The most expensive misunderstanding in beauty manufacturing is treating a development fee as a down payment on stock. It is not. It buys development work, and that work has value whether or not you proceed to production.

OUI publishes route fees openly — from ₦50,000 for private label, ₦100,000 for semi-custom and ₦150,000 for custom formulation, per product — precisely so this conversation happens before money moves rather than after.

What the fee includes

Across all three routes, the development and sampling fee covers four things.

  • Brief review — assessing what you have described against what can actually be formulated, manufactured and documented for your market.
  • Formulation work — either selecting and adapting a tested base, modifying it against your brief, or developing a new formula, depending on the route.
  • Sample production — physically making the product so you can assess texture, scent, appearance and performance rather than approving a description.
  • Up to two structured revision rounds — with feedback collected and applied deliberately, not indefinitely.

Documentation planning sits alongside these: identifying which records your route and market will require, so the paperwork is being prepared while the formula is being finalised rather than assembled in a rush afterwards.

Why revisions are structured, not unlimited

Two rounds is a real constraint and it exists for a reason. Open-ended revision is how development budgets disappear without a product emerging — each change reopens questions the previous change had settled.

Structured rounds also produce better feedback. When a brand knows it has two considered opportunities, it consolidates its notes and tests the sample properly before responding. When revision is unlimited, feedback arrives in fragments and the formula moves sideways.

Practically: use round one for direction and round two for refinement. If the product needs a third round because the brief itself changed, that is a scope conversation, not a failure.

What the fee does not include

This is the part worth reading closely, because it is where budgets get built wrong.

  • Production — the cost of manufacturing your actual order, quoted separately once the formula and packaging are confirmed.
  • Packaging inventory — the components themselves. Briefs and compatibility review are OUI's work; procurement is included only where separately agreed in writing.
  • Third-party testing — preservative efficacy, claims, efficacy and other external laboratory work, scoped where required.
  • Regulatory fees — registration filing and third-party costs, confirmed separately rather than assumed inside the development fee.

Sampling fees are also paid and non-refundable. That is stated upfront rather than buried, because the work is genuinely performed: formulation time, materials and production capacity are committed the moment development begins.

How to budget realistically

A workable first-launch budget has four lines, not one: development and sampling, packaging components, production, and documentation or testing specific to your market. Founders who plan all four are rarely surprised. Founders who plan only the first are the ones who stall between an approved sample and a production run they cannot yet fund.

If you are unsure what the other three lines look like for your product, ask before paying the first one. A route confirmation from us includes what the next stages will involve, and it is a more useful document than a price list.