70 Cosmetic & Makeup Business Ideas You Can Start Today [2023]

The concept for ProMD Health was initially created by my partner Dr. George Gavrila. Believe it or not, he began by treating toenail fungus using a single laser in a 1 room medical office. He was our first receptionist, medical assistant, and physician. He saved every penny he could from that to get trained in Botox and thus ProMD Health was born. We are now one of if not the largest purchasers of Botox and Dermal fillers in the Mid-Atlantic and one of the top practice groups in the country.

From day one he had the dream of building a company that brought the flourishing industry of Aesthetic Dermatology to more than just the elite while also finding a way to bring the power back to the physician so that they could own their own practice and share in his dream in light of heavy pressure to join ever growing HMOs or multi-physician owned large practice groups.

But he couldn’t do it alone, he recognized the need for a partner.

Courtney Joy always wanted to be a teacher as a little girl. She used to pretend to teach in her childhood home basement on Long Island, New York. Growing up in an artistic family, she became a figurative and landscape artist and eventually attended art school. After college, she decided to merge her two childhood passions together and became an art teacher.

Lindsay Ann expressed herself through art in a different way. She was in the theater and went to school for drama in New York City. While pursuing her dream of acting, she also made beaded jewelry on the side. It quickly became a passion of hers and would help lead her down a new path in life.

Within our first 3 months, we sold over 100 orders, resulting in more than $3,000 in revenue. By the end of our first year, we had sold over 2,300 orders, resulting in more than $65,000.

My career has been a long road before I found success. Firstly I was a bar manager, then a soldier, then a bus driver, then a restaurant owner and chef. Finally, I decided to follow my grandfather's steps and become a barber. My grandfather was a barber on navy ships during WWI and WWII. I also worked in the UK for 5 years as a barber before opening in Malta.

The idea came about identifying a business opportunity and taking full advantage before the eventual competition, our success was the fact that we re-introduced old school barbering modernized and hip to cater for today’s gentlemen. In barbering, competition, when we started in Malta was non-existent. There were the typical hairdressers and 2 old school barbers which were unchanged since the ‘60s.

The idea was validated by my clients, one day a multi-millionaire came to get a haircut and I was discussing my concerns of growing and investing all my life savings into the business, his reply was “I just bought a company for 5 million euros over breakfast,” he just told me, “now is the time to invest and try creating something revolutionary.”

I started off in the professional beauty industry in 1995, so I do have a background in this business. I worked a lot of training hairdressers and producing looks and recipes, so I understand hair coloring well.

Make sure that you are able to track the returns on every single piece of marketing that you do.

This knowledge has really helped me, especially when it came to the details of developing products and figuring out what my customer was looking for, what her needs were.

I created Sayar because I needed something better.

I dealt with hair loss, and wanted a safe way to stop it. In medicine, the ideal approach in treatment is to treat the actual causes. Treating underlying conditions is comprehensive and highly effective.

If your “entrepreneurship” is due to a desire for something you need to see in this world, the journey can bring you the highest point of satisfaction a human can find.

So here’s how HUSKYBEARD achieved success despite many beginning failures!

Summer of 2016, I wanted to grow a beard with my friend Daniel. Being both Asian, we had a pathetic, pubic-like patch on our chins, after a full month. With ambition, I wanted to explore how much facial hair I could grow as an Asian male (side note, most Eastern Asian males are bare-faced, so I wanted to stand out). Very soon I stumbled upon Minoxidil 5% (or Rogaine) and its application towards facial hair growth. I actually documented my 1 year experience with this ingredient on Youtube, and have had over 2 million people view my patchy beard growth. It’s weird I know. (Youtube link at bottom if you are curious lol)

I understood that dropshipping was not the means for creating a long-lasting brand that customers love. So I quit this method.

This whole thing started when I was working as head of marketing at a B2B SaaS business. We started a podcast.

The podcast was focused on the sales operations resource, and was called Sales Ops Demystified. We interviewed sales ops people.

It started to go pretty well, we got social shares, SEO value and even had some sales calls with our guests (we sold sales software). Sales Ops Demystified is now the most downloaded podcast in the world of sales ops.

I am a licensed attorney in India and right after my master’s in law, I started working with a leading company as a lawyer. I worked there for about two years before I quit my job to become more location independent.

Choose a niche in whatever you start. It is critical for streamlining your efforts and make money.

My job paid me well but I worked 12 hours a day, I was exhausted by the end of each day, spent my weekends sleeping and I almost quit the things I liked to do - for example, sketching, yoga, traveling, etc.

I always wanted to work for myself. So I was always thinking about business ideas. Not everyone wants to work for themselves and not everyone is suited to the lifestyle, so if you have the dream, make sure you pursue it!

My business started when I was working as a cook at a local reception venue. A bride wanted some local honey wedding favors, which I provided. Doing this made me find a jar supplier, register my home kitchen as a food premise, prepare an invoice, etc.

From here, I began selling honey to the public and then I experimented with other ideas (making jam, personalized wedding favors, etc) before going into skincare. I had quite a few failures in this period!

