Texas Beauty Labs Founder Mary Berry Returns To Manufacturing With New Copacker Cosmos Labs

Mary Berry has developed over 1,000 beauty products, including popular Native deodorants, and wants to develop thousands more.

The founder of Texas Beauty Labs, a copacker she sold in 2019 that’s been renamed The Goodkind Co., has returned to beauty manufacturing with Cosmos Labs, which currently has a 12,000-square-foot facility in Austin, Tex., but plans to move to a 21,000-square-foot facility by the end of the year. It specializes in premium skincare, body care, haircare and deodorants.

“I didn’t think I was going to come back at all to manufacturing in beauty, but I realized in my time away how much I loved it,” says Berry. “I missed working with clients. I missed problem solving and trying to figure things out for them.”

Already, Cosmos Labs has picked up a dozen clients. In its first year of business, Berry projects the bootstrapped company could reach $5 million in revenues. By seven years out, her goal is for it to surpass $50 million in revenues.

Cosmos Labs has no minimum order requirements, according to Berry. However, it regularly handles substantial production runs by indie beauty standards and serves brands placing $500,000 orders. In a day, Berry says Cosmos Labs produces 10,000 units on average.

At Cosmos Labs, she estimates a 3-oz. deodorant will cost brands roughly $2 to $3.25 per piece and a high-end face cream will cost them around $3.25 per piece.The manufacturer prefers to fill products under 6 ounces. Brands typically have several weeks of back and forth Cosmos Labs chemist until a product sample is perfected, and the production lead time is generally eight weeks as soon as the sample is completed. Cosmos Labs has seven administrative employees and 21 in manufacturing and shipping.

“When we started with Native, we were making 500 sticks a week, and we grew that business from making 500 sticks a week to 20,000 a day six days a week. We did that within 18 months. That’s the kind of thing we can do,” says Berry. “I rarely say no to a client. If they need something, it’s my job to provide it to them.”

Berry emphasizes that her client-first approach differentiates Cosmos Labs. One example of the approach is that it gives formula rights to brands. “When they formulate, other manufacturers hold on to the formula and use it as their own IP, and people can have earn-outs to receive that formula or they can buy it,” explains Berry. “It never felt right to me to hogtie someone or force their hand to do business with me. I want to people to do business with me because we are smart and the best at what we do.”

“I rarely say no to a client. If they need something, it’s my job to provide it to them.”

Cosmos Labs aims to distinguish itself on the beauty manufacturing scene as smaller indie beauty manufacturers have popped up and bigger manufacturers are strategizing to boost their business from indie beauty brands, particularly larger ones. Berry points out her experiences as an entrepreneur both at Texas Beauty Labs and Cosmos Vita, a supplement brand she launched last year, help her understand the challenges Cosmos Labs’ entrepreneurial clients face.

“I am a true entrepreneur. I started my business in my garage. I didn’t go to business school. Everything I learned, I learned just from doing,” she says. “My question is, how do the big manufacturers deal with entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs are a separate class of people? They want things fast. There’s not a corporate attitude to true entrepreneurs. So, when a corporation that is really big tries to have an entrepreneur program, I don’t know how that really fits.”

Once Berry left Goodkind in August 2020, she focused on building her astrology- and body positivity-influenced brand Cosmos Vita. She poured $200,000 to $250,000 into it and insights she gained from the little bang for the buck that resulted from that money inform the guidance she offers emerging brands today. She advises them to embrace the mentality of cash-strapped businesses cognizant about the impact of each dollar. Berry is interested in selling Cosmos Vita.

“PR was so expensive and didn’t produce the results I was expecting. I thought, if I put out a cute product that has a point of view that would be enough, and it’s not,” she says, approximating she spent $10,000 monthly on public relations for Cosmos Vita. “Getting Instagram followers was impossible. We would get followers when we talked about body positivity, but when we would say, ‘Buy a vitamin,’ they would say, ‘No thanks, unfollow.’”

Berry suggests her entrepreneurial perspective is especially important for an increasing number of people leaping into the indie beauty segment following careers at legacy beauty corporations. “An entrepreneur has a skill set where you constantly have to push buttons and be go, go, go,” she says. “I don’t have to think about things too hard before I make a decision, and people who’ve grown up professionally in the corporate field might struggle a bit with that concept.”

Examining the beauty industry landscape today, Berry detects multipurpose products and potent products for young consumers designed to tackle the signs of aging early on are trending. Discussing multipurpose products, she says, “During COVID, we had a lot more time. Now, we need things that are going to be quick and easy. People still really have an eye to clean. They are in tune with what they are putting on and in their body. Natural is less of a trend because natural isn’t always better, but clean is.”

On skincare products geared toward younger consumer, Berry adds, “We’ve seen products for people in the 28 to 32 age range, where they are starting to worry about their skin, putting in anti-aging ingredients that normally we would have for someone in their 40s and 50s,” she says. “We look for modern ways to put really effective ingredients into modern formulas for younger consumers.”