Indie Trail companies offer beauty startups less and more

Cosmetics Design followed the Indie Trail at in-cosmetics global and checked in with several suppliers about how they are working with indie brands, the sorts of products and services they offer their indie partners, and why indie beauty matters to the industry and their businesses in particular.

Most cosmetics and personal care ingredient makers are still deciding if and how to best get involved with the independent beauty movement. For now, those that are partnering with indies are offering less of somethings and more of others. Many suppliers that currently cater to indie brands sell ingredients at low minimum order volumes, others focus the technical and formulation support they provide, while still others believe that marketing services will be valuable to small, stand-alone, and startup beauty businesses.

And some companies, like Vytrus Biotech, think, Who better to work with startup beauty brands than a startup up ingredient company! “We know what it is to start from very little and keep growing,”​ recognizes Mireia Pérez Bauzà, communications manager for Barcelona, Spain – based Vytrus Biotech. And she goes on to note that “working with indie brands is also good for us,” ​because of the originality and inventiveness they bring to the cosmetics and personal care industry.

Fred Zűlli of Mibelle Biochemistry points out that it’s often indie brand leaders who “dare to launch”​ the innovative technologies that his team develops. And Anna Crovetto of Active Concepts explains why she believes it’s important to support indie brands, saying “the innovation in this area is so wide—you have so much room to move—and you can really see that when you support innovative brands they can really grow and blossom into something fantastic.”​

In the above video tour of the Indie Trail, you’ll hear more from not only from Vytrus Biotech, Mibelle Biochemistry, and Active Concepts but from Kathy Benditt of Elementis Global; Marine Capron of Roelmi HPC; and Alexandre Lapeyre of Clariant as well.

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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.