Cosmetic Foundation

I started making foundation in my kitchen in 2009. I had terrible acne scars from my teenage years. I spent years buying foundations from department stores, drugstores, online shops. Nothing worked. The colors were wrong. The textures were wrong. They oxidized on my skin within two hours. I looked gray by lunchtime.

My background was in chemistry. I had a degree from Ohio State and worked at a contract manufacturing lab for three years after graduation. I mixed formulas for other people's products all day. I came home one night and thought I could probably figure this out myself.

I ordered my first batch of pigments from a supplier in New Jersey. Iron oxides, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide. I bought a small mixer from a restaurant supply store. I made my first foundation in a mixing bowl. It was bad. The color separated within a day. I made another batch. That one was worse.

By my 23rd attempt, I had something that stayed on my face for six hours without turning orange. I gave samples to my sister, my coworker, my neighbor. They wanted more. I made more.

I registered Veil Cosmetics as an LLC in January 2010. I rented a 400 square foot space in an industrial park outside Columbus. I bought used equipment from a cosmetics company that had gone out of business. A homogenizer, a filling machine, packaging materials. I spent $34,000 of my savings.

In 2012, I launched an online store. A friend built the website for $800. I took product photos with my phone. I wrote descriptions myself. The grammar was probably not great.

Sales grew. In 2014, we did $180,000 in revenue. In 2015, $340,000. By 2017, we hit $1.2 million. I hired four employees. We moved to a 2,000 square foot facility. We had 28 shades of foundation covering a range I was proud of.

This is where things started getting difficult.

The Challenges

In 2018, two of my key pigment suppliers were acquired by the same parent company. They consolidated operations. Minimum order quantities went from 5 kilograms to 50 kilograms overnight. My costs for raw materials increased by 40%.

I had always used a specific Japanese silica in my foundation. It gave the formula its texture. That supplier discontinued the product in 2019. No explanation. The email just said they were focusing on other business areas. I spent eight months testing alternatives. Nothing matched it. I had to reformulate three of my best-selling shades. Some customers noticed. I got emails asking what had changed.

Around this time, the market shifted. Every celebrity launched a foundation line. Brands with hundred-million-dollar marketing budgets flooded social media. My monthly ad costs doubled, then tripled. The same keywords that cost $0.30 per click in 2016 cost $2.40 by 2020.

I tried different things. In 2019, I approached three investment firms about taking on a minority partner. One was interested. They wanted to reformulate all products to reduce costs by 15%. They wanted to move manufacturing overseas. I said no.

In early 2020, I talked to a larger cosmetics company about an acquisition. They offered $1.8 million. The deal required me to stay on for three years. They would own the brand name and all formulas. I would have no decision-making power. I said no.

I looked into retail partnerships. Ulta, Sephora, Target. The margins they required would have meant reformulating with cheaper ingredients or losing money on every unit sold. I did not pursue it further.

2020

Then 2020 happened. I don't need to explain what 2020 was like for small businesses. We closed our retail location in March. Three of my four employees had to be let go. I handled customer service, shipping, and production myself.

In August 2020, our facility had a roof leak during a storm. We lost about $22,000 worth of finished product and raw materials. Insurance covered part of it. I covered the rest.

By December 2020, I had a decision to make. Our sales were down 60% from 2019. I had maybe eight months of operating expenses in the bank. I sat at my kitchen table and wrote out three options on a piece of paper.

I chose option three.

This was not an easy choice. I had to discontinue 19 of our 28 foundation shades. I kept the nine that represented 70% of our sales. I know this means many customers can no longer find their shade with us. I know some of you have been with me since the farmer's market days. I know you're disappointed. I am too.

Looking Forward

I've been working on something new. For the past six months, I've been developing a new foundation formula. It uses different technology than anything I've made before. I'm not ready to share details. The testing phase is ongoing. I have seven people testing it right now. The feedback has been good.

I'm also working on a shade expansion. Not back to 28 shades. That's not realistic right now. But I want to add four more shades by mid-2022. Deeper shades specifically. That part of my range was always too limited. I should have addressed it years ago. I didn't. I'm addressing it now.

I don't know what the future looks like. I stopped making predictions after 2020. I can tell you what I'm doing this week and next month. Beyond that, I can't say.

What I can say is this. Veil Cosmetics started because I couldn't find a foundation that worked for me. That problem still exists for a lot of people. The big brands still don't get the shades right. They still use cheap ingredients that oxidize. They still prioritize marketing over formula quality.

I still think there's a place for what I do. A small operation making good products for people who have been failed by the mainstream options. Maybe that place is smaller than it used to be. Maybe that's okay.

I turned 41 this year. I've been making foundation for 12 years. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've also made some things I'm proud of. The emails I get from customers finding their first foundation match keep me going.