Beauty Business Name Ideas

How to Name Your Beauty Business

Hi, I’m Ellie, your naming expert. If you are looking to find cool name ideas for your beauty company, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we will take you through the entire process of coming up with a name, from the initial preparation to the brainstorming stage, and all the way up to finally deciding on a name.

To illustrate the naming process, I will be coming up with name ideas for a fictional beauty company I created.

Here’s a one-line description of my fictional company:

A ‘barely there’ line of makeup for younger people.

Preparation

Write a Brand Brief

Without a clear idea of what your business is about you are going to have a hard time generating name ideas that hit the mark. That’s why we suggest creating a brief outlining the major touchpoints of your beauty business.

Answer the questions below as succinctly as possible. You want this brief to help you define your brand. That clarity will help you later in the brainstorming process.

What Does Your Company Do? (Describe your company and the initial products and/or services that you will provide.)

My answer: A cosmetic company that sells fresh and light, ‘barely there’ makeup for younger people just beginning to use cosmetics.

Who is Your Target Market? (Describe the customers/demographic your business intends to cater to.)

My answer: Teenagers just beginning to wear makeup.

What is Your Company’s Mission Statement? (Your mission statement is your business’s overall reason for being. This shouldn’t highlight a specific product or service, but should instead provide the rai·son d'ê·tre for all your offerings.)

My answer: Our company’s mission is to help people at any age look and feel their absolute best.

Describe Your Brand Style/Tone. (What feelings will your brand create for its users?)

My answer: Light, fresh, and lovely

What Does Your Business Aspire to Become? (Five or ten years down the line what do you see your beauty business eventually becoming? Don’t be afraid to dream big! Knowing what you want your business to evolve into will help you come up with a forward-thinking name.)

My answer: International company selling age appropriate cosmetics to people at every stage of their lives.

Value Proposition: (What value/good stuff does your brand add to a crowded market?)

My answer: Light and appealing makeup for teenagers just starting to wear cosmetics.

Associated words: (What words reflect your brand?)

My answer: Fresh, light, fun, wholesome.

Want Personalized Name Ideas for Your Brief?

Analyze Established Brand Names in Your Industry

Knowing your competitors well is never a bad thing, including knowing the thinking and ingenuity behind their names. Analyzing your competitors’ brand names will help you do this and more.

When researching the competition, try to take note of how well these names represent the company they belong to. What meaning do they convey? What is it about the names of the top beauty businesses that make them special?

Utilizing this knowledge will give you a definitive advantage when it comes to naming your business. Let’s take a look at some notable brands in the beauty world, and what they do well.

L'Oreal

L’Oreal is the number one cosmetic company in the world. Unlike many iconic beauty brands named after their founders (Chanel, Estee Lauder, Bobbi Brown, etc.) L’Oreal’s name is believed to stem from the French words for both halo and gold. Their slogan, “Because you’re worth it,” is as recognizable as their name, appealing to customers of any age or nationality.

Thrive Causemetics

Thrive Causemetics burst upon the beauty market and in just three short years has carved out a substantial niche by offering vegan, luxury products with a socially responsible and responsive agenda. For every product you buy, one is donated to a woman in need, including those experiencing cancer, homelessness, or domestic violence. Their name contains the aspirational word “thrive”, plus a clever combination of “cause” and “cosmetics”

Uoma Beauty

Uoma Beauty is another vegan, cruelty-free cosmetics company, advertising their position as a black-owned business. They derived their distinctive name from a longer Nigerian word for ‘beautiful people’ and have successfully created substantial buzz in two short years.

Find Your Brainstorming Group

You’ve created your brand brief and analyzed your competitors. It’s time to assemble your naming team. So, what makes a great naming team?

Well, it’s important that the people you choose to brainstorm with are creative/smart, have the time to spare, and are committed to the process.

The most important thing? Variety.

If ensemble superhero/heist movies have taught us anything, it’s that when people with different perspectives and skill sets work towards a common goal, magic happens. Each member of the team brings something unique to the table, defeating supervillains and pulling off daring heists in the process.

