Making a splash in the $445 billion beauty industry — one dominated by cosmetics and skincare giants like L’oreal, Olay, and the like — sounds like an intimidating feat. But innovative startups, recognizing the unique, unmet needs of both consumers and beauty entrepreneurs, are filling unique niches and shaking up the entire game at the same time.

Here are 4 companies changing the skincare game with their disruptive products and services:

Onoxa is taking the risk and hassle out of private label business

For cosmetologists, salon and spa owners, and other beauty professionals looking to launch their own line of products, the path to private labeling was once wrought with confusion.

Even after finding a private label company to work with (usually after making many inconvenient, international phone calls), they often wait weeks for samples, struggle to get the products custom labeled, and must place high minimum orders that require a serious upfront investment and high risk.

Tired of the old way of doing things, Onoxa became the first online platform for creating and launching your own line of private label products. Entrepreneurs can order private label samples (already customized with their own logos!) in just seconds and have them in their hands within days. When they’re ready to place their order, low minimums decrease upfront risk, and an easy-to-use interface makes the entire process a breeze.

Epigencare’s science-based skincare goes straight to the people

Fully customized, direct-to-consumer skincare based on your DNA? Epigencare uses science to determine the perfect products for your skin.
The biotechnology company uses a digital platform that will let consumers find the best products for their unique genetic profile. “This revolutionary business model promises to uniquely take advantage of the rapidly developing fields of epigenetics and blockchain,” said the company’s industry advisor Richard Wildnauer in a release. “To develop a database to solve the problem of product selection for personalized targeted skin care. It reduces the costs and frustrations of multiple product trials by consumers, provides cosmetic companies with another tool to guide product development, and provides a basis for monetization by the consumer participants and EpigenCare.”

TruSelf Organics makes natural skincare simple and affordable

Vegan, cruelty-free, organic skincare products usually come with luxury branding and a sky-high price tag. But not here. This no-fuss vegan beauty brand leverages the skin-saving power of all natural ingredients, creating products with short ingredient lists you can actually understand (and pronounce!).

Their popular clay masks are preservative free, coming in powder form (to be mixed with water or a mask solution for each use), proving that weird ingredients aren’t necessary to create quality products that transform the skin.

The Ordinary brings professional-grade, clinical ingredients home

Typically, a consumer would purchase a product filled with a whole bunch of fancy ingredients they don’t recognize or understand, paying whatever the brand says that product is worth and hoping it works.

The Ordinary empowers average consumers like you and I to learn exactly what ingredients help our unique skin type and needs — from Alpha Hydroxy Acids to Vitamin C — then order those individual ingredients in minimal packaging at low prices.

The Ordinary’s customers are skincare savvy, know what works for them, and hate paying more than they need for clinical formulations.