Marketing A New Beauty Product: What Indie Brands Really Spend

In a recent No Stupid Questions story, we checked in with 10 beauty consultants, including two who had opened and closed their own beauty and wellness brands, for estimates on what it costs for an indie brand to market an A-level beauty product launch. Most of their estimates were in the …

Rachel Brown·April 20, 2025·2 min read

The 30-second read

In a recent No Stupid Questions story, we checked in with 10 beauty consultants, including two who had opened and closed their own beauty and wellness brands, for estimates on what it costs for an indie brand to market an A-level beauty product launch. Most of their estimates were in the $100,000 to $750,000 range, but estimates went as high as $2.5 million-plus.

In response to the story, on Beauty Independent’s Instagram post about it, several brands criticized the estimates for being far too much. Good Flower Farm wrote, “Do indie beauty brands really spend this much? We have nowhere near that budget to launch, and I can name several fellow indie beauty brands that have a name in the industry that are in the same boat.”

We decided to explore more to understand better what indie beauty brands spend on marketing new products. So, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 11 indie beauty brand founders—and another consultant—the following: How much does it cost you to market an A-level product launch? Have you seen costs go up over the last year or two? Are you spending more or less on marketing for a new product than before, and why? Have you changed your product launch strategy in light of the costs?