A few years ago, when I was looking for a cosmetic contract manufacturer for my first beauty brand, I naively thought that any factory with production lines would suffice. However, I fell into a huge trap: the samples were perfect, but there were slight color differences in the bottle caps of each bulk order; the promised 30-day delivery time was always delayed without any prior notice; and most disastrously, an entire batch of goods was detained by customs because the cooperating factory lacked a certain certification, nearly sinking my fledgling project.
This experience made me realize that choosing a cosmetic manufacturer is far more than just comparing prices and checking samples. It is crucial to the quality foundation of your brand, the stability of your supply chain, and even the survival risks of your business. For this reason, I spent a great deal of time conducting in-depth research, communicating with industry insiders, and compiled a list of 7 reliable manufacturers that you can trust.
Comparison Table of Cosmetic Contract Manufacturers
| Manufacturer Name | Core Product Areas | Service Features | Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) | Comprehensive Recommendation Index | Suitable Client Types |
| KDC/One | Skincare, Color Cosmetics, Personal Care, Perfume | Global footprint, end-to-end solutions, and strong R&D capabilities | 8,000 pieces | ★★★★☆ | International brands, large and medium-sized brands seeking one-stop services |
| DESIFINE | Skincare, Facial Masks, Personal Care | Flexible and fast, focused on small and medium batches, and high cost-effectiveness | 3,000 pieces | ★★★★★ | Start-up brands, e-commerce brands, and small and medium-sized brands seeking rapid response |
| Cosmax | Color Cosmetics, Skincare, Personal Care | Cutting-edge R&D, trend-setting design, and a leader in Asian beauty trends | 5,000 pieces | ★★★★☆ | Brands that focus on innovation and design and target the mid-to-high-end market |
| Intercos | Color Cosmetics (especially lip and eye products), Skincare | Expert in the color cosmetics field, with innovations in color and formulation | 10,000 pieces | ★★★★☆ | Professional color cosmetics brands, brands pursuing innovations in color and material |
| Kolmar Korea | Color Cosmetics, Skincare, Sun Care, Base Makeup | Technology-driven, full product category coverage, and strong ODM capabilities | 8,000 pieces | ★★★★☆ | Brands seeking technical cooperation and with a rich product line |
| TOA | High-end Skincare, Base Makeup, Personal Care | Japanese precision craftsmanship, the new concept of “full outsourcing”, and a century-old heritage | 3,000 pieces | ★★★☆☆ | Brands that pursue ultimate quality and focus on the high-end Japanese market |
| Fareva | Skincare, Color Cosmetics, Personal Care, Pharmaceuticals | Leader in global industrial subcontracting, large-scale flexible production, and pharmaceutical-grade standards | 6,000 pieces | ★★★☆☆ | International brands that require large-scale, cross-category production and strict quality control |
1. KDC/One
KDC/One is a world-leading cosmetic contract manufacturer. Through multiple strategic mergers and acquisitions, it has built an extensive manufacturing and R&D network covering North America, Europe, and Asia. Positioned as an end-to-end strategic partner for brands, the company offers a full-chain service from concept innovation to production and delivery.
- Headquarters Location: Florida, USA
- Year of Establishment: 2019 (formed by the merger of several established manufacturers)
- Business Scale: A global group with multiple production bases and R&D centers in North America, Europe, and other regions.
- Market Positioning: Providing comprehensive solutions for beauty, personal care, and health products to major global brands and emerging brands.
Manufacturing and Production Capabilities
KDC/One’s core strength lies in its globally integrated production platform and economies of scale.
- Global Network: Production bases and R&D centers are located in key regions, enabling localized production, rapid response, and optimized supply chain costs.
- Full Product Category Coverage: The production lines cover skincare, color cosmetics, hair care, personal care, fragrances, and disinfectant products, meeting brands’ one-stop procurement needs.
- High-Standard Compliance: All factories adhere to international cGMP and ISO standards, and comply with strict regional regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA, EU).
