Ingredient Issues: Indie Beauty Brand Founders Sound Off On Sourcing

In this edition of Beauty Independent’s ongoing series posing questions to beauty entrepreneurs, we ask 13 founders and executives: What challenges have you faced when sourcing ingredients, and how did you handle them?

Andrew Glass Founder, Non Gender Specific

For us the biggest challenge is trying to source natural ingredients that actually work and aren’t just there for marketing purposes. Luckily, we work with one of the top vegan laboratories who are experts in sourcing natural ingredients that work.

Make sure to get involved with a reputable lab who knows what they’re doing and aren’t just in it to make a buck. Another huge challenge for an indie brand is not sacrificing quality ingredients in order to hit target costs of goods. The best ingredients aren’t cheap. We learned to base retail pricing around cost of goods and not the other way around in order to create the best formula possible.

Ericka Rodriguez Founder, Axiology

Palm oil is a big no-no for us, and it is surprisingly not easy to avoid. There are over 200 synonyms for palm oil – companies try to hide it so as not to scare educated consumers – such as caprylic acid, glycerin, lecithin, magnesium stearate, oleic acid, and the list goes on. In this case, even vegetable oils can have palm oil blends in them.

In order to handle this, we have to be the best investigators out there and hound our suppliers to find out exactly what's in our raw ingredients. We've had to swap suppliers multiple times after discovering our avocado butter was reformulated with palm oil, for example. Suppliers want to use this oil because it is the cheapest oil on the market. We are one of the only makeup companies that can honestly say that palm oil cannot be found in our ingredient deck.

Sarah Zimmer CEO and Founder, Naya

Our star ingredient, cacay oil, isn’t widely known or commercially produced in huge quantities, so there aren’t many suppliers at the moment. One of the biggest issues I faced was determining who had the best oil as the prices and quality were wide-ranging with everyone making the same claims. In the end, I felt that visiting the farmers and communities in Colombia was needed to meet them in person and test the ingredients firsthand. This way, I could see what their operations were like. Meeting them in person allowed me to get to know them better and clarify any questions to ensure myself of the quality from seed to skin.

I learned a lot during that experience, including how to gauge the quality of the oil and the importance of building strong relationships with suppliers of ingredients as quality widely ranges. High quality and pure bioactive ingredients are key to us as a brand. The other key thing I took away is that a good supplier is very open with information, willing to share and wants to support you because, if you succeed, they succeed, creating a win-win for everyone in the chain.

Christine Schwartz Founder, Chrys Renee

The challenge of operating a small business in the New York City area was finding affordable wholesale materials and ingredients. It just didn't exist. It took months of research and discussions with others in my industry to determine that the best option is shopping online with large wholesale companies that offer free shipping like SKS Bottle & Packaging and Wholesale Supplies Plus to be most advantageous. We all need to watch the bottom line and margins.

Sébastien Tardif Co-founder, CEO, Veil Cosmetics  

There seems to be a bit of a hot market right now for cosmetic ingredients, and we are all clamoring for very specific product profiles. It is creating backups and delays to obtain some raws. Specifically, for our brand new AutoMatte Mattifying Base & Touch Up formula, we had to wait 17 weeks for the delivery of a specific Japanese mattifying ingredient that is a crucial part of the magic behind the product, thus delaying our planned launch date. We usually wait a maximum of a month for ingredients to ship. There is absolutely nothing to be done beside shipping the ingredient by air instead of sea, which is a lot costlier, but, time is money.

Eugene He CEO, Ceramiracle

We work with many specialized natural ingredients, and most of them are the result of years of relationship building directly with the suppliers. As with natural ingredients go, they are seasonal and harvest dependent, so an ongoing challenge is to ensure we are able to secure enough of it to meet our growth. We'd have to commit an annual projection with our suppliers and, while this puts a huge financial strain on an indie brand like us, there's really no way around it if we are unwilling to waver on quality and efficacy.

Sandee Ferman Co-Founder, No Tox Life

Some of our ingredients come from extremely small local growers, people with tiny farms growing organic herbs. We have learned to find out when the growing seasons are for certain herbs and place advance orders to stock up. Occasionally the small growers can’t produce the quantity we need so we have to supplement with replacements from larger producers.

We have been selling our products at pop-up fairs and markets since we started the business, and Hollywood Farmers’ Market is a wonderful place to meet and chat with the people who are growing herbs right here in LA. The neighborhood our retail store is in, Glassell Park, has urban farms nearby, and we’ve had people just drop in to sell us their fresh herbs and produce. The relationships develop naturally from just talking to people.