I was led to this career path as a business owner from my sheer motivation to do better in my life than what I had grown up with. My parents had me when they were teenagers and we lived meagerly while I was young.

I knew that if I wanted to go to college, I would need to find a way to pay for it myself along with my cost of living. I naturally had a knack for doing hair and art, so when I was 16, I had the chance to enroll in cosmetology school while in high school, and by 18, I was fully licensed. This was much more affordable for me than the traditional college route, so that’s what led me to pursue it.

When I received my license in 1995, I started working behind the chair at Supercuts. I slowly worked my way up the ladder to high-end salons. Five years later, I got a small suite at the Gallery of Salons and was an independent contractor. That was my initial stepping stone to running my own business.

I’ve had the Airstream Dream for about 15 years now. First of all, who doesn’t love the beauty of the shiny silver Airstreams? And to have a business on wheels, well, that’s the cat’s meow! I had gone so far to have owned 2 vintage Airstreams over the last 15 years but for one reason or another, I chickened out and became overwhelmed with the scope of the project and gave it up, selling my trailers.

Even when the ground feels shaky and you doubt and question everything, use that as a signal to go within and get quiet.

Then life happened. I got married, had twins and then got divorced 5 years later and during that time is when my midlife awakening happened. “It’s now or never.” So, the silver lining in my dark chapter in my life gave me the courage to go after my dream. And in my case, it’s a teeny, tiny, silver mobile body care spa. To be honest, the longer I was in the profession the less I enjoyed doing onsite gigs. Hauling equipment around is cumbersome and tiring. I bring ALL the gear. Towel warmer, body cushions, table warmer, lighting, music, aromatherapy. It’s not just a massage, but an experience.

We are neighbors with one house between us, which makes all of this possible.

In 2016, we were brainstorming about Christmas gifts and decided to make body butter and lip balm for friends and family and split the costs.

We looked up a recipe and gave it a try. We used rosemary and peppermint essential oils and people loved the smell. To be honest, looking at it now, our first attempt was pretty horrid.

My name is Alexis Evans aka Da Mademoiselle. I am a native of South Florida who has started a cosmetic and skincare company named FBI Cosmetics d/b/a Flawlessly Beautiful Individual in the middle of a pandemic.

I am also the owner of Boss Talk Expo an annual expo and conference company. I branched out into the beauty industry, I started FBI Cosmetics off with just lipsticks and have progressed into the skincare business in December. I have grossed over $62,000 in sales. People ask where the name comes from and I tell people “it’s a crime to be so damn beautiful.”

• Sheila Bella is the founder of the multi-figure companies Pretty Rich Bosses and Sheila Bella Permanent Makeup. She is a celebrity brow artist and a successful mentor for the beauty industry.

• Since the brand's launch in 2010, she has made it her mission to inspire and empower the industry by demonstrating to beauty professionals how to passively scale their businesses online.

• On top of that, Sheila is the host of the popular iTunes Beauty Entrepreneurship podcast PRETTY RICH PODCAST.

• Sheila is in charge of the American Academy of Micropigmentation, the biggest group of experts in cosmetic tattooing.

Read the full story on medium.com ➜

My name is Marike van der Velden and I am the founder and owner of the largest high-end escortservice in The Netherlands: Society Service. The service we offer is called the Girlfriend Experience, which means spending time with an escort will feel similar to spending time with a girlfriend. The experience is very intimate of nature and often includes eroticism, but this is not the main focus of the experience, merely the cherry on top. The social aspect of booking is just as important, if not more.

At any given time, there are around 55 male and female escorts working with Society Service. They cater to clients from all walks of life, from ambitious businessmen to nervous virgins and curious couples. The aim is to create a mutually enjoyable, memorable, and extraordinary experience. This experience does come with a price tag of at least $1,000 per booking, resulting in a multi-million dollar annual turnover.

A chemical engineer by education who decided to make food without chemicals! Almost a decade at Unilever helped me discover my love for consumers and brands. But the pivotal moment was when I became a wellness enthusiast. This was after a backbone fracture in a soccer match that made me join Yoga. Since then, I have been passionate about marrying the logic of the west with the wisdom of the east.

We are already selling 150k bottles of Auric every month. The best thing is that customers have seen visible benefits of Auric and hence, have come back to become loyal customers.

• Elizabeth Rabena started her skincare business, Moxie Skincare in 2019.
• With more than ten years of experience as an esthetician, Rabena focuses on DMK Enzyme Therapy and Home Prescriptives to improve skin health.
• She typically charges $120 for an hour of customized treatments and $180 for a 90-minute session of Level 1 Enzyme Therapy.
• Rabena also offers advanced treatments starting at $210 through consultation only.

Read the full article on sdvoyager.com ➜

Hello guys, my name is Gary Oberoi and I founded ZZ Day Spa 3.5 years ago. The goal was to make it the most customer-centric day spa in the world.

Our goal was to create a place for customers to not only come and receive a “service” but enjoy an “unforgettable experience.” To that end, we focused all of our efforts.

I’m Marge Clark, and I started Nature’s Gift Aromatherapy back in the early ’90s, rather by accident. A hobby developed into a passion and somehow became a business.