OEM Service Advantages and Core Competitiveness
Brands choosing KDC/One as their cosmetic contract manufacturer can gain the following key support:
- End-to-End Solutions: Integrating creative design, formula R&D, packaging engineering, regulatory consulting, large-scale production, and logistics distribution, which greatly simplifies the management complexity for brands.
- Strong R&D and Innovation: Boasting an extensive library of patented formulas and a cutting-edge R&D team, it can collaboratively develop new products with market competitiveness.
- Strategic Partnership: Particularly suitable for mature brands seeking long-term, stable, and large-scale cooperation to jointly address market challenges and drive growth.
2. DESIFINE
DESIFINE is one of the representative local cosmetic contract manufacturers in China, and has earned a reputation in the industry for its flexible, efficient and reliable OEM/ODM services. The company focuses on helping domestic and foreign brands, especially emerging brands, quickly transform their ideas into marketable products.
- Factory Location: Guangzhou, China
- Year of Establishment: 2000
- Business Scale: Medium-sized, equipped with modern production lines and R&D laboratories.
- Market Positioning: Providing cost-effective and rapid-response cosmetic OEM/ODM services, and excelling in flexible production of small and medium batches.
Technical Advantages and Product Features
DESIFINE’s strengths lie in its profound understanding of Chinese market demands and flexible service model.
- Rapid Market Response: The team can quickly follow up on hot market trends (e.g., ingredient-focused skincare, clean beauty), and provide customers with trend-driven formula recommendations.
- Mature Formula Library: Boasting a mature formula library covering skincare, facial masks, personal care and other fields, it supports brands in rapid product selection and fine-tuning for market launch.
- Strict Quality Control: A quality management system has been established in accordance with GMPC standards to ensure the overall process stability and safety from raw materials to finished products.
OEM Service Features
For many start-up and e-commerce brands, DESIFINE represents a highly feasible cooperation option:
- Flexible Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): Offering relatively flexible MOQ, which lowers the threshold and risk of brands’ initial investment.
- One-stop Service: Providing complete supporting services from market analysis, packaging material selection, formula sampling, filing and testing to mass production.
- High Cost-effectiveness: Relying on the advantages of local supply chains, it can provide cost-competitive solutions while ensuring quality.
3. Cosmax
Cosmax is a world-top cosmetic contract manufacturer originating from South Korea, renowned for its strong R&D capabilities and acute insight into beauty trends. It is the R&D and production driving force behind many internationally renowned brands and blockbuster products.
- Headquarters Location: Pangyo, South Korea
- Year of Establishment: 1992
- Business Scale: Having R&D and production bases in South Korea, China, the United States, Indonesia, Thailand and other regions.
- Market Positioning: Science-based, providing innovative formulas and designs, and focusing on high-end ODM solutions in the fields of color cosmetics, skincare and personal care.
R&D and Innovation Capabilities
Cosmax’s core competitiveness is rooted in its continuous R&D investment.
- Cutting-edge Technology Research: An independent research institute has been established, focusing on fields such as biotechnology, skin science, and new materials (e.g., fermentation technology, nanoencapsulation technology).
- Trend Design Center: Boasting a professional design team, it can provide packaging and product concept designs that align with global aesthetic trends, enhancing the brand’s visual value.
- Full-category R&D Capabilities: It has profound technical accumulation and patent reserves in multiple subcategories including foundation makeup, lip makeup, and skincare serums.
Manufacturing and Service Capabilities
As a world-class cosmetic contract manufacturer, Cosmax offers:
- Intelligent Production: Adopting highly automated production lines and intelligent manufacturing systems to ensure production efficiency and stability of product quality.
- Global Service Network: Its multi-region layout enables it to serve regional customers locally, allocate resources flexibly, and meet regulatory requirements of different markets.
- Strategic Cooperation Model: Beyond production, it tends to establish a deep “co-creation” partnership with brands, sharing market insights and technological achievements.
4. Intercos
Intercos is the absolute leader in the field of cosmetic contract manufacturing, especially in the color cosmetics segment. This Italian group is renowned worldwide for its outstanding innovations in color, formula and craftsmanship, and is the behind-the-scenes partner of numerous luxury brands and high-end color cosmetics brands.