Prices for locally-grown, organic herbs are higher than large online distributors. The quality difference is really the selling point. We have a local grower of organic calendula, and the color vibrancy and freshness of what he produces is amazing. Online bulk distributors can have product sitting in a warehouse for years. It just isn’t fresh. The color fades and the medicinal properties are not nearly as potent.

Another contact we met while selling at a craft fair is Kaitlin Mogentale of Pulp Pantry. She provides us with organic juice pulp from local juiceries that we use to make exfoliating body soaps. We also work with local coffee shops to upcycle spent coffee grounds, and even grow herbs and flowers in our own garden. Incorporating local raw materials doesn’t have to be expensive, but it requires more thoughtful time in sourcing than simply clicking a checkout button on a website.

Miriam Soliman President, The Herbs and Bees

The biggest problem we faced with ingredient sourcing has been finding unrefined, raw, organic oils. It took a lot more time than we expected to find oils that were completely untouched with no deodorizing or bleaching. Unrefined, cold-pressed oils provide the best benefits since they're being used in their rawest forms. We did a lot of research and attended several expo shows that showcased oil suppliers from around the world to make sure that only the best ingredients are used in our products.

Mariya Nurislamova CEO and Co-Founder, Scentbird and Deck of Scarlet

Finding the right supplier is key. When creating your own products, for example, you will have a vision but the tough part is finding the right supplier who can implement your vision. For example, many suppliers are not willing to open their labs to develop a product they’ve never had experience with before, especially for a smaller company. We’ve overcome this by searching for different innovations at various trade shows and finding suppliers that are willing to work with smaller companies.

Michelle Ranavat Founder, Ranavat Botanics

I source all my ingredients by hand as it’s something I am passionate about. I remember, about two months prior to launch, my manuka honey was stuck in a New Zealand snow storm jeopardizing my entire launch time table. I had already committed to IBE, so I had no choice but to spend all day and night working to get the product delivered on time. Thankfully it did, and I’m so glad it worked out.

Patti Pao Founder and CEO, Restorsea

Our biggest challenge occurred when our ingredient company informed me that they had modified our enzyme and were going to sell it as a different name. I have a science and chemistry background, and did not believe that they were able to physically modify the enzyme as they described. Our enzyme is extremely complex. It is a biologic composed of 2,000 proteins. The ingredient company felt they could remove one of the top two proteins. However, basic chemistry disputes this.

I spent eight months proving their theory was wrong and presented the information to them. They did not answer us for four months. We, unfortunately, had to sue them. We had a supply/exclusivity/licensing (SLEA) contract agreeing to pay them $25 million for the 20-year rights. I believe that they thought they were correct, which is why the lawsuit went on for one year.

Finally, they asked the professor who discovered the enzyme. He confirmed that my results were correct. Their chairman of the board contacted my co-founder to settle. While we won, no one really wins in a lawsuit except the lawyers. Lesson Learned: You don’t want to sue or be sued.

Amanda Stultz Owner and Founder, Sitronu

While it would be lovely for everything in beauty products to be pronounceable and recognizable, the hard truth of the matter is that some preservation is necessary if you don’t plan on using a lotion, cream or anything aqueous based within a few days.

We choose the most natural, plant-based ingredients available and make sure they are sourced responsibly and tested appropriately. I would not want to risk my customers’ health or the liability to the company should something go bad for lack of proper preservation. I worry that many in the independent beauty industry are headed into a risky and naive direction with many of the products out there using things like essential oils or grape seed extract (GSE) as the only preservative in a water- or aloe-based product.

I have seen some products in major retailers and bed and breakfasts with only these ingredients used as a preservative. Preservatives, even the hard-to-pronounce ones, are not all bad. Selected carefully and used in the correct quantities, some preservation is indeed essential. Buyers, producers, and makers should all be concerned with product and consumer safety and educate themselves appropriately. Organic ingredients or ingredients sourced from our kitchens does not necessarily mean safe.

Alexandra Preston-Morle Co-Founder, Coco & Eve

Our coconuts come from Bali, Indonesia, the largest coconut producer, and we wanted to ensure they are ethically-sourced, so finding the right partner was complex and quite a lengthy process, particularly when you don't speak Bahasa, the native language in Bali.

If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.