Are you obsessed with lip gloss? You’re not alone. Statistics show that over 122 million women in the US use lip gloss. Moreover, that number is projected to increase by over 2 million by 2024. And thanks to the current popularity of all things beauty-related, lip gloss lovers and entrepreneurs have endless opportunities to use their passion to make money!
Starting your own lip gloss business can be a great way to make some extra money while working from home. And since there are so many options, you can choose the business idea that best fits your skills and interests. Here we’ll look at a few ideas for inspiration.
1. Make Your Own Lip Gloss Line and Launch an Etsy Store
Perhaps one of the fun and creative ways to make money with lip gloss is to create your own brand and sell it on Etsy. There are a few steps to this venture, and it’s not without startup costs, but it can be a lucrative business. Here’s how to get started step-by-step:
Obtain the Necessary Licenses and Permits
Depending on where you live, you may need to obtain a general business license or a sales tax permit to sell physical products. Some businesses need zoning permits and an employer identification number (EIN). You should also decide whether your business will be a sole proprietorship or if you’ll incorporate your business as a limited liability company (LLC), S-corp, or partnership.
The FDA requires that all cosmetics meet specific standards as well. Take some time to learn the legal requirements of starting a business in your area, so you don’t run into legal issues down the road!
Create Your Lip Gloss
Believe it or not, you can create your own lip gloss company with a relatively small investment. You just need a few supplies and ingredients, including base, color additives, optional vitamin E capsules, and lip balm tubes or containers.
For the base, you can use natural substances like beeswax, coconut oil, or shea butter. You can also buy a lip gloss base from Amazon. For pigment, you can use beetroot powder or lip-friendly glitter from Amazon for some extra sparkle.
Jars are also easy to find, with Amazon having a wide assortment of colorful cosmetics jars, tubes, and labels you can use to package your glam lip balm.
Then you melt the base, add in your pigments and vitamins, pour them into your containers, and let them cool until they solidify.
Choose a Lip Gloss Business Name
Choose a name that makes it immediately clear to potential customers that you’re a lip gloss brand. For example, “Luxe Lips” or “Bella Lip Gloss” are names that show your potential customers your business is all about lips. You can use a lip gloss business name generator to develop more ideas.
Open Your Etsy Store
Etsy is a large marketplace for crafts and other homemade items, making it the perfect place to sell your lip gloss. It’s relatively easy to create a store, and it only costs $0.20 per listing.
All you need to do to set up your shop is choose your country, the currency you will sell your lip gloss in, and your shop name. Then, create listings for each item.
Take high-quality photos of your lip glosses to include with each listing.
Once you start making sales, you can get paid by direct deposit by giving Etsy your account information.
Promote Your Store
Once you’ve launched your lip gloss store, it’s a good idea to form a marketing strategy to start making sales sooner. For example, you can learn Etsy SEO so that your items rank better in Etsy’s search function.
Promoting your store on external platforms like your website or social media channels like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook is another way to get the word out about your new brand.
2. Join a Direct Sales Company
If you’d rather not create your own lip glosses, you can make a business selling other brand-name products.
Direct sales companies are a great way to start your own business with minimal investment. Becoming a consultant usually involves purchasing a starter kit, which includes products, marketing materials, and training from the company.
Then, you can promote the products by hosting parties, online webinars, or by setting up a retail space in your home.
The best part about joining a direct sales business is that you become a representative of an already established brand. That means customers can trust the quality of the products, and you don’t have to spend time and money on marketing and branding.
There are tons of direct sales companies that feature beautiful lip glosses. Here are a few popular ones worth checking out:
Younique
Younique is a cosmetics company that’s on a mission to empower women across the globe with high-quality products and opportunities for women to build their own businesses.
They do not test on animals and have an impressive lineup of beautiful lip glosses and other cosmetic products. Anyone can invest in becoming a Younique consultant through their website.
Arbonne
Founded in the US in 1980 by Petter Mørck, Arbonne offers a wide range of high-quality, plant-based products for men and women.
Their lip glosses come in various shades and are made without gluten or animal products. In addition, they offer independent consultants multiple ways to earn income, including a 35% commission on product sales.
Avon
Avon is one of the oldest cosmetics companies; founded in 1886, it is now one of the world’s largest direct sellers.
Their products include lip glosses in a variety of shades and formulas. Joining Avon as a representative is free and comes with various benefits beyond earning commissions on sales, like product discounts and free samples.
Mary Kay
Mary Kay is a cosmetics company founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash. They offer a wide range of high-quality beauty products, including lip glosses in various shades and formulas. As an independent consultant, you can earn commissions on sales and qualify for free product samples.
3. Create a Subscription Box
Another fun and easy way to make money with lip gloss is to create a subscription box. A subscription box is a collection of items you curate each month and send out to your subscribers. Here’s the strategy:
Come Up with a Theme
The first step is to develop a theme for your lip gloss subscription box. It could be all-natural lip glosses, vegan or cruelty-free lipsticks, or general lip care products.
Source Your Products
Some good places to source your products are through niche e-commerce sites and Etsy. You can also try Alibaba or Indiamart, which are both great marketplaces for buying items in bulk.
Once your subscription box gets established, you can also encourage suppliers to reach out to you to add their items to your subscription box. Vendors are always looking for ways to market their products, and some are even willing to send you items for free.
