Creating Labels for Herbal Medicine
Nix the guesswork!
I’ll help you take the guesswork out of label-making so you can focus on what’s important: creating a herbal medicine line that will serve your community
3 Tips and Resources for Creating Shelf-Ready Labels
It is critical to label your products, whether you’re creating herbs for friends and family, selling at a local market, or hoping to stock your products at an apothecary. Labeling your products can help protect you and those you share your medicine with. Sharing information like the herbs used, the intended use of the medicine, and any cautions associated with using the medicine can allow every consumer to be aware of what they are ingesting or applying to their bodies, giving them the opportunity to make informed decisions about whether or not to work with a particular product. When creating herbal medicine for yourself or loved ones, including the basics (herbs in the formula, dosage, contraindications, and intended use case(s)) will take you a long way, but if you’re considering selling herbal products commercially, there is much more to consider! The following is a helpful, pocket-sized reference to help guide you in creating labels for your products that are shelf-ready.
Creating a Mood Board
One of the first things I did when I started creating my first herbal line, Reflective Remedies, was to create a space for me to reference and remember what inspired me. I pulled colors, text, products, images, vibes, and products that resonated with the kind of experience I wanted to offer through my work. Though where I landed evolved a great deal from my original mood board, I credit this experience for helping me understand key components of my brand and the experience I wanted to evoke through it.
How to Create a Mood Board
There are many different ways to do this! You could work with a physical bulletin board, create an artsy collage, add images to a google doc, or my personal favorite: use Canva. Canva is a virtual graphic design tool that you can use to create visuals like posters, presentations, social media posts, mood boards, and even product labels (but we’ll get to that later!). Here’s a gentle guide to creating a mood board
Start with the products in your home. Beauty products, wellness products, your favorite vitamins. Ask yourself… what is it about this that I like? What do I think they do well?
Expand to your favorite content creators and the online platforms of your favorite products to ask the same question.
Screenshot or take a picture of aspects of the product that catch your eye
Compile your favorite images over a couple of weeks. Swap out images that no longer make the favorites cut.
Use a color picker tool to learn what colors you enjoy. Keep track of their hex codes either by writing them down, or filling shapes with that color to save the palate for later.
Write out your line/brand name
Scroll through available fonts on google docs or Canva to change the font of your brand name. Feel out what suits you.
After a few weeks of mood boarding, let the dust settle. Return with fresh eyes. Pair down colors, texts, and other details to what feels true to you and your line/brand.
Research Brands
After creating my mood board, I researched different brands to get a sense of what information I may need to include on my labels. I also used this time to imagine my label’s layout. I considered questions like where I’d put the ingredients, my logo, and other relevant details.
My take: Checking out various products, both from big-name brands and local makers can lend insight on how to incorporate marketing strategies and legal expectations while still giving your line a personal touch.
Know your legal guidelines
Taking the time to research what the federal guidelines for dietary supplements are is another way you can protect your business. I like this resource, section (e) in particular, for learning expectations for herbal supplement manufacturers.
How FDA requirements vary based on product type
The FDA has different requirements based on whether the product you are selling is ingestible or topical.
Ingestible Herbal Supplements: Ingestible products can include items like capsules, powders, tinctures, or herbal syrups that are meant to be consumed internally. These products are regulated under a special law known as the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. The FDA provides additional resources for ingestible herbal supplement manufacturers here.
Topical Herbal Products: Topical products can include medicines like salves, oils, and lotions that are meant to be applied to the skin. The FDA regulates these under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). Check out this resource to learn more about FDA requirements for topical herbal products.
A few label “must-haves”
While requirements can vary based on the type of product, here are a few pieces of information you may consider adding to your product labels:
Name of your product
Plants in your formula
Menstruums or added ingredients in your formula
What your formula is designed to support
Safety precautions or contraindications
Dosage instructions
Supplement Facts
Usage instructions (i.e.: “for external use only”)
Expiration date
Break out the Measuring Tape
After determining the products I intended to create, finalizing the artistic direction for my labels, and understanding the necessary guidelines, I began crafting my labels. My first task? Determining the appropriate sizes for my labels. Being aware of the precise measurements for bottles, jars, and boxes ensures a polished appearance and prevents any wrinkling or misalignment of labels.
When I reached this point, I already had all the containers I planned to use in my apartment. To determine the required label sizes, I simply used my measuring tape to estimate the dimensions and applied that as my sizing in Canva.
Time to make some labels!
My preferred tool for creating labels is Canva. I find it easy to drag, drop, and group text and shapes, I love their library of graphics and photos, and if you’ve used Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides before, you’ll be fairly used to the UI. There are some limitations I’ve discovered to how Canva will allow you to align fonts/images. Some manual tweaking is needed, but overall, it’s a great tool!
Printing Your Labels
I love working locally! So my first batch of labels was printed at a local printer here in Oakland. The quality this vendor produced was amazing! I opted for vinyl labels and I loved the results. They are a breeze to clean in the case you spill some medicine while filling an order, and they stay on firmly, even when there's condensation. The vendor also gave me my labels pre-cut to size. This kept my labels uniform and saved me a lot of time as I prepped for my first vending opportunity at Sacred Vibes’ 2023 Brand Night.