- Headquarters Location: Milan, Italy
- Year of Establishment: 1972
- Business Scale: Having 19 R&D and production centers across 11 countries worldwide.
- Market Positioning: An innovative leader and manufacturer in the global high-end color cosmetics and skincare sector.
Color Cosmetics Manufacturing Expertise
Intercos possesses unparalleled depth in color cosmetics manufacturing.
- Mastery of Color and Texture: Boasting a world-leading color research lab and an extensive color library, it excels in developing unique textures (e.g., velvet, metallic, dewy finish) and long-lasting formulas.
- Core Category Expertise: It has exceptional professionalism and technical barriers in lip products (lipstick, lip gloss), eye products (eyeshadow, eyeliner), and powder products.
- Sustainable Solutions: Actively developing eco-friendly product solutions such as refillable packaging and natural biodegradable raw materials, leading the industry’s sustainable development.
Technical Advantages and Services
Choosing Intercos means gaining access to top-tier technical resources:
- Forward-looking R&D: With an extremely high proportion of investment in R&D, it can predict and create beauty trends for the next few years.
- Integration of Art and Craftsmanship: Perfectly blending Italian aesthetic design with precision manufacturing craftsmanship, endowing products with a luxurious user experience and appearance.
- Customized Innovation: Focusing on providing highly customized and differentiated product solutions for each client to avoid homogeneous competition.
5. Kolmar Korea
Kolmar Korea is one of the largest cosmetic contract manufacturers in South Korea, and is known together with Cosmax as the “Two Giants of Korean ODM”. The company is renowned for its strong technical integration capabilities and full-category coverage, serving brands across all market tiers from affordable to high-end.
- Headquarters Location: Seoul, South Korea
- Year of Establishment: 1990
- Business Scale: Having factories in South Korea, China, the United States, Vietnam and other regions, with a huge annual production capacity.
- Market Positioning: A technology-driven comprehensive OEM/ODM service provider, offering full-range product manufacturing from mass-market to high-end segments.
Manufacturing Capabilities and Scale
Kolmar Korea’s core strength lies in its balanced and robust comprehensive capabilities.
- Balanced Development Across All Categories: It has solid R&D and production layouts in all categories including basic skincare, functional skincare, color cosmetics, sun care, and maternal and infant care, with no obvious shortcomings.
- Strong Production Capacity Guarantee: Possessing one of the largest and most highly automated production bases in Asia, it can undertake ultra-large batch orders and ensure stable delivery.
- Diversified Technology Platforms: Establishing multiple specialized technology platforms (e.g., BB cream platform, anti-aging platform, whitening platform), providing customers with modular and efficient solutions.
OEM Service Advantages
As a comprehensive cosmetic contract manufacturer, its service features include:
- Strong ODM Capabilities: Offering complete ODM services from market research, concept proposal, formula development to design and production, especially suitable for brands in need of product strategy support.
- Flexible Customer Strategy: Capable of serving brands of different scales and positioning simultaneously, providing corresponding matched resources and service models.
- Global Regulatory Support: Boasting a professional regulatory team, it can assist products in meeting the launch requirements of South Korea, China, the United States, Southeast Asia and other regions.
6.TOA (formerly Nihon Kolmar)
TOA Co., Ltd. (formerly Nihon Kolmar) is a century-old benchmark in Japan’s cosmetic contract manufacturing industry. The company officially renamed itself TOA on June 1, 2024; the new name is derived from “Total Outsourcing Access”, aiming to strengthen its positioning as a comprehensive outsourcing partner for customers. According to industry data, TOA is Japan’s largest cosmetic OEM/ODM company, with fiscal year sales reaching 62.9 billion Japanese yen in the fiscal year ending March 2025, accounting for approximately 18.9% of the Japanese market.
- Headquarters Location: Osaka, Japan
- Year of Establishment: 1912 (renamed in 2024)
- Business Scale: A leading cosmetic OEM/ODM enterprise in Japan, with multiple production bases across the country.
- Market Positioning: Focusing on providing comprehensive outsourcing manufacturing solutions for high-quality, high-safety Japanese-style cosmetics.