In reality, diverse-minded teams also happen to be really effective at coming up with great ideas. Top business management firm Mckinsey & Company cites a variety of perspectives as one of the essential characteristics of effective brainstorming sessions.

“The power of brainstorming is greatly enhanced by the junction of different perspectives. That doesn’t happen by accident. The best companies include representatives from across the organization, and from suppliers too, in their brainstorming sessions.” -Mckinsey & Co

The takeaway?

Your name brainstorming team ideally shouldn’t be just you, or you + your best friend/business partner who completes your sentences. Ask the marketing intern. Reach out to one of your clients. Bring in people who have different viewpoints to brainstorm with, and the names this eclectic group generates will give you fresh and varied ideas for your brand name.

Need More Perspectives?

What if you and your team are still on the same page about everything?

Or what if you are starting up solo, and don’t have time or energy to corral your family and friends into the same room (or Zoom call)?

If you’re on the hunt for more unique perspectives to supercharge your quest for a great name, try a naming contest.

Naming contests harness the power of the crowd to deliver you a smorgasbord of diverse and inspired creatives focused on one thing: giving you great name ideas for your business. Name ideas that you can either use right away as the name for your brand, or as an inspirational springboard for your own name ideas.

Want to Know More?

Brainstorming

Now that we’ve done the necessary groundwork, it’s time for the fun part: brainstorming name ideas!

Where to start?

Most advice on brainstorming name ideas says to just start writing whatever comes into your head.

We are going to take a different approach.

We are going to brainstorm name ideas using the different business name types as starting points. Instead of starting from scratch, we’ll brainstorm ideas for each popular type of company name one at a time, each its own separate “brainstorming session.”

A few reasons for this:

Constraints can be freeing: Evidence suggests it is helpful to have some constraints when brainstorming , as a narrower focus allows you to go deeper creatively, and come up with more promising ideas.

A variety of variety- We talked earlier about the importance of different perspectives when generating name ideas. Stylistic variety is just as important, as the format of a name affects its sound, tone, and aesthetic. Using this approach ensures you will have diverse options to choose from.

The more you know... - Don’t know about the different name styles? We’ll be going through and explaining each one as we go, so you’ll be able to quickly familiarize yourself.

Ready to dive-in? Let’s get started!

Note: For my beauty brand, I’ve come up with 3 name ideas for each type, but feel free to write down as many as pop into your mind.

Descriptive Names

Descriptive names give people an idea of what your business does. Some notable examples are Salesforce and TripAdvisor.

My descriptive name ideas:

BeautyBasics
FreshFacedYou
CleanandFresh

Brandable Names

Brandable names are names that are made-up names that contain no dictionary words. Because of their freedom from convention, this type of name is often catchier, shorter, and more brandable than the rest of the name types.

My brandable name ideas:

Prettique
Bellissiz
Danae

Experiential Names

Experiential names are inspired by the experience of using a product or service. Some famous examples include StumbleUpon and Bumble.

My experiential name ideas:

PetalSoft
NewYou
LightandLovely

Evocative Names

Evocative names use metaphor and imagery to relate a specific feeling or idea. These names draw not from what a business does, but the experience or positioning the business aspires to achieve. Some famous examples include Red Bull and Honey.

My evocative name ideas:

FairyBlush
BeautyInBloom
GentleBloom

Expression-Based Names

Expression names are based on common expressions in culture and language. These names are great because they are instantly familiar to people, and easy to recall (because we already know them).

My expression-based name ideas:

EyeoftheBeholder
UglyDuckling
BeautyWithin

Gather Up All Your Name Ideas

All the name ideas I came up with during the brainstorming stage:

BeautyBasics
FreshFacedYou
CleanandFresh
Prettique
Bellissiz
Danae
PetalSoft
NewYou
LightandLovely
FairyBlush
BeautyInBloom
GentleBloom
EyeoftheBeholder
UglyDuckling
BeautyWithin

Need more Ideas?

