In the beauty industry, packaging designers often work for beauty companies alongside a team of professionals from marketing, design, engineering, research and development, materials, suppliers, manufacturers, and production professionals. Packaging designers make a product ready for sale, says Candace Allenson, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

Where do packaging designers work? This question comes up frequently, not only where they work in terms of the kind of companies they work with but also their actual workspace. Online beauty education students are curious where designers work and what a packaging design agency looks like and where they are headquartered, says Marianne Klimchuk, a design professor at FIT.

In this digital world, there are design agencies around the globe and packaging designers can work from anywhere. A designer may work for a small firm and a large brand or for a large agency on a small brand, such as Glossier.

It’s important to know there are hundreds of agencies around the world that just work on packaging design. They are not graphic design firms or advertising agencies. In the beauty sector, there are packaging design agencies that only work in the beauty category.

The design team or designer often works in a creative environment. A space filled with visual stimulation, desktop computers, and lots of physical resources at their fingertips, from packaging samples, design tools, sources of visual inspiration, and, ideally, a collaborative environment. Some designers work at home as a freelance independent designer or a work from home agreement.

Whatever the work situation, the physical environment in which a package designer works may resemble that of an architect or graphic designer. The space in which creativity happens should be engaging, inspiring, and a place for collaboration. That’s ideally how stellar packaging design comes together, especially in the beauty business.

We understand a lot more about marketing than we used to. An important part of the marketing process is identifying and analyzing your target customer.

After this point, the marketing process involves creating your first product and deciding on a price. Once you’ve set your price, you need to find ways to distribute it and promote it.

Marketing professionals use a tool called the marketing mix to help build their businesses and organize products.

The marketing mix is sometimes referred to as the ‘Four P Model’. But what are the ‘four P’s?

The first P is product. What kind of product is your target customer going to be interested in? For example, if you own a fragrance brand, consider the different aromas that people enjoy in each area of your target demographic. Different fragrances will be popular in different countries and even within the different regions of each country.

The important thing is to understand your customer and develop a product that’s going to appeal to them.

The second P is price. It’s not only important to have a product that is going to appeal to your target customer, but you have to have a product that your target customer can afford.

Make sure the price matches the product. Take a look at what kind of products are sold by other companies and compare them to your product. You can use this comparison to determine your price. Set your price so that it is accessible to your customers but will also provide you with a profit so you can grow a successful business.

The third P is called place or placement. You might also hear marketers call this distribution. This involves finding a place to sell your product, whether that’s in a brick-and-mortar store or online.

The final P is promotion. This involves communication and advertising to let your customers know about your product.

We fragrance everything from perfume to bath and body products, cleaning products, household products, and home fragrances.
We may not realize it, but all products have a base odor. Fragrance is then used to either mask or neutralize a scent, or to add something new to the product.
The addition of fragrance is used to enhance the experience of consumers and meet their needs or demands. Specific fragrances can target specific consumers. It’s often cultural and demographic tastes that dictate what we gravitate towards. We tend to look towards what we’re familiar with.
The generations also provide different tastes and influences. Socio and economic factors can change the trends in architecture and colors. Fragrances really mirror those trends. For example, younger generations prefer fruity fragrances, while older generations may have grown up with floral, green, powder, or heavier scents.
Another example is that American cleaning products are fragranced with pine and citrus notes, while Latin American cleaning products are fragranced with lavender. Baby products in the US use powdery notes, while in Europe orange flower and citrus notes are used for baby products.
We’re also drawn to fragrances that make us feel positive emotions like feeling special, powerful, confident, sexy, successful, clean, energized, or relaxed. Sometimes we select a fragrance based on the mood that we’re in or the experience that we’re going to have for the day. Citrus notes, for example, are energizing notes and make us feel fresh and clean. Heady floral fragrances in ambers and woods can make us feel sexy or feminine. And in the workplace, we might want to choose a fragrance that is not too intrusive or distracting but makes us feel confident.
In a competitive environment, fragrance can really make or break the viability and success of any given product. If you don’t like the way something smells, it will be hard to purchase it for the second time. Fragrance is the key.

There are numerous product categories. They are skincare, haircare, fragrance, personal care, and color cosmetics.

Color cosmetics include foundations, lipsticks, and eye shadows. Over-the-counter (OTC) also falls under this category. OTC refers to products purchased without a prescription from a doctor. For example, skin tint with SPF.

As you can see, the product forms for color cosmetics are rather general. But, there are classifications inside each subcategory. Eye shadow, for example, can be further divided into creams, powders, and hybrids, such as demi press, slurry, and amorphous textures.

A baked powder is a product that undergoes a particular high-temperature curing or baking process to provide a product that is both wearable and weightless on the skin.

A slurry powder is an example of a powder subcategory. This technique converts powder into a mud-like consistency. It also produces a dry powder that’s ultra creamy and smooth.

The industry is moving toward hybrids due to our need for innovation and multi-use products. A hybrid combines qualities from two or more groups. A moisturizer with color and SPF, such as a BB cream, is an example. Another example is a pearl-infused primer that contains a skin-brightening cream.

The distinctions between skincare and cosmetics are becoming increasingly blurred. Transformative textures for tactile and visual senses, such as powder to lotion, cream to water, oil to lotion, cream to oil, foam to liquid, or new color forms, such as color shifting, transforming, and encapsulating, are becoming essential.

Swirl technology combines a variety of uses and colors into a single composition. It isn’t only visually appealing in lip gloss, lips, creams, hybrids, foundations, tints, skin creams, and primers. Special effects are especially significant since they provide various benefits while also satisfying a craving for beauty.

These ingredients provide a new texture or advantage that you can add to these formulas. Infusing a skin tint with extra moisturizers for quick hydration, SPF in a lipstick, and highlighters in a concealer are just a few examples.

Are you curious about the manufacturing process of the cosmetics industry? Cosmetics are the marriage between art and science and are made from a wide array of ingredients and processes.
The cosmetic development process begins with an idea, whether it is something new or an improvement on a current product. Ideas could come from brainstorming sessions, or they could be brought on by market or customer requests.
A brief is then created for the labs to begin the work. The brief outlines all the parameters needed to make the product successful. These include the product claims, texture, payoff, packaging, price, whether it is vegan, and if it will be dermatologist tested. As many details as possible are included in the brief so that the chemist knows from the beginning what the criteria is.
Once the formula is developed, the product developers start testing for efficacy. This preliminary testing is meant to give feedback to the chemists so they can perfect the product.
Once the product has met the criteria, a more in-depth testing occurs of the formula. The packaging is also tested against heat and cold extremes. If all tests are passed, the product then requires a scale-up.
A scale-up is the process of taking the product from the lab, to manufacturing, and finally to the shelf. This part is critical in the cosmetic development process. If the scale-up is not successful, then you must head back to the drawing board.
The scale-up starts with a pilot, which is a smaller quantity being made. This is normally a good learning experience for all. Observations are made by chemists, engineers, operations, and product development.
Once the pilot is successful, a full-scale production is run. After the pilot, product development works on more testing, whether it is with consumers, clinical labs, and other safety testing.

Marketing has changed a lot in the last couple of years and the future of marketing is going to get even more defined as the years go on.

Traditionally, marketing focused on identifying your target demographic and figuring out how to reach the people in the demographic. With the advent of social media, the number of customers that you can reach as a business has increased tremendously,

So, how can you approach marketing on social media? The most common methods are through paid sponsorship campaigns, where you pay to have a certain group of people targeted through your sponsored advertisements, and through posting organic and original content. The latter of by the far the most authentic

This is commonly referred to as digital marketing and it’s much more popular than traditional marketing nowadays. To start a business, you’re more likely to use Instagram and Facebook than post an ad in Vogue.

To be taken seriously nowadays, your brand needs to have thousands of followers. Ideally, around 30,000. To grow your audience to this number, it’s the same method as if you’re trying to grow your personal account. You need to post on a daily basis and your content needs to be relevant to your industry. This applies to both Instagram and Facebook.

A great way to begin is planning out the images you’re going to post for the next two weeks. This way, you can plan your feed and visualize how it’s going to look. One-third of your posts should be functional arguments, where you describe your products to your customers. The other two-thirds of your posts should be emotional and editorial.

Divide your content into these two categories so you can plan an even spread of functional and emotional content across your channels. This way, your feed looks visually appealing to your audience and catches their attention.

The beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it takes three key traits to become a success story in this competitive field. Juliet Falchi, the director of global product innovation for MAC Cosmetics, shares a few tips with readers on how to make your mark.

Whether you’re focusing on the beauty business side, makeup artistry, beauty education, online beauty education, or cosmetics research and development, this growing industry requires hard work and dedication.

“There’s a rhyme, a reason, and a science to why we do everything that we do,” said Falchi. “There’s a lot of work, thought, and testing involved.”

Falchi believes there are three traits an aspiring beauty professional should possess in order to be successful: the first is to be flexible, adaptive, and willing to learn. The beauty industry is an extremely fast-paced environment where things are constantly changing.

“You have to know you may be working on a project for months about matte lips,” said Falchi. “Someone may come to you and say, stop what you’re doing. You need to focus on metallics. This is the new trend.”

A successful beauty professional must be able to adapt and go with the flow. There is no syllabus when it comes to working in the beauty industry as new research and trends emerge. Flexibility is key.

Number two: being collaborative is super important. You can’t work in a silo. The beauty industry means working with other people who have different opinions, backgrounds, and interests than you. When you all come together to share ideas and concepts, you can create something incredible. You may have one piece of the puzzle, but you need all these diverse people to create the rest.

Lastly, Falchi says the third trait you need is to be passionate about beauty and truly love what you’re doing. That passion will shine through you and everything you do.

Jeanne Grey, founder of GreyLayers says that cosmetics and beauty as a whole can change one’s personality. “When I was little, I used to observe my mom and how she got ready in the morning and completely transform from a completely simple person into somebody different. I saw how her personality changed along with that and I thought that was amazing. I wanted to grow up and see how I can do that for other people as well,” explains Grey.

Grey says about beginning her career as a social media beauty expert, “My advice to the younger me would be to just be you and just let things flow. And eventually, with experience, all the trial and errors counted in too, everything will just work out.”

The most common mistake that Grey has seen in the beauty industry is people not being prepared prior to getting into the career. She says, “You have to treat this career as you would any other career, being a lawyer, a doctor, any important one.” She also emphasizes being business savvy and professional. “This industry, especially because it is an easy play, you know playing with cosmetics, products and different kinds of experiences, you easily forget to be professional.”

One of the ways Grey has found success in her career is by putting together case studies. These case studies are reports of a certain niche project that she’s done in the past. “For instance, as an influencer, I have done projects for a lot of hospitality brands,” says Grey. In order to land a gig with a beauty brand, Grey creates a slideshow that ties in her hospitality background of traveling and creating content. She then combines beauty into that by showing them that she was able to use beauty products throughout her trip. “I highlight how I was able to create that and capture my audience at the same time.”

Hannah Bronfman, founder of HBFIT sits down with us and provides advice on how to get a career in the beauty industry and push yourself out of your comfort zone

“I think the advice that I would give to my younger self would be don’t feel awkward about cold calling and reaching out blind,” says Hannah Bronfman, founder of HBFIT. “I think there’s something to be said about a go-getter and someone who knows what they want and how to get it, or at least how they think they know how to get it.”

When you cold call someone and you have a heart and soul behind what you’re trying to achieve, that comes through. Maybe the first time, the person doesn’t answer the email but emails them again. Persistence is key.

A specific area of the beauty industry that’s changed via technology is the booking platforms. Hannah says a lot of these companies have created their own SaaS products, which is a statistical analytics system that is like the brain of a lot of these apps. Whether it’s Glam Squad, the Glamm app, Style Seat, all of these programs and technologies have created a new way that people interact with beauty and the way that beauty is booked for the professional and the consumer.

It’s brought the beauty world to a full on-demand system just like everything else that we see. So I think technology has an impact on the product and the way it’s designed.

Every single brand is trying to recreate the lipstick or foundation, lotions, gels that finish matte or true match a color, or lipstick that looks blue, but it’s going to turn bright pink. I think everyone’s trying to do this kind of surprise and delight using technology to help create a different product that hasn’t been to the market yet, says Hannah.

To prepare for an interview, you can do a few things differently. One, do your research, know who you’re being interviewed by, and know the trajectory of their career.

For the company that you’re interviewing for, know their past big product launches and what has gone on in the news.

Consider: Have they raised money? Have they been acquired? Did they go through a recall?

“Those are things that you want to know before an interview. And I think some other things that you can do is, always, if you’re going into a beauty meeting, wear lipstick, wear eye shadow, nothing that’s flashy, but something that says you’re an enthusiast,” Hanna explains. “And always be polite, take your time when you’re speaking. It comes off a lot better when you don’t say the word like or um.”

We’re in for a really big change. Things are changing before our eyes now; the retail experience is totally different from what it used to be. We’re also going to see a lot of movement.

The people that are going to be successful are the ones that are aware of how people are shopping. Hopefully, people will go back into the store, but a lot is happening online. But how do you sell makeup online? You’ve got to be creative.

One piece of advice to anyone that wants to be an entrepreneur — because who doesn’t want to work for themselves — is to make sure you have something or an idea that is better than anything out there. Bobbi Brown, a makeup artist/author/entrepreneur says “It’s got to be new. It’s got to be better. Make sure you know you’re going to be working 24 hours a day. You never stop thinking about it.”

I also recommend working for a company. Go work for a big company, because then you’ll know what you don’t want to do. You’ll learn how to act, how to arrive on time, and how to write spreadsheets. The more you know, the better you do. There’s no rush.

Brown says there are three traits he loves to see when people want to get into the beauty industry. Number one: energy. You need to have good and positive energy.

You also need to be really curious. I don’t care what you know. I care what you want to know.

The third thing, which everyone says, is passion. You have to love what you do. You have to love the industry you’re in.