I’ll let you in on a secret. Many entrepreneurs create a logo for their handmade skin care business that is WAY TOO COMPLICATED.
The entire goal of logo design is to create a graphic that is simple, branded, and memorable.
We’re going to work through the process together today, starting with gathering logo inspiration and then breaking down how to design one on your own step-by-step.
Not so much into graphic design? Worry not! This post also covers the best places to get your logo created FOR you!
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Logo Design Prerequisites
Before you begin designing your logo (or even looking for inspiration), it’s important to cover the basics of your business branding research.
For your logo to be effective, you have to know your target market and have the basic visual aspects of your overall skin care brand nailed down.
Target Market
Your target market, otherwise known as the audience that you intend to sell to, should drastically determine the logo you decide to create.
If you have a young and trendy target market, your logo will be more bold and eye-catching (such as an abstract shape or graphic).
Alternately, a mature and luxury-minded audience would gravitate towards a more subdued, natural design, such as a leaf or botanical.
Is this not sounding familiar? Be sure to go through the target market exercises here to decide on your audience and customer avatar before moving on!
Color Palette
To be recognizable, you want to use the same color palette across your entire business:
- Your website
- Your product labels
- Your printed promo items
- Online marketing efforts, and more.
Your logo will be added to ALL of these business elements, so you must know your color strategy before you begin the design process.
Is this still on your to-do list? Check out the color palette guide for skin care businesses here.
Font Pairings
Lastly, knowing which fonts you’ll use for your skin care business branding (and how you’ll use which ones for what if using more than one font) is a must before beginning your logo design.
Not all versions of your logo will use copy, but some of them will.
If you need help choosing your pairings, read this post all about fonts for skin care businesses.
Favicon vs. Logo
We’re going to go about this a little bit more backward than most branding strategists by thinking about your favicon first.
Your favicon is the little graphic (such as the ones circled in red below) that is next to the website name whenever you have these tabs open in your web browser.
(A logo, in comparison, is larger and may also contain your business name and tagline).
Not all of you are going to require an actual favicon because if you sell on a marketplace, such as Etsy, their favicon is going to show even when your shop is up. After all, you’re technically on THEIR website.
If you have your OWN website, such as on WordPress or Shopify, you do have the option of adding a favicon.
Regardless of where you sell, we want to be thinking of your logo on this teeny tiny scale because that is what will help you design it in a way that keeps it simple and memorable.
Not sure of where you want to sell yet? Check out the pros and cons of Shopify vs. Etsy here!
Skincare Business Logo Design Inspiration
Let the fun begin! Looking at other logos for design inspiration! 👀
Take the time before moving on to pop around the internet to see what you are drawn to – I have a few places for you to begin your research below!
Cruise Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search engine, which means it is the perfect place to begin logo design research for your skincare business!
In the search bar, type in ‘Skin Care Logo Design Ideas’. As you can see below, this search pulls up several other terms for you to click on as well.
Start a list of logo ideas for your brand, keeping that small favicon size in mind.
Many of the beauty logo design ideas and templates have incredibly thin, dainty little graphics that are hard enough to see at full size, let alone as a favicon, like these (but could be amazing as label background designs!):
I highly recommend sticking to thicker designs for your favicon/icon that would work well on a small and large scale, like these:
Cruise Google
Google is another super helpful place to look for logo inspiration for your skin care business.
Type the same search term into Google that you did above (‘Skin Care Logo Design Ideas’) and make sure you click on the ‘Images’ button at the top of your page.
The first bit will show ads and sponsored placements, but scrolling down will give you TONS of visual inspiration.
Again, keep your eye on the prize and steer towards design ideas that are thicker and bolder so that they’ll be recognizable in a variety of sizes.
Look at Successful Companies You Follow
Of course, there are companies that you already love and adore – check out their logos as well (even if it’s not a skincare brand!).
Something to consider is that a lot of businesses actually skip using ‘picture’ graphics altogether and just use the initial of their business name (though they do take the time to stylize them so they are still branded and memorable).
Facebook, for example, has a lowercase ‘F’ inside of a circle (or sometimes a square):
Amazon has a lowercase ‘a’ with a simple graphic underneath:
Pinterest has a stylized ‘P’ inside of a red circle:
These businesses (and tons more: Etsy, Disney, Netflix, McDonalds, etc.) use the first letter of their name and you can do that as well if it speaks to you, your target market, and your own graphic design skills.
Skincare Business Logo Placement
Before you make your logo, it’s important to think about all of the places it will be ahead of time so that you know the different versions you’d like to make.
Favicon
As we already discussed, a favicon is a little graphic that is to the left of a website name in the browser bar and is usually just the ‘picture portion’ of a business’s logo.
