The benefits of using a cosmetic lab include sourcing high-quality preformulated products and creating brand new skincare from scratch with expert chemist and team of market professionals.

‍

The risks of formulating your products at home

Do you really need to hire a cosmetic lab for your small beauty business, or is it just another unnecessary and overrated expense? Whether you're starting your beauty brand or transitioning from home-based production, partnering with a professional cosmetic chemist and manufacturer is a decision that you should take seriously.

Often when we talk to clients we find they 'don't know what they don't know', especially around the risks of formulating at home and compliance. In this article we aim to provide clarity by outlining the pivotal roles of the cosmetic lab and how their expertise can propel your business forward. Continue reading to understand the pitfalls of formulating cosmetics at home, the advantages of utilizing pre-made and custom formulations.

‍

The pitfalls of DIY formulation

Experimenting with homemade recipes can be a very valuable learning experience to understand the formulation and manufacturing process. However venturing into selling DIY cosmetics can pose significant challenges and risks for your brand:

1. Contamination Risks: Homemade formulas, especially those containing water, are prone to contamination. Even with preservatives, if proper PET testing and microbial batch testing haven't been conducted, contamination can occur.
2. Safety Concerns: Are your DIY cosmetics safe for human skin? Only advanced formulating knowledge and rigorous testing can ensure the safety of your products.
3. Stability and Shelf life: A professional cosmetic chemist is experienced and qualified to design emulsions and other product forms that remain stable and continue to perform well across their shelf life in a number of different environments (e.g. tropical and cold weather) and skin types. No one wants a shampoo that is water thin and smells bad after 3 months, or cannot be pumped from the bottle any longer.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Are your homemade cosmetics compliant with regulations? This includes accurately listing each ingredient and its percentage, as well as adhering to your country's labeling laws. Failure to comply can result in legal repercussions.
   

Cosmetic labs and manufacturers specialise in producing preformulated cosmetics on a turnkey basis

Cosmetic labs specialise in producing preformulated cosmetics on a turnkey basis, offering a convenient solution for beauty brands seeking to streamline their production process. Whether you're a newcomer to the industry or simply seeking to reduce the time and manage the risks of formulating every product yourself from scratch, this approach presents several advantages:

1. Ready-Made Formulations: By opting for preformulated skincare products you benefit from the extensive research and development already conducted by the cosmetics lab. These formulas have been perfected in advance, saving you time and reducing costs compared to custom formulations.
2. Assured Safety and Compliance: Preformulated products undergo thorough testing to ensure they meet safety and legal requirements, including potential PET and stability testing. This pre-emptive testing provides peace of mind and ensures your products comply with industry standards.
3. Try before you buy: Quality cosmetic manufacturers typically offer easy-to-order samples of their preformulated cosmetics, allowing you to test the products before making a bulk purchase. Sampling provides insights into the performance, texture, and suitability of each formula for different skin types.
4. Customer Benefits Assessment: Longer sample testing periods offer the opportunity to evaluate the skincare benefits of each formula. This assessment helps determine whether the product aligns with your brand's goals and meets the needs of your target customers.
5. Ideal for Beginners: Launching a beauty brand can be daunting, especially for newcomers to the industry. Preformulated cosmetics provide a supportive starting point, eliminating the need for extensive knowledge of skincare ingredients and formulation processes. This approach helps alleviate beginner's imposter syndrome and empowers you to take confident steps forward in your business venture.

By leveraging preformulated cosmetics from Good Chemistry, beauty brands can access high-quality products that meet safety standards, streamline production, and pave the way for business success.

‍

Cosmetic labs develop innovative products from scratch

Hiring a cosmetic lab is the perfect opportunity for even complete beginners to create high-quality, innovative, and original products that truly stand out in the market. Cosmetic chemists are up to to date with the latest trends, innovative and high-performance ingredients and research. They bring this deep formulating knowledge and experience to every new product they formulate, enabling complex formulations that are unique and near impossible to create yourself.

Custom formulating involves collaborating with a professional cosmetic chemist and lab to create brand-new skin care or makeup from scratch.
The combination of professional knowledge and state-of-the-art resources results in a much higher quality product compared to most at-home DIY manufacturing.

‍

Moving from a cosmetic lab to small and large scale manufacture

At Good Chemistry, we focus on developing formulations and designing skincare products ready to scale up. We offer some small scale manufacturing, but when your brand is ready to mass produce. we'll work with a contract manufacturer who suits your budget, scale and ethos. At the start of the formulation process, we talk through budget, target customer and product vision in detail. We also look to undertake a cost analysis of any formula we create, prior to finalisation to ensure it is fit for purpose. We also conduct preliminary testing to your products and use industry-standard manufacturing methodologies, ready to hand over to any large-scale manufacturer to pilot test and scale.

‍