The questions buyers ask before the first order

Our hair oil lines start at 1,000 pieces per SKU, which is low for this category in China — most factories quote 5,000 or 10,000.

• 1,000 pcs is achievable because we keep stock dropper and pump bottles on site, so there is no custom mould cost to amortise.
• A different pack format changes the number. A custom-moulded jar needs tooling and pushes MOQ to 5,000+. A stock bottle keeps it at 1,000.
• If 1,000 is still too high for your first run, tell us the format you want and we will tell you which pack gets you lowest — rather than quoting a range and letting you guess.

We quote a real MOQ rather than a teaser number, and we do not pretend a 200-piece run is possible on a production line. What we can do is find the pack format that puts your first order at the lowest viable quantity.

• The practical minimum is set by changeover cost, not by policy. Below a certain run length the line cannot be cleaned, set up and validated economically.
• For a first order we will tell you the lowest quantity at which the unit price still makes sense — sometimes that is 1,000, sometimes 3,000, depending on pack.
• Samples are a separate matter: you can have a sample in your hand without committing to any production quantity.

Because MOQ is driven by the pack, not by the formula. A stock bottle filled on an existing line runs from 1,000; a silicone tool that needs its own mould runs from 3,000; a multi-shade styling range is per-SKU at 10,000 because each shade is a separate clean-down.

• Hair oil: from 1,000 pcs per SKU (stock dropper/pump bottles).
• Silicone scalp massager: from 3,000 pcs per colourway for tool-only runs.
• Styling wax and clay: from 10,000 pcs per SKU — these are short-run-hostile because of tint and fragrance changeover.
• Hair mask cap and oil sets: quoted against the actual pack structure, since a set is one barcode but two components.

Usually no — MOQ is per SKU per run, because each SKU needs its own clean-down, its own bulk and its own QC release. Mixing them does not remove that cost.

• What does help: keeping the number of SKUs down on a first order. One SKU at 3,000 is far cheaper per unit than three SKUs at 1,000 each.
• If you need a range, we would rather launch one hero SKU first and add the second once the first is selling — that is a commercial decision, not a manufacturing limitation.

Our public platform listings for hair oil run US$1.29–1.98 per unit at 1,000 pieces, and US$4.12–4.89 for boxed oil-and-massager sets.

• That is the platform-listed range, not a quotation. The real figure moves with fill volume, active loading, bottle type, label finish and order quantity.
• The single biggest cost driver is usually not the oil — it is the pack. Changing from a custom bottle to a stock bottle often moves unit cost more than changing the formula.
• We quote from your target cost backwards, so you know the margin before committing to tooling.

On unit price usually yes; on landed cost per sellable unit, not always. Freight, duty, the cost of a delayed shipment and the cost of a rejected batch all sit outside the unit price.

• The comparison that matters is cost per unit that actually reaches your customer, not cost per unit that leaves the factory.
• A cheaper supplier with a 90-day lead time forces you to hold more stock, which is capital tied up. A more expensive supplier at 25 days may be cheaper overall.
• We are not the cheapest quote you will receive. We would rather be the one still answering in month nine.

Yes, a sampling fee applies per formula, and it is credited against your first bulk order.

• Freight on the first sample is at your cost — the freight is credited against your first bulk order.
• Samples ship in 3–7 days from an approved formula.
• There is no charge for the feasibility conversation or the route options before sampling.

Samples ship in 3–7 days from an approved formula, and 7 days is the honest outer bound rather than a best case.

• Stability observation runs alongside the sample round rather than after it, which is why the sample date does not slip when a stability result comes back.
• If the formula needs a route change after you test it, the clock restarts — we will say so at that point rather than quietly letting the date move.

Approximately 20 days for bulk after confirmation, and 25–30 days from PO and artwork approval once you include production and pre-shipment QC.

• Artwork approval is the most common cause of a slipped date — not production. Labels cannot be printed until the artwork is signed off.
• We update ship-date status weekly, and we tell you weeks out if a date will move, not days before the vessel.

Sometimes, and it depends on whether the line has a gap and whether the pack is stock. A rush on a stock bottle with an existing formula is realistic; a rush on a custom mould is not.

• What makes a rush possible: stock packaging, an already-approved formula, and artwork ready before the PO lands.
• What makes it impossible regardless of price: a new mould (tooling has its own timeline), a new fragrance (needs stability), or a pack we have to source from a new supplier.
• We will tell you plainly which of those you are up against rather than accepting a rush fee and missing the date.

We are a manufacturer. The lab that develops the formula and the lines that fill it are on the same site in Zhongshan, Guangdong — not brokered out to a third party.

• Certification numbers are published rather than described: ISO 22716 / GMPC is SGS CN19/31476 and US FDA CFSAN is SGS CN19/31477, both valid to 2028-09-03. FDA facility registration FEI is 3015316073.
• We name the manufacturing entity on our own site so you can verify the certificates, the registration and the history before you commit to anything.
• You are welcome to a walkthrough of the actual line your order would run on, rather than a generic factory video.

Check four things in this order: the certification numbers against the issuing body, the business licence entity name, the FDA facility registration, and whether the address on the certificate matches the address you are shipping from.

