Startups are having their moment in the global beauty and household product industry; indie beauty companies have become the growth engine for skin care and color cosmetics categories, and “natural” home care companies are grabbing headlines and getting gobbled up by multinationals that are eager to get in on the demand for green cleaning solutions. But before they can become the darlings of Instagram or command outrageous multiples in takeover talks, startups must get their start, and our annual Contract Manufacturing/Private Label Directory is a perfect place to get started.

Grateful entrepreneurs tell us all the time that they found their filler within the pages of our October issue or online at happi.com and we’re happy to help! Few phone calls are more gratifying to us than hearing about a newcomer who is making her mark in the unforgiving household and personal products industry. In fact, we’ve been telling their stories for months now in our Indie Inc. section (see p. 142 in this issue).

Now, we know that the internet has made it possible for entrepreneurs to bypass all the shelf-space roadblocks set up by traditional brick-and-mortar retailer; still, we like to think that the Contract Manufacturing/Private Label Directory serves as a roadmap to finding the perfect manufacturing partner. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to get out of the corporate rat race and chart your own course, we know that you’ll want to start your journey on p. 74 in this issue.

Roadblocks of another kind are the topic in Testing, Testing (p. 54), a look at what’s new in the product testing category including a list of related vendors. Competing bills in Congress mean that regulatory reform won’t happen in the US this year, but testing companies are boosting capabilities in the States and around the world.

Finally, we take a look at the customized beauty market (p. 48), where companies are delivering bespoke hair care and skin care products. And for brands where custom formulation isn’t practical, a more personalized experience is still possible through websites and apps that help their customers find products best suited for their individual needs—and harvest data to drive future product development, too.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and we welcome your comments. Send us an email or connect with us on your most-used social platform; whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, you will find us there, too.

Tom Branna
Editorial Director
[email protected]