Rosen Skincare Founder Starts Manufacturer And Formula Developer Flora Studios For Emerging BIPOC Brands

Rosen Skincare founder Jamika Martin has started Flora Studios to offer behind-the-scenes services for BIPOC beauty entrepreneurs, including formulation and manufacturing.

For manufacturing, the Austin-based boutique product developer and production company’s minimum order quantity is 500 units. It specializes in personal care, excluding sunscreen, and expects to expand into food and white-label beauty products in the future. Martin says customers can opt for custom formula development or reverse engineer formulas they bring to Flora Studios for around $3,500. She didn’t disclose the price for manufacturing.

Martin says, “We’re really trying to stay as accessible as possible and be the stepping stone for these small brands so they can make their way to the 3,000 or 10,000 units somewhere else…I talk to a lot of these brands who don’t own their formulas, but they want to be able to and take them to different manufacturers.”

Martin knows firsthand the difficult production choices beauty entrepreneurs have to make. She manufactured Rosen Skincare’s products in-house upon its launch in 2017, then outsourced its manufacturing in 2021 to relinquish the hassle prior to taking it back in-house in 2024 to afford the brand greater control. She says, “From a cost perspective, a lead time perspective, it’s really beneficial, and obviously now we’re having all of these conversations around tariffs and what that looks like.”

Martin is among a growing group of beauty entrepreneurs branching into manufacturing. As private equity has swooped into beauty contract manufacturing, some factories have focused on larger clients, leaving room for beauty entrepreneurs to come into the market with lower MOQ thresholds. Along with Martin, Stratia founder Alli Reed, Earth Harbor co-founders Shane Hatch and Ali Perry-Hatch and American Provenance founder Kyle LaFond have established contract manufacturers.

Martin has used her knowledge of building a beauty brand to assist others. For the last couple of years, she’s mentored founders as part of Target’s Takeoff accelerator program. Rosen Skincare, which entered Target in 2021, was a member of the program’s 2018 cohort. With Flora Studios, she can further share her knowledge. It has a launch strategy component focused in product rollouts, advertising campaigns, margins and more.

At Flora Studios, Martin says brands are given feedback about formula pricing like “hey, this is the price we’re at, if you’re retailing at this price, we can totally tweak your formula to give you the similar benefits, but get you to a margin that’s going to make sense as a business…I never want to know that margins are suffering because, strategically, I know that wouldn’t be a good move for them.”

Martin announced Flora Studios in January via her newsletter, which has nearly 600 subscribers. Following the announcement, about 15 potential clients reached out to her. She aims for Flora Studios to have a roster of 30 to 40 clients.

“Contrary to a typical contract manufacturer, we’re not necessarily looking to go super deep with a handful of clients who are manufacturing 100,000 of units of one product,” says Martin. “We anticipate going wide and having a lot of clients.”

Flora Studios is a separate company from Rosen Skincare, and the brand became its first client when it brought manufacturing in-house last year, when its Honey + Kojic collection of products launched and the brand executed a refresh. Honey + Kojic Cleanser has become Rosen Skincare’s bestseller at Ulta Beauty, where the collection landed last month.

“We’re super excited to see that traction and be able to tell that unique ingredient story as we continue the rollout,” says Martin. “When you hit that proof of concept, obviously, as a founder, [it] feels really good.”

Throughout its history, Rosen Skincare has relied on Meta advertising and an ambassador program for marketing, but it’s augmenting its mix with in-person events at Ulta stores in New York and California to spread the word about its Honey + Kojic line. Workout classes on the coasts are being planned for Rosen Skincare’s loyal customers, too.

Rosen Skincare raised $2 million in funding from New Voices Fund in 2022 to support its Target and Ulta partnerships. The brand is sold in around 800 Ulta doors and currently stocked online at Target. It hasn’t taken on outside capital since 2022 and is focused on being self-sustaining. Flora Studios is interested in grants to support its business.

“One thing that’s beautiful about what I’m doing with Flora is it is in service of entrepreneurs and marginalized communities and early stage founders. So, when it comes to grants and what that space looks like and what that support looks like, there’s a much wider opportunity,” says Martin. “It has a much more tangible impact on the community and on small businesses that makes grants a lot more applicable.”