What should UK retailers know before buying makeup wholesale?

What makeup can a UK reseller buy at trade?

You can buy branded eye, brow and face makeup from our trade range, including mascaras, eyeshadow, powder, blush and primer. Start with the exact product and shade rather than the house name alone: two items from the same house may serve quite different customers.

For eye makeup, the range includes ARTDECO All In One Mascara Waterproof Black 10ml, ARTDECO Amazing Effect Mascara Black 6ml and ARTDECO Lash Booster Volumizing Mascara Base 10ml. A waterproof mascara, a standard mascara and a mascara base are different propositions for your shelf or online listing. ARTDECO Eyeshadow Pearl 10 Pearly White 0.8g and ARTDECO Eyeshadow Pearl 11 Pearly Summer Beige 0.8g also show why the full shade name matters when ordering and describing stock.

For brows, there is Benefit Gimme Brow+ Brow-Volumizing Fibre Gel 3 Neutral Light Brown 3g and Benefit Goof Proof Brow Pencil 03 Medium 0.34g. For face makeup, examples include ARTDECO Translucent Loose Powder 05 Translucent Medium 8g, Benefit Dandelion Baby-Pink Brightening Blush 6g and Benefit The POREfessional Pore Primer 22ml. If you sell online, carry the stated format, shade and size through to your own product description so a customer can distinguish a pencil from a gel or a primer from a powder.

Sterling Trading Group lists 6,278 lines across 465 houses, mostly designer fragrance, with makeup, skincare, professional haircare and body lines alongside it. That wider range may be useful if your shop also stocks beauty products beyond makeup, but choose each makeup line for its fit with your own range.

Which houses should a shop start with?

Start with houses that fit the categories and product descriptions you intend to offer, then select individual lines. Our makeup category includes Clinique, Max Factor, Guerlain, Clarins, Benefit, L'Oréal Paris, Estée Lauder, Shiseido, ARTDECO and Dior, in that order by breadth of our listed range. Breadth gives you more products to inspect within a house; it does not replace checking each shade and format.

Benefit and ARTDECO offer clear examples of how to make that choice. Within the listed Benefit lines, a shop could compare Benefit BADgal BANG! Mascara 8.5g with Benefit Roller Lash Curling Mascara 8.5g, then decide whether brow products or a face primer also belong in its range. Within ARTDECO, the listed mascaras, eyeshadows and loose powder span several makeup categories. Those are starting points for assessing product descriptions, not a reason to take every line from a house.

Think about how a customer will find each item in your shop or catalogue. If you organise makeup by use, check whether the particular house gives you enough choice in the categories you want to cover. If you organise it by house, check that the individual formats and shades still make sense together.

Which sizes and strengths does the range cover?

For makeup, size is stated on each product line and varies by format: the examples above include mascaras in ml and g, eyeshadows and brow products in g, and primer in ml. Use the size on the particular product page and retail pack when preparing your listing. Do not substitute the size of another product from the same house.

“Strength” is chiefly a fragrance distinction in our wider range, rather than a way to choose mascara or blush. Our fragrance listings cover Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette, Parfum, Eau de Cologne, Body Mist and Deodorant Spray, in that order by breadth of range. The sizes covered most broadly in that wider range are 100ml, 50ml, 30ml, 200ml, 75ml and 150ml. These fragrance sizes should not be treated as makeup pack sizes.

If your business sells both makeup and fragrance, keep those descriptions separate in your stock records and customer-facing listings. For makeup, the useful checks are the product name, shade, format and stated quantity. For fragrance, check the named strength and bottle size as well as the house and product name.

How does buying makeup at trade work?

Choose the exact lines you want, check their product pages, and place an order meeting the £100 minimum in goods excluding VAT. Sterling Trading Group is an independent UK wholesaler in Hayes, West London, supplying independent shops, pharmacies, salons, market traders and online sellers.

We buy from UK distributors and are not an authorised distributor of any brand. Every line is the brand’s own product in its retail packaging and is batch-coded. In our experience as a wholesaler, being precise about the full product name matters particularly with makeup: shade, finish, format and pack size can distinguish otherwise similar-looking lines. Check those details before you put a product into your order or write your own listing.

UK delivery is charged at the flat rate per 2kg box stated on the site. For a larger order, the exact delivery charge is confirmed after you place the order and before payment. Take that confirmation into account when finalising what to buy, particularly if your order combines makeup with products from our wider beauty and fragrance range.