• Certificate numbers can be verified with the issuer (SGS in our case), not just read off a PDF. A certificate with no number, or a number that does not match, is the most common red flag.
• Match the legal entity on the business licence to the entity named on the certificate. A trading company forwarding someone else's certificate is the classic failure mode.
• Ask for the FDA FEI number if you are selling into the US, and check it against the FDA registration database.
• Ask a technical question that only someone running the line could answer — the answer tells you more than any document.

ISO 22716:2007 cosmetics GMP (SGS CN19/31476), US FDA CFSAN cosmetic GMP (SGS CN19/31477), FDA facility registration FEI 3015316073, China cosmetics production licence 粤妆20160335, and amfori BSCI social compliance monitoring ID 25-0314051-1.

• The two SGS certificates are both valid to 2028-09-03. The China production licence is valid to 2027-07-20.
• We publish the numbers rather than a badge wall, because a badge cannot be checked and a number can.

We have produced private-label hair care for overseas brands and salon lines for 19 years, but we do not publish a client list. If a client wants to be named, that is their decision, not ours to make.

• What we can show instead: the packaging formats we have produced, the certification set, and a walkthrough of the line your order would run on.
• If you need a reference in your market, ask — where a client has agreed to be a reference, we will connect you.

Yes. A written brief covering hair type, claim, market and target cost is enough to start; a reference product only shortens it because it removes guesswork about texture and foam.

• Our formulators propose one or two route options rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it formula. Each option states the surfactant or conditioning system, the cost driver and the claim risk.
• If a claim you want is not supportable, or a price point cannot carry the formula you described, we say so at brief stage rather than after the sample round.

Usually, yes — send a sample or the INCI list and we will tell you what is reproducible, what is not, and where the cost will land.

• Some things reproduce exactly (an anhydrous oil, a simple emulsion). Some do not (a texture that depends on a specific supplier's raw material, or a fragrance that is proprietary to your current factory).
• We will tell you which case you are in before you spend money on development.

Ownership and exclusivity are agreed per project and written into the contract before development starts, not decided after the first sample.

• If you need the formula to be exclusive to you, that is a commercial term we can contract — and it is also why the formulation work is built to your brief rather than pulled off a stock list.
• We do not manufacture your formula for another client where exclusivity has been agreed.

Yes, and it is a formulation decision rather than a marketing one — removing silicone changes the after-feel, the combability and often the stability, so the replacement system has to be designed, not just omitted.

• Silicone-free conditioners usually need an oil-and-ester system plus a cationic polymer to recover the slip that dimethicone was providing.
• The claim also has market consequences: "silicone-free" is a label statement that has to hold up in the destination market, not just sound good on a listing.

Yes, from a shared base — the base is made once and split, with pigment or fragrance added per variant. That keeps per-unit cost down across the range while each SKU still has its own tin, label and barcode.

• Be aware of the trade-off: multi-shade ranges cost more per SKU at low volumes because each shade needs its own clean-down, so MOQ is quoted per shade.
• A colour-depositing or tint claim carries regulatory consequences in the EU and US, so the label wording has to be agreed before development starts.

We manufacture to EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009 and prepare the Product Information File support, safety assessment inputs and CPNP notification data pack — but the Responsible Person in the EU must be yours or appointed, since we are not established in the Union.

• Also prepared: INCI labelling and allergen declaration to EU requirements.
• The Responsible Person is a legal requirement under the regulation, not a formality — a Chinese manufacturer cannot hold that role.

Yes. Our facility holds US FDA CFSAN cosmetic GMP certification (SGS CN19/31477) and FDA facility registration FEI 3015316073, and we review ingredient and labelling against US requirements including MoCRA listing data support.

• We screen colour additives and prohibited substances against US rules during formulation, not after.
• MoCRA changed what US importers must hold; we provide the facility and product listing data you need to file.

We export worldwide and can quote EXW, FOB or CIF depending on what you want to control. Freight is arranged with your forwarder or ours.

• Pack formats, labelling and documentation are chosen with the destination market and the freight reality in mind, not only the fill line.
• Aerosol formats carry extra transport documentation and some carriers will not take them — this affects which pack we recommend for spray products.

China (Zhongshan, Guangdong). The manufacturing site is in Zhongshan and that is what appears on the label and the certificate of origin.

• We do not offer "made in" re-labelling for another country. If your market requires a different origin statement, that is a question for your customs broker before we start, not after.

It does not ship. Batch records travel with every shipment, and a failed result is a corrected batch, not a discounted one.

• Microbiology and chemistry are run in the plant laboratory, which shortens the loop between a failed result and a corrected batch — the sample does not have to be couriered to a third party and back.
• We tell you what failed and what we changed rather than only reporting the release.

The antioxidant package is built around the specific oil's oxidation profile rather than added as a fixed percentage, and stability is observed at elevated temperature before release.

• Polyunsaturated oils need both an antioxidant package and, in some markets, a packaging barrier — the bottle is part of the stability decision.
• A beautiful oil in the bottle can still be heavy, sticky or oxidised by the time a consumer opens it; that is what the stability run exists to catch.

Yes — accelerated and real-time programmes covering separation, colour drift, viscosity change and fragrance stability across the claimed shelf life.

• Stability runs alongside the sample round rather than after it.
• Data is available at sample stage, so you are not asked to commit to a bulk order before seeing whether the product holds.

Yes. We would rather show you the line your order would run on than a showroom.

• The lab that develops the formula and the lines that fill it are in the same building, so a visit covers both in one trip.
• If you cannot travel, we can walk a video call through the actual line rather than sending a generic factory video.