How to start a makeup brand in Pakistan: from first shade to finished box

Makeup is one of the easiest beauty categories to fall in love with and one of the easiest to get wrong. The products photograph beautifully, customers buy them again and again, and a single good shade can carry a whole brand. But makeup also has things skincare does not: shade ranges, pigments that behave differently around the eyes and lips, and packaging that is half the product.

Dermis & Dosis is a makeup manufacturer in Lahore, making highlighters, blush, lipsticks, mascara, eyeshadow palettes and nail polish under our clients' brands. This guide walks through what we would tell anyone starting a makeup brand in Pakistan, in the order the decisions actually come up.

Why makeup is a strong first range

• Customers come back. Lipsticks, mascara and blush get used up, and a customer who loves one shade often buys the next.
• Shades multiply a range. One formula in four shades is four products on your page, without four separate developments.
• It sells on social media. A swatch, a swipe of liquid blush or a galaxy palette catching the light is content that sells itself.
• It fits beside skincare. If you already sell skincare, makeup gives the same customers a reason to buy more from you.

Step 1: Choose three to five products, not twenty

The most common mistake is launching with everything. Every product needs its own shades, samples, packaging and artwork, and a wide first launch spreads your budget thin and your stock thinner. Start with a small set that shares one look, and add to it once you see what sells.

Makeup comes in three forms, and a first collection usually mixes them:

• Liquid: liquid highlighter, liquid blush, liquid matte lipstick, liquid glitter eyeshadow, nail polish and foundation.
• Powder: pressed highlighter, pressed blush and the galaxy eyeshadow palette.
• Cream: highlighter and blush sticks, the bullet lipstick and mascara.

Three starter sets we see work well:

• The glow set: liquid highlighter, liquid blush and a liquid lipstick in two shades. Easy to use, great on camera, and the blush and lipstick can share one wand tube.
• The everyday set: pressed blush, a cream highlighter stick, mascara and a nude bullet lipstick. Products a customer reaches for every morning.
• The statement set: a galaxy eyeshadow palette with a matching liquid glitter eyeshadow and a nail polish in the same colour story. Made for a launch that needs to be noticed.

Step 2: Develop shades for the skin tones you sell to

Shade is where a makeup brand wins or loses. Many shade ranges are designed for skin tones that are not the ones you will sell to in Pakistan, which is exactly the gap a local brand can fill. Pakistani and South Asian skin covers a wide range with warm, golden and olive undertones, and nudes, blush and highlighters all need to be tuned to it.

• Nudes that are too pink or too grey wash Pakistani skin out. Warm, slightly deeper nudes flatter far more customers.
• Blush in warm peach, rose and berry shows on medium and deep skin, where pale pastels can disappear.
• Highlighters in champagne, gold and bronze read as a glow; icy silver can look grey.

Bring us references, a swatch, a photo or a product you love, and we develop the shade and sample it. Look at samples on more than one skin tone and in daylight as well as indoor light before you approve. Nothing should go into production until a shade looks right on the people who will buy it.

Step 3: Take pigments and safety seriously

Colour cosmetics are only as good as their pigments, and not every colourant may be used everywhere. Eye, lip and face products each have their own list of permitted colourants, and a colour that is fine in nail polish may not be allowed near the eye. Glitter for eye products has to be cosmetic grade, not craft glitter.

Mineral pigments can also carry traces of heavy metals, which is why testing matters more in makeup than almost anywhere else. Every batch we make is checked before release, and products can be tested at PCSIR for microbial counts and heavy metals, with a certificate of analysis for every batch. Our guide to PCSIR testing for cosmetics explains what the report covers.

Pakistan's climate is part of safety too. A lipstick has to hold its shape through a Lahore summer, and a mascara is opened every day close to the eye, so stability and microbial quality are checked for each formula, not assumed.

Step 4: Choose packaging early, because it is half the product

In makeup, the pack is how a customer recognises your brand on a shelf and in a photo. The main formats are compacts with a mirror, palettes, twist-up sticks, wand tubes with a doe-foot applicator, lipstick cases, mascara tubes and nail polish bottles.

• Start with stock components. Ready-made compacts, tubes and cases printed with your logo get you to market faster. Custom-moulded packaging usually comes with its own, much larger minimums and a longer wait.
• Share packs across products. A liquid blush and a liquid lipstick in the same wand tube look like a set and keep your component orders simple.
• Leave room for the batch code. Every pack needs a batch number and dates printed somewhere they will not rub off.

Labels, cartons and boxes are printed at Dermis & Dosis Print in the same building as production, so colours match across your range and nothing waits on an outside printer.

Step 5: Start small, with a minimal MOQ

You do not need a warehouse full of stock to launch a makeup brand. Our minimum order is just 500 pieces per product, so a first collection of three or four products is a small, manageable order. Launch, see which products and shades your customers love, and reorder those, instead of guessing big and sitting on boxes that do not move.

A makeup launch budget has six main lines: formula and shade development, samples, packaging components, printing, testing, and the photography and content you will need to sell. Money spent on fewer, better shades almost always goes further than the same money spread across a wide range nobody has tested.

Step 6: Get the label and the claims right

Makeup sold with cosmetic claims is a plain cosmetic, which in Pakistan sits under PSQCA. Several cosmetic categories are on its compulsory list, each with its own Pakistan Standard, so we check the standard in force for your product before anything goes to print. Every label carries the product name, the manufacturer, net contents, a batch number, dates and the ingredients. Our guide to cosmetic label requirements in Pakistan covers the detail.

Keep claims to what the product does as makeup. "Long-wear" or "waterproof" need testing before they go on a pack, and an SPF number can only appear on a product that has been tested for it. Makeup that promises to whiten skin is not something we make or label.

Register your brand name and logo as a trademark with IPO Pakistan before you print, so the name on your boxes is yours. Our guide to starting a skincare brand explains why that step matters.

Step 7: The launch, step by step

1. Free consultation: who you are selling to, which products and how many shades.
2. Shade development and samples: we develop each shade and send samples for you to try on real skin.
3. Packaging and artwork: components chosen, labels and cartons designed and printed in-house.
4. Testing: batch checks, and PCSIR testing where your files or your buyers need it.
5. Production: from 500 pieces per product, with a certificate of analysis for every batch.
6. Delivery to any city in Pakistan, ready for your launch.

Plan your content alongside production, not after it. Swatches, a short video of each product in use and photos of the packs are what your first customers will see, and they are easiest to shoot from the first finished samples.

Questions new makeup brands ask

What is the minimum order for private label makeup?

Just 500 pieces per product. That is a minimal MOQ for makeup, so you can start small, test your market and reorder as you grow.

Can I start a makeup brand with one product?

Yes. A single hero product, such as a lipstick in three or four shades or a blush that suits most skin tones, is a sensible way to test your market before you add more.

Can you match a shade from another product?

Send us the reference and we develop a shade to match it as closely as the permitted pigments allow, then sample it for your approval. Your formula and your brand stay your own.

Is makeup regulated by DRAP?

Plain makeup with cosmetic claims sits under PSQCA and its Pakistan Standards. A product that adds a drug substance or makes a therapeutic claim moves to a stricter route. Our guide to DRAP enlistment explains where that line falls.

Do you make halal makeup?

Dermis & Dosis is Halal certified. Tell us if halal certification of your products matters to your customers, and we plan the formula and the paperwork for it from the start.

Can I visit before I order?

Yes. Book a tour of our Lahore facility, or start with a free consultation. To see what we make, browse the makeup range or send your list through the quote form.