In the past I had considered retiring and just “divesting myself of the assets”, but then we will get emails from clients saying how this product eased a stubborn case of shingles, or that product helped with someone’s PTSD, and how can I just walk away? Some of our clients have been with us for over 25 years. They trust us and count on us. You can not put a price tag on that kind of loyalty.

Hi, my name is Rafael Hernandez and I am the founder of Alfred Lane. I have a line of personal and home fragrances handcrafted in small batches out of our Miami studio. I began selling solid colognes initially as an alternative to spray colognes and released three fragrances.

The business generates $19k a month in revenue. In 2020, the company had its best year ever. I opened a production studio where we make everything and hired a studio assistant all within the last 5 months. It’s been more than 8 years since I started and the journey has been a wild one.

My name Warnisha Foster I am the CEO of Kiss My Crown Essentials. I founded Kiss My Crown Essentials in March of 2020 and I started offering my products a few at a time to see how they would go over with the public. My first product was Strawberry Rose’ Champagne Soap. The idea for this soap came from looking at my life as a single mom of four I started to feel burned out. I needed something to make me feel feminine, Make me feel like a woman, Grown and sexy. This did the trick.

Our mission here a KMCE is to let mothers like myself know that we are seen, we are beautiful and we are a necessity.

• Vivian Kaye is the creator and CEO of KinkyCurlyYaki, a high-end black women's textured hair extension line that has grown to $6 million in sales without using paid advertising.
• She made the decision in 2012 to start a business that offered more than just high-quality, kinky, curly, and realistic-looking textured hair extensions.
• This brand offers a collection of 100% virgin human hair that is available in 6 textures and a wide range of coverage options to help you achieve your goal.
• The enterprise prospered in 2013 and made around $500,000 in sales in just one year of launching.

Read the full story on thestar.com ➜

For as long as we can remember, my sister and I wanted to own a business together. It started with lemonade stands when we were 5 and 7! We had no clue it would eventually be a Fat-Freezing empire and 1000s of happier and more confident clients. As a child I was once told, “JJ (my nickname) it’s a good thing you work hard because you are pretty stupid.”

Three months later, after raising $400,000 from an investor, friends, and family, Bodify was born.

Hey everyone! I am Chris and in March 2011 I started Live Fit. Live Fit is a personal training company that was created to change the standards in the personal training industry. Early on I focused on building a company that is not only based on results, as most fitness companies are, but that is also focused very heavily on relationships. Relationships create trust, trust creates buy-in, and buy-in leads to the accountability and dedication it takes to get results.

Hi there! My name is Sam Varnerin and I created Snuggle with Sam, my independent professional cuddling practice, while I was still working full-time as a construction engineer.

Here’s all of the contributors on the panel at CuddleXpo in Chicago presenting how we came up with the Code of Ethics for Professional Cuddling. Back left to right: Maryelen Reid, Madelon Guinazzo, Samantha Varnerin (me!), Samantha Hess, Jean Franzbleau, Fei Wyatt, Janet Trevino. Front left to right: Keely Shoup, Lisa Meece. Photo credit Rellian Chen Merrin

My name is Eli Halliwell and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Hairstory, a company dedicated to rethinking everything about hair in a world where the old rules no longer apply.

Our business was founded in 2015, we’ve been self-funding since raising money from friends, and we are on pace to generate $30mm in sales this year, profitably.

• Vivian Kaye is the creator and CEO of KinkyCurlyYaki, a high-end black women's textured hair extension line that has grown to $6 million in sales without using paid advertising.
• She made the decision in 2012 to start a business that offered more than just high-quality, kinky, curly, and realistic-looking textured hair extensions.
• This brand offers a collection of 100% virgin human hair that is available in 6 textures and a wide range of coverage options to help you achieve your goal.
• The enterprise prospered in 2013 and made around $500,000 in sales in just one year of launching.

Read the full story on thestar.com ➜

Hi! I’m Selen Gulbahce, a qualified nutrition and lifestyle coach with a background in computer engineering. I help my clients to achieve fast, sustainable, intelligent weight loss without dieting.

My coaching business started as a side job while I was working as an engineer in digital banking, and in less than a year, my income from my side gig already exceeded my full-time banking salary. After three years of working both jobs, I quit my corporate job and became a full-time coach. Fast forward 2 years, and I am now consistently making five figures via my online coaching programs & subscription-based courses.

ClearForMe is an ingredient SaaS solution for brands and retailers' D2C and In-store services, founded by Sabrina Noorani in 2017.

It offers user-friendly ingredient education, filter, and search capabilities based on transparency and customization.

Their partners use ClearForMe to provide user-friendly ingredient education, filter, and search capabilities rooted in transparency and personalization, with over 1.6 million ingredients.

ClearForMe collaborates with more than 300 companies, including Credo Beauty and Ulta Beauty, the most significant clean beauty retailer and the most prominent beauty retailer in the US.

Listen to the full podcast on podcasts.apple.com ➜

I am Nabiulla. I manage RealDrop Natural Oil, along with my IT recruiting and web development company SkyllsSolutions.