If you currently have your skincare line on a marketplace, you won’t need to create an ‘actual’ favicon, as your marketplace’s favicon will always show, even when your shop is up.
However, using the idea of a favicon will give you a great icon to use for your shop:
You will need to create a favicon if you have a standalone website such as Woocommerce, Shopify, Square, GoDaddy, etc.
The most common favicon size is 16×16 pixels.
Website banners
You can create a brand and shop identity on marketplaces by creating custom banners that include your logo, contact information, and whatever other visual and text information you’d like.
On Etsy*, for example, you can choose from a ‘Big Banner’, ‘Mini Banner’, or none.
- Dimensions for a ‘Big Banner’: 1200 x 300 px
- Dimensions for a ‘Mini Banner’: 1200 x 160 px
- *Please note that if you upgrade to a paid Etsy account, you have additional options such as a carousel banner or a collage.
You will also want to include banners that feature your logo on websites such as Shopify and Woocommerce (especially on your home page).
The actual placement and dimensions will depend on the theme you choose and the website platform that you are on.
To have a general size in mind, think of larger images that are between 1200-2500 pixels in width and 400-600 pixels in height.
Labels
I know YOU know that you absolutely have to have your logo on your product labels.
The typical handmade skincare business has a variety of product sizes, which means that multiple versions of a logo might be needed.
For example, a lip balm label (that is typically in a smaller container) might have a logo version with the graphic in the middle of the business name like below to save some room:
A face serum label or lotion bar label, on the other hand, might have a logo with more height to it depending on the container size:
While this is a very basic example, I hope it reassures you that you can alter the layout of your logo details while remaining 100% true to your brand identity.
Other Branded Packaging
Many handmade businesses choose to develop a memorable unboxing experience, and this involves having other branded packaging details.
One of my favorite branding tools is a logo business stamp that I had made for me by Kelly from West and Sage on Etsy.
Well…I actually had my stamp made in TWO different sizes for use on my cotton muslin bags (which I also have in a variety of sizes) that are included in every order.
Consider if you will be including details like this in your branding, and plan accordingly with your logo size, design, and font weights.
Printable Forms and Promo
The last main category for you to consider before diving into your logo design creation is the forms and promo materials you will be printing for your skin care business.
Some common ideas:
- Business cards
- Thank you notes
- Branded stickers
- Wholesale order forms
- Invoices
Most new businesses decide to print things like this from their home printer when getting started, and then later have these items printed from a label supplier or copy shop.
If you have to stick to a budget, which most businesses do (and should!), printing off all of these promo materials in color will run up your overhead costs a LOT.
Does your original logo idea have color in it? Consider making a black-and-white or grayscale version for the items that you’ll be printing from home quite a bit, such as thank you notes, invoices, and shipping labels.
How to Create a Logo for Your Skin Care Business
Now that you have some inspiration, know what logo designs you’re drawn to and what your target market may be drawn to, I’m going to show how easy it is to create a logo in Canva (and where else to go if you’d rather pay for someone to design your logo instead).
Using Canva to Create a Skin Care Business Logo
Canva is an online graphic design program that you can use for absolutely free (there is a Pro version, but you won’t need it for our purposes today).
If you need an account, you can sign up for a free Canva account here.
Once you’re signed up and all nice and cozy, let’s create some logos!
Go to the upper right-hand corner and click on the button that says ‘Create a Design’:
At the very bottom of the menu, choose the option that says ‘Custom Size’.
If you are creating a favicon for your website, check to see what size they recommend (typical sizes are 16×16 px, 32×32 px, or 48×48 px).
If you are creating a shop icon for a marketplace, check to see what size they recommend (Etsy requests a 500×500 px image).
I’m going to create a 100×100 px design just so it’s easier for you to see in my screenshots below, in between both size considerations.
After you add your desired dimensions into the ‘width’ and ‘height’ boxes, click on ‘Create New Design’.
This pulls up a blank canvas for us to use within a 100×100 px square.
For this tutorial, I’m pretending to have a skin care business called ‘Zombie Mama’ that makes mommy skin care products for the fourth trimester.
I’m going to name my image file ‘Zombie Mama Icon’ by clicking on the rectangle box in the purple banner on the right side (when you’re done, hit ‘Enter’ and it will save it).
Next, I’ll be looking in the ‘Elements’ section for a graphic that reminds me of moisture, such as a drop or a splat…something that embodies both liquid and the zombie-esque nature of being a mom with a brand new baby (IYKYK).
I’m aiming to keep it youthful, fun, and memorable.
In the ‘Elements’ search bar, type in the general description of the graphic you’re looking for.
