What I learned researching European cosmetic manufacturers for emerging beauty brands

I’ve been working on a niche B2B project for emerging beauty brands, and one thing became obvious very quickly:

Finding a cosmetic manufacturer is not necessarily the hardest part.

Comparing them properly is.

A founder can easily find dozens of manufacturers online, but the information that actually matters is usually scattered across websites, PDFs, contact forms, and email exchanges.

The same questions kept coming up:

What is the real MOQ?
Do they offer private label or custom formulation?
Can they help with packaging?
Do they support EU regulatory requirements?
Are they actually suitable for a small or emerging brand?
What happens after the first order if the brand needs to scale?

What surprised me most is how misleading a simple “MOQ” number can be.

A manufacturer might advertise a relatively low production MOQ, but packaging quantities, development fees, testing costs, or minimum component orders can make the real financial commitment much higher.

I also noticed that manufacturers that look very similar at first can be completely different once you compare how they work with smaller brands.

That’s what pushed me to build SourceFound, a directory where emerging beauty brands can compare European cosmetic manufacturers using practical sourcing information rather than starting from a blank Google search every time.

For the first version, I’m focusing on things like MOQ, private label, custom formulation, packaging support, regulatory support, verification status and startup suitability.

I’m still early, so I’m particularly interested in feedback from other founders:

If you were choosing a manufacturer for a new physical product, what information would you want to compare before contacting them?

SourceFound: https://www.getsourcefound.com/