Your hero product is selling. Customers are coming back, reviews are strong, and naturally, the next question comes up:
What should we launch next?
A moisturizer to go with your bestselling serum? A mask that gives customers a new way to use the brand? Maybe body care is starting to look interesting. Or perhaps there’s an ingredient like PDRN getting enough attention that you don’t want to ignore it.
For a growing skincare brand, coming up with ideas usually isn’t the hard part. The harder part is deciding which one is worth turning into your next product.
Because the best next launch isn’t always the most obvious extension—or the thing getting the most attention right now.
Sometimes, the better question is:
What makes sense for your brand to launch next?
How Should You Decide What Skincare Product to Launch Next?
There isn’t one right place to start.
For some brands, the next product comes directly from customers. Maybe people love your hero serum but keep asking for a moisturizer to use with it.
Other brands start with something they’re seeing in the market. PDRN is getting attention. A certain mask format is doing well on TikTok. Body care is becoming more interesting. The brand sees an opportunity and wants to move on it.
And sometimes you simply have a product you want to make. Maybe there’s an ingredient you want to explore, a texture you haven’t seen done well, or a formula idea you think could be interesting.
Your existing products are worth looking at too. If a barrier serum is selling well and customers keep talking about how it helps when their skin feels dry, irritated, or overworked from actives, they may be telling you something useful: they don’t just like the serum—they trust your brand for skin recovery.
That could lead to a barrier cream or recovery mask. But it doesn’t mean your next product has to come from your bestseller.
A good next-product idea can come from your customers, something already working in your line, a trend you’re seeing, an ingredient you believe in, or simply a category you want to explore next.
Once you have a few ideas in mind, the question becomes: which direction makes the most sense for the brand?
Three Directions Your Next Skincare Product Can Take
We’ve worked with skincare brands through different stages of growth—from developing early products to expanding established lines and moving into new categories. Over time, we’ve seen the same question come up again and again: what should we make next?
For most growing skincare brands, the next product usually does one of three things: builds on a proven hero product, fills a gap in the existing routine, or takes the brand into a new category.
Launch Another Product Around Your Hero Product
If customers already know you for a certain benefit, you can build further around it.
If your hero product is a barrier serum, for example, a barrier cream or recovery mask could be a natural next step. You’re not making the same product again—you’re giving customers another way to get something they already come to your brand for.
Add the Product Your Routine Is Missing
Sometimes the opportunity is easier to spot in what customers are buying elsewhere.
Maybe they love your serum but keep asking which moisturizer to use with it. Or you already sell a cleanser and serum, but there’s an obvious step missing between them.
That missing product could be a natural addition to the line—and make it easier for customers to build more of their routine with your brand.
Expand Into a New Product Category
Your next product doesn’t have to stay close to what you already sell.
You might move from facial skincare into body care, add sunscreen or scalp care, or explore a new format that’s gaining attention.
The key is giving customers a reason to see the new category as part of your brand. A facial skincare brand moving into body care, for example, might carry over a familiar ingredient approach, texture, or skin concern while creating a product specifically for body skin.
There isn’t one direction that’s right for every brand. The question is which one makes the most sense for what you want to build next.
What Happens When You Develop Your Next Product With Blackbird?
Every new product starts differently. Some brands come to us with a clear concept. Others are exploring an ingredient, responding to what their customers are asking for, or thinking about entering a new category.
Our first step is usually to understand the brand and what you want the new product to do. We’ll look at your current product line, what’s already working, where you sell—your own website, Amazon, TikTok Shop, retail, or across several channels—and the price range you’re aiming for.
That context helps us make better product decisions with you from the start.
From there, we get into the product itself: ingredients, formula direction, texture, skin feel, format, packaging, and target cost.
If you’re developing a peptide serum, for example, we might explore the peptide system, supporting ingredients, and the kind of texture you’re looking for. For a hydrogel mask, the conversation could move toward the mask material, serum system, adhesion, fit, and how the product looks and feels in use.
Then our R&D team moves into sampling. We develop, you test, and we refine. The texture may change, ingredient combinations may be adjusted, or the packaging may need to be tested with the formula before the product is ready to move forward.
Production is part of the conversation from the beginning too. Raw materials, packaging sourcing, MOQ, cost, lead times, and production planning all need to work with the product—not be figured out after the formula is finished.
And when the product direction is still open, we can bring ideas into the discussion as well. What we see during overseas market visits, conversations with partner brands, international beauty trade shows, and our ongoing R&D work often becomes part of the conversations we have with clients about what to develop next.
For us, developing the next product isn’t just about making the formula. It’s about helping turn the idea into a product that works for your brand and is ready to move into production.
Your next product doesn’t have to be the most obvious extension of your bestseller, and it doesn’t have to be the category everyone else is launching.
It could be the moisturizer your customers keep asking for, a PDRN product you want to bring to market while interest is growing, a hydrogel mask with stronger social appeal, or your first move from facial skincare into body care.
There are plenty of places a good product idea can come from. The interesting part is figuring out what that idea could become for your brand.
If you already have something in mind for your next launch, we’d love to hear about it. Tell us what you’re thinking, and we’ll take it from there together.
