Choosing a cosmetics manufacturer: 12 questions to ask before you pay a deposit

There are two kinds of supplier in this industry. One is a factory that formulates and manufactures. The other is a trading company that takes your order, marks it up, and places it with a factory you never speak to. Both will describe themselves as a manufacturer.

Trading companies are not inherently dishonest, and some are genuinely useful — they handle sourcing, packaging and logistics across multiple categories. The problem is when you think you are talking to a factory and you are not. You lose visibility on quality, you pay a margin you did not agree to, and when something goes wrong you are two steps away from anyone who can fix it.

Here is how to find out which one you are dealing with.

Is this a factory, or a trading company?

1. Can I see your business licence, and does the registered scope cover cosmetics manufacturing?

Every Chinese company has a business licence with a registered scope of business. A genuine cosmetics manufacturer will have manufacturing in that scope. A trading company will typically have wholesale, retail or import/export instead. Ask for the licence as a document, not a description.

2. Can I visit, or have a video call walking through the production floor?

A manufacturer says yes. If visiting is impractical, ask for a live video call — not a pre-recorded tour, and not a folder of photographs. Ask them to show you the line that will make your product, and ask them to open a door you did not ask about. How they react tells you more than the tour does.

3. Which certifications do you hold, and can I see the certificates with their numbers?

Ask for the certificate document, not a logo on a website. Every genuine certificate has an issuing body and a certificate number, and both can be checked. A supplier who shows you a badge but not a number is showing you decoration.

4. Do you own your R&D and QC laboratories, or is testing outsourced?

In-house formulation and in-house quality control mean problems get caught and fixed inside the building. Outsourced testing is normal for specialised work — microbiology, for example — but the day-to-day QC should be theirs.

What will it actually cost?

5. What exactly does the quoted unit price include, and what is excluded?

A unit price is meaningless without its boundaries. Does it include the formula, the fragrance, the primary packaging, the carton, the filling and the labour? Does it include the artwork printing? Does it include testing? Ask for the exclusions list in writing, then compare quotes on the same basis. Two quotes that look 30% apart are often identical once the exclusions are aligned.

6. Is there a separate charge for formulation, sampling or tooling?

Development is real work and it is normally charged. The important thing is to know the number up front, and to know whether it is credited back against the production order. Ask how many revision rounds are included before additional sample charges start.

7. What is the MOQ, and is it per SKU or per order?

This distinction catches people out. An MOQ of 1,000 per order across five products is a very different commitment from 1,000 per product, which is 5,000 units in total. Confirm which one you are being quoted, and whether the MOQ changes when you choose a custom bottle.

8. Who pays for what if the samples never reach an approvable standard?

Development does not always succeed. Sometimes the brief turns out to be unworkable at the target price. Agree in advance what happens in that case — how many rounds are included, and what you owe if you walk away.

What happens when things go wrong?

9. Who owns the formula?

Ask directly, and ask for it in the contract. In many markets this is negotiable rather than automatic. If you commissioned and paid for the development, you should understand who ends up holding it — and whether the factory can produce the same formula for someone else.

10. What is your defect rate, and what is the remedy if a batch fails QC?

No factory has a zero defect rate, and one that claims zero has either not measured it or is not being straight with you. Ask what the agreed tolerance is, what happens if a batch falls outside it, and whether the remedy is a credit, a rework or a replacement.

11. What is the realistic production lead time, and what happens if it slips?

Distinguish clearly between sampling time, production time and shipping time. They are three different numbers, and suppliers sometimes quote only the one that sounds best. If you have a launch date, say so at the start — and ask what the factory will commit to in writing.

12. What documentation do you provide for export and for my market?

At minimum you need a certificate of analysis, a safety data sheet, a full INCI ingredient list and the export documentation. Beyond that, requirements differ by market: the European Union, the United States, the Gulf states and Southeast Asia each ask different things of the brand owner. Ask what the factory provides and what you will need to arrange yourself. A manufacturer that has exported before will answer this quickly and specifically.

How to verify what you are told

You do not have to take any of it on trust. Most of it is checkable:

• Business licences in China can be looked up on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System at gsxt.gov.cn. The registered scope and the legal representative are public.
• ISO and GMP certificates can be verified with the certification body named on the certificate. Every certificate carries a unique number and an issuing organisation with its own register.
• Facility registrations for the US market can be checked against the FDA’s own registration system.
• Ingredient lists can be checked against your target market’s restricted and prohibited substance lists before you approve a formula, not after.
• Company history is worth checking too. A factory that claims twenty years of operation should be able to show you when it was incorporated.

Red flags

None of these is automatically fatal on its own. Several together usually are.

• They will not let you visit or video call. There is no legitimate reason to refuse a live walkthrough.
• Certificates without numbers. Logos and badges are not certificates.
• A firm price before they know your formula or packaging. Real quotes need real inputs. An instant number is a guess or a lure.
• “We can make it exactly like [brand name].” A factory willing to copy someone else’s protected product may be equally willing to sell your formula to your competitor.
• No written formula ownership clause. If it is not in the contract, you do not have it.
• Pressure to pay a large deposit before you have seen a sample. Sampling is how you find out whether the relationship will work. Paying in full to reach that stage is backwards.
• Vague answers about lead time. A manufacturer who runs a real production schedule knows their lead times.

How we answer these questions ourselves

It would be odd to write this list and not apply it. So, briefly and concretely:

• We are a manufacturer, not a trader. Our facility is in Huadu, Guangzhou — 10,000 m², ten automated production lines, a Class 100,000 cleanroom, two in-house R&D centres. We manufacture since 2005 and were incorporated in 2015. We are happy to arrange a visit or a video walkthrough.
• Our certifications are named and documented. We hold ISO 22716:2007 and cosmetics GMP certification, and a cosmetics manufacturing licence. We will send the certificates with their numbers on request, so you can verify them yourself.
• We do not publish a price list. A cosmetic product’s cost depends on the formula, the packaging, the quantity and the destination market. Any figure given without those four would be misleading, so we quote against a brief instead.
• Our MOQ is 1,000 units, and sampling typically takes 7–10 days from a confirmed brief. Both can shift with the packaging you choose, and we will tell you when they do.
• We do not copy other brands. We will develop our own formulation in a similar olfactive or performance direction, and we will tell you plainly when a request crosses the line.

If you want to see how a project actually runs, read our ten-stage development process. If you would rather ask us the twelve questions directly, send us a brief and we will answer them in writing.