Technical Advantages and Century-Old Heritage
TOA inherits a century of manufacturing experience and incorporates new service concepts.
- The New Concept of “Total Outsourcing”: The renaming marks the upgrade of its services from “manufacturing” to “providing comprehensive solutions”, committed to flexibly meeting customers’ full range of needs from product planning to production.
- Independent Cutting-Edge R&D: The company boasts strong independent innovation capabilities, with approximately 90% of its commercialized formulas developed exclusively, ensuring product uniqueness and technical barriers.
- Ultimate Japanese-Style Quality Control: Upholding the “craftsman spirit” of Japanese manufacturing, it maintains extremely high standards in production environment cleanliness, filling precision, and product stability control.
OEM Service Features
Brands partnering with TOA not only gain the quality endorsement of “Made in Japan” but also experience its newly upgraded service commitments.
- Market Leadership and Reliability: As the largest OEM/ODM manufacturer by market share in Japan, its scale, experience, and reliability have stood the test of long-term market verification.
- Rigorous Quality Management System: It has an independent quality management department separate from production and R&D, conducting thorough quality control from raw materials to finished products to ensure absolute product safety.
- Bridge to High-End Asian Markets: It is a powerful partner for brands to enter Japan and high-end image-seeking Asian markets, and to establish a premium brand image.
7. Fareva
Fareva is a France-headquartered global leading industrial subcontracting group that holds a pivotal position in the field of cosmetic manufacturing. As a world-class leader in industrial subcontracting, its business spans multiple sectors including beauty cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and active ingredients, serving top global brands with large-scale, high-standard, and flexible production capabilities.
- Headquarters Location: Paris, France
- Year of Establishment: 1981
- Business Scale: A global group with multiple production bases and sales networks around the world.
- Market Positioning: A global industrial subcontracting partner providing innovative, safe and customized solutions, and excelling particularly in large-scale, complex cross-category production.
Manufacturing Capabilities and Cross-Industry Advantages
Fareva’s core strengths lie in its outstanding ability to apply pharmaceutical-grade standards to cosmetic production, as well as its cross-industry resource integration experience.
- Large-Scale Flexible Production: It has the capability to manage ultra-large-scale production lines while flexibly adjusting to meet the order demands of different brands and batches.
- Pharmaceutical-Grade Quality Standards: Benefiting from profound accumulation in the pharmaceutical sector, it also implements extremely high hygiene, safety and quality control standards (e.g., GMP) in cosmetic production to ensure absolute product safety and reliability.
- Cross-Industry Collaborative Innovation: Its business across multiple sectors including home and personal care, beauty cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals enables it to draw on cross-industry technologies and raw materials, bringing unique innovative perspectives to customers.
OEM Service Features
For international brands seeking robust, large-scale production and the highest compliance standards, Fareva is an ideal choice:
- Global Supply Chain and Compliance Support: Its global layout can provide localized production support and professional global market regulatory consulting services for brands’ international expansion.
- End-to-End Solutions: It offers complete services from product development, formula customization, to large-scale production, packaging and logistics, greatly simplifying customers’ supply chain management.
- Reliability and Risk Control: As a large industrial group, its financial stability and long-term commitment can provide cooperating brands with greater supply chain security and risk resilience.
Summary
Choosing the right cosmetic contract manufacturer is a strategic decision. Global giants such as KDC/One and Fareva are suitable for international brands seeking one-stop, large-scale cooperation and pharmaceutical-grade standards; Intercos is the undisputed first choice for color cosmetics innovation; Cosmax and Kolmar Korea represent cutting-edge R&D and comprehensive manufacturing capabilities of Korean-style cosmetics; TOA (formerly Nihon Kolmar) offers top-tier Japanese craftsmanship and new value of “Total Outsourcing”; DESIFINE provides a cost-effective and flexible entry point for small and medium-sized brands in China and around the world.
It is recommended that brands first clarify their brand positioning, target markets, budget scope and product strategies, then use the comparative information in this article for preliminary screening, conduct in-depth communication with potential partners, inspect their R&D samples, production facilities and service teams, and ultimately establish a mutually beneficial and win-win long-term cooperative relationship.
