a regular basis, women have a fairly hard time finding a match. As for “color” cosmetics, i would do a handful of matte neutrals, and a handful of shimmery, unique shades, and instead of buying separate, all the shades could mixed/matched to put in a palette for one core price. If one color runs out, that shade would still be available individually (again, not novel-Tarte does this to an extent). I realize this would not be financially sound (necessarily), but it’s *my* ideal.
I think I would have said yes ten or fifteen years ago but now there are so many amazing brands out there with higher quality products that, as you said, it would be tough to differentiate a new brand. Things that were really hard to find years ago (bright colors, very pigmented eye shadows, etc) are much easier to find (Sephora is amazing) and, with the internet, much easier to obtain, even if you live in the hinterlands.
No, because I think you need to be creative and creativity is not my strong point.
I don’t think I would. Although the process of having your own makeup line is exciting and probably really very gratifying, I think the market is already so saturated with brands that sometimes I feel as though I am drowning in selections and it makes choices so much harder to make. There are already so many great brands out there, it would be incredibly hard to compete.
No. Far too much work and this is not an area where I feel I have even a moderate edge over the average beauty fan. BUT…. I would love to be a creative director at NARS to suggest ideas or to influence some of his collections. “For the love of God, François, less lip glosses! How about an equal number of bright mattes?! Let’s take some of those eyeshadow duos and do a ‘best of’ triple.” etc. etc. Of course, in this hypothetical, dear François would not throw me off the roof of the Empire State Building or feed me to the sharks. 😉
No, though I can see how it would be fun, I just think I would be in over my head and not know how to make my brand different enough to gain a following. There’s soooo much competition these days. Although I will say, if I did do it, I would want to part of the vegan cosmetics movement, which I think still has room for newcomers right now.
An emphatic NO! I already think there is sufficient temptation and ways to part with my money out there already. As much I am attracted to the creative process and would be thrilled to come up with design concepts for specific lines and seasons for the first couple of years, I think I would find it a stressful drudge in the long term.
Yes! It’s something that I’m working toward right now. 🙂
I would love that. theoretically at least. the main reason is design to me most of the brands’ makeup design sucks, i don’t even understand why people are screaming and shouting about lancome, guerlain and such (dior design is just beyond my ability to understand). the one brand which design appeals to me is probably Nars – 100%. so i’d love to create something loveable. but i know it’s almost impossible as gurls are so girly.. and guerlain is, probably, something they need to feel glamorous.
i didn’t mean to offend anyone, just a designer’s soulscream))
Only if it had start up $ that was not a risky deal for me.
I think it would be more fun to help design a collection from an already existing brand, like Mac.
I would love to!
Only if I had a ton of money and a team of scientists behind me to help with formulation and safety! There’s so much I don’t know. I admire people like Josie Maran, though — she had a passion for it and started it from the ground up, learning so much along the way. Impressive.
Heck yeah! That’s one of those dreams for me that everyone has one of, the kind that you know will never happen but you fantasize anyways. Sort of like marrying a millionaire. *shrugs*
No, not really! I’d settle for being the friend of someone with their own beauty brand instead!
Hm, I would not want my own makeup brand, because the market is competitive and I am not creative enough to forsee trends.
But I would like to create my personal colors with a brand.
No, because I have other goals in life and I can’t see beauty being my area for more than a few years! That said, I would LOVE to create a single release (or two), with my choice of image/theme, shades, and products, especially if it was for a brand I like.