Figure Out Pricing and Shipping
Pricing is always a challenge when starting a business, but subscription boxes are especially tricky. You want to make sure you’re making a profit, but you also don’t want to charge too much and lose customers. A good rule of thumb is to price your products at around the same price as you would find them on other e-commerce sites.
Decide ahead of time how often you will send out your subscription box; most businesses ship once monthly. Be sure to communicate cut-offs and ship dates to your customers so they know what to expect.
Create an E-Commerce Store
The next step is to create an e-commerce store to sell your subscription box. One of the best platforms to do this is Cratejoy. Cratejoy is a marketplace specifically for subscription boxes, and you can list yours on their platform which gets 4 million page views per month. They take a cut of the commissions, but otherwise, it is free to use.
You can also create a custom website on Cratejoy for a monthly fee. It comes with app integrations, subscriber support, customer management tools, and more. This is a good option for you once you’ve sold a few boxes and are ready to grow your business.
4. Become a Social Media Influencer
If you have a large social media presence on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, you can use that to promote lip glosses and other cosmetic products. There are two main ways to earn money this way:
Sponsorships
Sponsored posts can pay $300 or more per post, so it’s well worth the effort!
All you need to do is reach out to brands you’d like to work with and provide them with your media kit.
Your media kit should include statistics about your following (including the number of followers, engagement rate, and demographics), your bio, and a selection of your best photos.
If you’re having trouble finding brands to pitch, you can also find sponsorship opportunities via influencer marketplaces like IZEAx, Popular Pays, and InfluencerHer Collective that match brands with influencers.
Many brands are willing to work with influencers to promote their products, so this can be a great way to make money from home – and enjoy free lip gloss products!
Affiliate Posts
Affiliate posts are another great way to make money promoting lip glosses and other cosmetics.
This type of post is when you promote a product and receive a commission on any sales that result from your post. The sale can be credited to you through an affiliate link in your bio or a unique coupon code associated with your affiliate account.
Examples of affiliate programs you could join to promote lip gloss include Sephora, M.A.C. Cosmetics, or BabeBox.
5. Start a Beauty YouTube Channel
If you like being in front of the camera, starting a beauty YouTube channel is an excellent opportunity to share your love of lip glosses and other cosmetics with the world. You can create how-to videos, review products, lip care, or chat about the latest trends in the beauty industry.
To get started, you’ll need a good quality camera and editing software, like Final Cut or DaVinci Resolve. Then, come up with a catchy name for your YouTube channel that indicates to your viewers what your channel is all about. (For example, “Lustrous Lips with Lily” or “Beauty with Becca.”)
To grow your channel, you’ll need to produce high-quality content regularly, engage with your viewers, and use tools like TubeBuddy to find keywords for your videos and optimize them for YouTube search.
Once you have an audience, you can monetize your lip gloss channel in several ways:
Sponsorships
Sponsorships are an excellent way for YouTubers to make money. Often, sponsors will provide you with free products in exchange for a mention in one of your videos. If your channel gets big enough, sponsors will find you. In the meantime, you can use the same influencer platforms to find brands to work with as you would if you were an Instagram or TikTok influencer.
Affiliate Sales
You can add affiliate links in the description box to lip gloss products you talk about or promote in your videos. You can even promote Amazon links via the Amazon Associates program, provided you have a large enough following.
YouTube Partnership Program
Once you have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours, you may be eligible to join the YouTube Partner Program. This program allows you to monetize your channel through ads.
6. Become a Beauty Blogger
If you love to write, consider becoming a beauty blogger. Blogging is a fun way to share your opinions and product reviews with the world. With enough time and dedication, it can become a significant source of passive income.
The first step is to use a site like Bluehost to find domain names related to lip gloss. You can usually purchase a domain for well under $20.
Most professional bloggers choose to build their site with WordPress and learn how to use search engine optimization (SEO) to rank their pages on Google. Pinterest can also be a powerful platform for driving traffic to your website.
If you blog solely about lip gloss and lip products, your niche site will be seen as an authority on the topic by Google, which means that eventually, your blog posts can start outranking bigger sites that talk about broader topics.
Once you start getting enough traffic to your site, you have lots of options for monetization:
Display Ads
Display ads are a common way for bloggers to make money. You can sell ad space on your blog or apply to an ad network like Ezoic, Mediavine, Monumetric, or AdThrive.
Digital Products
You can also create and sell digital products like ebooks, courses, or templates. For instance, if you’re an expert on making your own lip glosses, you could create an ebook or guide and sell that on your website.
Affiliate Links and Sponsored Posts
As with influencers and YouTubers, you can also include affiliate links and sponsored posts in your blog content to make money. You can start with the Amazon Associates program and find other affiliates that sell makeup products through platforms like ShareASale and FlexOffers.
In addition to finding sponsorships through online marketplaces, it’s also a good idea to add a page on your site with your media kit and a contact form so brands can reach you directly. If you’re ready to start a blog, you can sign up for Holly’s free 10-day how-to start a blog course.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many different ways to create a successful business from home with lip gloss! From creating and selling your own lip balm to blogging about beauty, there are many opportunities for you to pursue.
You may even wish to pursue more than one strategy to create multiple income streams. Whichever type of business you choose, be sure to have fun and enjoy your passion for lip gloss!
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