Clean Skincare Manufacturing for Indie Brands Scaling to Retail
Vaulabs manufactures clean skincare, haircare and body care for independent brands in Clearwater, Florida. Most of the brands we take on are at the same point: the product works, direct-to-consumer sales are real, and a retail conversation has started. That transition breaks more brands than a bad formula does.
What changes when a retailer enters the picture
Three things, and none of them are about the formula. Volume stops being a guess and becomes a purchase order with a date on it. Documentation stops being optional: certificates of analysis, batch records, stability data, preservative efficacy results, ingredient disclosure, MoCRA registration and listing. And consistency becomes the product — the unit a buyer picks off a shelf in month nine has to match the sample they approved in month one.
A kitchen-scale or micro-batch manufacturer can be excellent at the first stage and simply not built for the second. That is usually what founders discover when the first retail order arrives, not before.
What we hold on our side
An FDA-registered facility, certified under NSF/ANSI 455-2, certificate C0681369-HSCDS-5, valid through May 27, 2027. Capacity over 400,000 units per month across four automated filling lines, with batches from 5,000 to 50,000 units and above, so the jump from a pilot run to a chain-wide order does not mean changing manufacturers again. Minimum order quantity is 5,000 units per SKU. A first product runs 10 to 12 weeks from approved sample and deposit, a reorder 6 to 8 — and a retail replenishment cycle is planned against the reorder number, not the first one.
On regulatory work, we handle MoCRA facility registration and product listing for the brands we manufacture for, review labels and INCI formatting, and review claims before they are printed rather than after a buyer flags them.
Formulating to a retailer's standard
Retail clean standards are ingredient lists with exclusions, not a philosophy. We formulate to them directly — Sephora Clean, Ulta's Conscious Beauty criteria, Credo's Dirty List — and we say plainly when a texture or a preservation system you are attached to will not survive the exclusion list, before the formula is developed rather than after.
Common questions
We are at a few thousand units a year. Are we too small? The floor is 5,000 units per SKU per custom formula. Below that we are not the right partner, and we will say so on the first call.
Can you take over a formula we already have? Yes. A tech transfer skips the R&D stage and goes straight into production scheduling.
What documentation do you supply? Certificates of analysis, batch documentation, specifications, stability reports, challenge testing, allergen statements, FDA registration confirmation and free sale certificates on request.
Who owns the formula? A custom formula developed by our laboratory remains our intellectual property and is produced exclusively for you while you manufacture with us. Purchasing rights or a tech transfer out is a separate conversation we are open to having.
Talk to us
If a retail conversation is live and you are trying to work out whether your supply chain can carry it, write to info@vaulabs.com with your categories, volumes and timeline.