It's that time, again, when the ending of the year makes us start to think about what we might do differently in the coming one.  What new challenges will you take on?  What delayed dreams will you work towards making a reality? 

If one of those has always been to launch your own beauty product or brand, we know it's hard to know where to begin.  But Prime Matters Labs can be that starting point. 

Cody Fullerton is the vice president of business development at Prime Matter Labs. He knows how to bring great ideas to life. Fullerton, a dynamic leader with proven success growing brands at L'Oréal, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., and Unilever, makes him the go to advisor when you're ready to launch, and he took time to answer some questions from MODERN about what that might look like: 

MODERN SALON (MS): Let's say I am a hairstylist / salon owner who has always wanted to create my own line OR my own signature product, but I have no idea of where to start — how would you work with me?

Cody Fullerton (CF): We love working with industry people who understand their customers’ needs! We’d begin the process by helping you decide which of our approaches to product development would best fit your vision and business needs. You can start the process to Create Your Product  on our website where you’ll determine if you’d like to create a custom private label product (Ready to Launch) for order quantities less than 5,000, or Custom Development for a completely unique and tailored formula. Once you’ve selected your approach, we’ll want to know more about the product you’d like to develop so that we can create samples for you to test and approve. With Ready to Launch, you can tailor some of our tested and proven best-in-class formulations to create your own product, and with Custom Development, you will fill out a project brief detailing your product goals from which our team of R&D chemists will work to create a unique formula to meet them. Our team of project managers will work with you to approve a final formula and throughout the production process until your final products are delivered

MS: I have an idea of what I want my logo to look like but I’m not a visual artist — do you have someone to help me define my vision?

CF: Our expertise is focused on creating innovative and effective formulas and producing finished goods and final products based on our customers’ goals and vision. We leave the branding up to you but are always happy to make recommendations of creative agencies in the industry we know.

MS: Am I going to be able to experiment with formulas and try versions of the product on my clients?

​CF: Our team will work to create samples for you and your clients or team based on your input and feedback. Testing the samples is an important part of the process and we think it’s a great idea to have you present the sample to your clients. We understand that developing a product is a process that may take more than one try. Once you’ve received your sample, you can provide feedback for our chemists who will then work to modify the formula to better fit your vision.

MS: Do I need to come to your offices or is this done remotely?

​CF: We love meeting our clients, but that can be on the phone, through video conferencing or email, there is no need to come to our offices unless that is what you’d prefer.

MS: I don’t know how to price my products — is that something you can help me with?

​CF: We can make a recommendation on the margin you should apply to your product to come up with an appropriate price based on your product cost for formula, production and packaging.

MS: What other services do you offer to help me get started?

​CF: We can recommend packaging partners and other agencies that can help you in creating your product.

MS: Finally, am I kidding myself?  Does the world need another styling product?

​CF: While the beauty space may seem crowded at times, there’s always room for innovation and great ideas. If you have a product in mind that fits the needs of your customers that doesn’t exist today or that you don’t see on the market, let’s create it together!