Selling at a market

The category's natural first channel, and the place where the claim rules are hardest to hold.

No cottage food regime applies

Worth stating plainly because makers arrive expecting one: cottage food laws govern food. A lip balm is a cosmetic, or a drug, and neither is covered by them.

So there is no home-kitchen exemption to register for and no cottage food label statement to add. What governs you is the cosmetic labeling rules, MoCRA registration where it applies, and safety substantiation, which applies regardless of size.

The market itself will have its own rules, and a local business license or a stall permit is a separate matter again.

What a market actually asks for

Proof of liability insurance, almost always.

A business license or tax registration, usually.

Sometimes a signed statement about what you are selling. Read it: some market forms are written for food vendors and ask questions that do not fit a cosmetic, and the right answer is to explain rather than to tick the nearest box.

The table

Height and facing matter more than anything else. Tubes in a basket are invisible; tubes standing in rows at eye level sell.

A tester on the back of the hand with disposable applicators, because you cannot sample a lip product any other way.

Color-coded flavors, because at a meter that is all anybody can read.

What to say, and what not to

A market is a conversation, and the conversation is labeling. "It's great for chapped lips" spoken across a table is evidence of intended use exactly as a printed label would be.

Give yourself and anybody helping a sentence that works: what it is made of, where the material came from, how it feels. That is a better sell in this category anyway, because the material story is the only thing the shopper cannot get from a drugstore.

References