I’m going to type in ‘splat’ (Press Enter), click on the ‘See All’ text in the Graphics portion, and scroll down to choose my favorite.
(Any graphic you see with a little crown icon next to it is available for individual purchase or to users that have the Pro version of Canva. Worry not, there are TONS of graphics to choose from in the free version, just try using different search words if you want more choices.)
When you find the one you want, click on it, and it will add it directly to the middle of your blank canvas.
Make it larger by dragging the edges of the box (the white dots) with your mouse.
To be able to use Canva Graphics commercially, you do have to alter them a little bit. Read the Canva Commercial Use Policy Here to familiarize yourself with what is allowed and what isn’t.
Next, I am going to go to my pretend notes where it has my pretend color palette and change the splat from black to one of my pretend brand colors.
Click on the black square that says ‘Color’ and change the hex number in the white search bar.
Wah-lah! A simple, memorable, branded icon that I can use as a favicon, shop icon, and graphic element in my logo design that will be clear on both a small and large scale.
Click on the ‘Share’ button in the top right-hand corner to download as you’d like:
Next, we’re going to want to add our business name and our tagline to this as well for other uses, such as website banners and labels.
Go to ‘File’ and click on ‘Create New Design’.
Next, click on ‘Custom Size’.
This is a really difficult thing to demonstrate in a blog post, as it really depends on how long your business name is, as well as how you want your layout.
For this tutorial, I’ll be using 400x100px, but please play around with a variety of sizes so that you get yours exactly as you want it.
Type in your dimensions and then click on ‘Create New Design’.
Next, click on the ‘Projects’ section in the black toolbar (lefthand side) and then click on the icon design you just made to add it to your new canvas.
Next, click on the ‘Text’ section in the black toolbar (lefthand side), then click the purple ‘Add a text box’ button.
Type in your business name, changing the font, size, and color to match your desired business branding with the style options in the white toolbar above the canvas.
That’s another version! Be sure to name it ‘Your Business Name Logo’ for future reference.
Repeat this process one more time (File > Create New Design > Custom Size > Create New Design > Projects > Click on Icon + Business Name Design > Add a Text Box) to create another version that has your tagline or slogan on it.
Wah-lah! A beautiful variety of logo designs, all for FREE!
Using Fiverr to Create a Skin Care Business Logo
If graphic design isn’t your thing, you still have options!
Fiverr is a website that connects freelance artists to individuals who need graphic design assets created for them, and they recently added an AI Logo Maker to the mix for super fast results.
Let’s see how it works!
1. Click here to go to the AI Logo Maker and type your business name into the blank space above the white ‘Make Your Logo’ button:
2. Next, add your brand name one more time, and then include your slogan or tagline in the second text box (must be 40 characters or shorter):
3. In the first box, choose from pre-determined categories where you best fit (organic skincare, natural skincare, cosmetics, beauty, soap, etc.), and then type in any graphical elements that you’d like included:
4. Choose your logo style(s) with the help of the sweet bunny examples:
5. Referring back to your mission statement and target market homework, define your branding style the best that you can with the button sliders:
6. In a wild matter of seconds (!!!) the AI Logo Maker will populate several screens of ideas – it is possible to get these edited further if you choose:
7. As you can see, once you click on one of the logo options, there will be even more variations (mostly color choices) on the next screen, as well as product mockups to help you visualize what your logo design will look like in real life:
8. If and when you are happy with your logo design, you are given three purchasing options, each with different revision rules and extras:
If this process is a little too impersonal for you, or if you’d rather start with a logo designer first, you can always do Fiverr the ‘old school way’ (ha!) and go to their logo design services page:
From this page, you can choose from tons of options and details, including price, style, artist name, delivery time, etc.
Take your time so you know you have a trusted artist (check those reviews!!!).
Using Etsy to Create a Skin Care Business Logo
If you are already familiar and comfortable with Etsy, they have graphic designers available as well.
One of my favorites is Michelle from MLA Designs. She has over 20,000 sales with 5-star reviews and I can tell you from personal experience that she is amazing!
Michelle has pre-made logos, editable logos, and hundreds of other small business branding ideas.
If you’d like to use Michelle to help create a logo for your skin care business, all you have to do is just message her, saying ‘This is my idea this is my concept I don’t know exactly what to choose’ and she’ll point you in the right direction or tell you your next steps:
Want Feedback on Your Skincare Business Logo Design?
There are SO many options with logo design, regardless of your comfort level with technology!
I hope this post gave you a chance to think about how you will create a logo for your skin care business and left you with tons of inspiration.
If you want to push the easy button, check out The Thrive Online Membership, a VIP experience just for motivated skincare entrepreneurs like you, working together to build amazing online businesses!
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