Do all your names sound the same? Stuck for new ideas? Don’t worry, this is pretty common. Naming your business is an iterative process. It’s not likely that you are going to get the exact right name idea on the first try. Luckily there are some strategies for getting more inspiration.

Rinse and Repeat

Use your current list of names as a springboard for better ideas. From judging your first list of names you will know what words you like or don’t like, and what words sound better and inspire you.

Start a Naming Contest

Still stuck? Get hundreds of high-quality, personalized, and available-to-use name ideas fast with a naming contest from Brand New Name.

Get More Name Ideas

THE CUTTING BOARD

Now that we have a sizable list of name ideas to work with, it is time to start the process of whittling down your list. To do this, we have put together a series of steps. They are intentionally ordered from the most clinical/scientific in nature to the most emotionally involved. Speaking from personal experience, you can get really attached to your name ideas!

Cut the Weakest Links

It’s usually glaringly obvious the first time you analyze your list that some names are simply not right for you. Cut those quickly before their mediocreness kills your vibe.

I feel that these names are my weakest links:

FreshFacedYou - Too long and bland
Bellissiz - Difficult to spell and pronounce
GentleBloom - Too vague and a bit creepy somehow

Check Against Best Practices

Now that you’ve cut the blatant duds, use naming best practices as a reference to disqualify more names. You don’t have to get granular with this, just ask yourself the questions below. If the answer to more than one question is no, cut the name.

Is the name simple and memorable?
Is the name easy to read, pronounce, and spell?
Is the name different from competitors?
Does the name convey a relevant meaning?
Is the name broad enough to grow with my brand?

Name ideas I am cutting:

EyeoftheBeholder- Too long and stern.
Danae - Difficult to pronounce and remember.
LightandLovely - Pretty, but sounds like yogurt, not makeup.
BeautyWithin - How does this make sense for makeup?
BeautyBasics - Boring and generic.

Go Back to Your Brief

By now, you should have a list of quality name ideas. However, just because it is a quality name, doesn’t mean it’s the right name for your business. That’s why you should go back to your brand brief, and ask yourself the following questions:

Does the name relate to my value proposition, mission statement, tone, or target market?
Can it also encompass my aspirations?
Does it feel right for my business?

Names that aren’t a good fit for my brand:

NewYou - Implies a makeover, not an exploration.
CleanandFresh - Sounds too similar to other brands.

Make a Shortlist:

Now that you’ve gone through the challenging process of cutting your list name ideas down, what you are left with are the finalists. You should LOVE all these names.

Here is my shortlist:

UglyDuckling
Prettique
PetalSoft
FairyBlush
BeautyinBloom

The excitement is surely growing, but it’s time to do something even harder: narrow it down to one name! Here are the final steps we’ll take to do so:

Check if It’s Available

Once you’ve gotten feedback on your names, it's time to find out if the matching domain of your business name is available. I’ve found the best way to avoid heartbreak is to have several names on my shortlist. This is so that in the event that one or more of your name ideas is taken, you still have a few high-quality backups.

Using a domain name registrar like Godaddy is a quick and painless way of checking name availability. Just type your name into the search box, and they will tell you if the matching .com is available.

These names weren’t available to register in my chosen TLDs (Top Level Domains):

BeautyinBloom
FairyBlush

I’ve done the work, and now have four viable name ideas that make me even more excited to launch my beauty brand for teenagers.

Get Feedback

Take the time to gather more feedback on your beauty business name finalists. When getting final opinions on a business name, I’ve learned that it’s best to ask either potential clients or people who work in that field - this is your target audience after all. If you can’t find anyone like this, trusted friends and family will do in a pinch.

My feedback:

UglyDuckling - Message is too confusing.

Because of the feedback, I decided to take the following name out of the running:

UglyDuckling

Make Your Final Choice:

There are only two names left on my shortlist:

Prettique

PetalSoft

If you have made it to this stage, you probably have two or three names left to choose from. But there can only be one in the end! It’s time to choose your business name. Our advice is to go with your gut and choose the one you absolutely love.

The name I really love, and the winning name idea for my beauty brand: