Guides · 26 August 2026
Private Label vs White Label Skincare: Which Is Right for Your Brand?
Ready formulas or fully custom development? Costs, timelines, minimums and exclusivity compared, so you can choose the right path for your skincare brand.
If you are planning a skincare brand, “private label” and “white label” are the two terms every manufacturer will use, and they describe very different products wearing similar names. Choosing the right path determines your budget, your launch timeline and how defensible your brand will be. Here is the honest breakdown, and how it works at our laboratory.
The definitions, without the marketing fog
White label, in the industry, means the formula already exists: finished, stable and tested. At Laboratori Italiani we call this route ready formulas. You choose a proven formula from our Staminalis range, and you decide the packaging and branding around it. The product is not pre-packaged: primary pack, secondary pack and artwork are yours to define. You are choosing a proven formula, not designing one.
Private label means fully custom development: everything is created for your brand, from the formula to the packaging. Texture, actives, fragrance, container, artwork, all built around your vision.
Ready formulas: no development, lower risk
With a ready formula there is no formula development and no R&D fee: the formula is already proven, so the work starts from packaging and branding. At Laboratori Italiani the ready formulas catalogue counts 55 formulas built on plant stem cell technology, natural actives and biotechnology, available from 500 pieces per reference in the packaging you choose.
The trade-off: a ready formula is not exclusive. The same formula is supplied to more than one brand, so your packaging, your story and your marketing carry the differentiation.
Ready formulas are ideal for: validating a market with a proven product, salons and clinics creating a retail line, and brands that want to focus their investment on packaging and positioning rather than on development.
Private label: exclusivity and brand equity
Custom development takes longer and requires an R&D investment: from €600 to €5,000 depending on complexity, deducted in full, one hundred percent, from your production order. In exchange, you get a product nobody else can sell. Every formula we develop in private label is exclusive to the brand it was developed for: never supplied to anyone else, and kept confidential.
This is how defensible beauty brands are built. When a customer loves a custom lip oil texture, they can only get it from you.
Private label is ideal for: brands with a clear vision, founders building for the long term, established businesses extending into beauty, and any product where texture or performance is the story. Some products are custom by nature: lip care is a good example.
The middle route: a ready base, modified for you
There is a third option between the two. We can take one of our ready formulas as a base and modify it to your brief: a different texture, an added active, a new fragrance. Because the starting point is a proven base rather than a blank page, the development fee is marginal, at the low end of the R&D range.
Side by side comparison
| Ready formulas (white label) | Private label | |
|---|---|---|
| Formula | Ready, proven, shared with other brands | Custom, exclusive to your brand |
| Development fee | None | €600 to €5,000, deducted in full from production |
| Packaging | Your choice of format, components and artwork | Fully customizable; custom moulds possible on higher volumes |
| Minimums | 500 pieces per reference | Depends on the project, indicatively 500 to 1,000 units per reference |
| Timeline | No development phase; driven by your packaging and the production run | Development and samples, then production in 60 to 90 days from sample and artwork approval |
| Differentiation | Brand, packaging and marketing | The product itself |
| EU compliance | CPSR, PIF and notification prepared for your product | CPSR, PIF and notification handled in house; the PIF follows a stabilisation period of 3 to 6 months |
The smart sequence: start ready, go custom
Many brands do both, in order. Launch with ready formulas to validate your audience, then invest in custom development for your hero product. Working with a manufacturer that offers every path means you never have to switch suppliers as you grow.
How it works at Laboratori Italiani
We offer three routes: fully custom private label development, where every proposal is built around your vision; a catalogue of 55 ready formulas; and ready bases modified to your brief. All are formulated to EU standards by default, with CPSR, PIF and CPNP handled in house, and made in our Italian laboratory.
Next step
Let’s build your brand
Complete the Product / Formula Brief and our team will send you a tailored R&D development offer: the first step from idea to finished, market-ready product.
R&D from €600 to €5,000 · fully deducted from production · MOQ 500 to 1,000 units · 60 to 90 day timeline