Cosmetic Formulating Blog Series | Building the Formula

Cosmetic Formulating Blog Series | Building the Formula

In our last blog post on Cosmetic Formulating we went over some formulating basics, including what a formula is, whether it will be organic, natural and/or cruelty-free, understanding measurements and synergy of your ingredients. In this blog we will go over how you build the formula.

Factors to Consider

Prior to making your formula, you must consider many factors and get clarity on what kind of product you want to make. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Who is the consumer for this product? Age, gender, skin type, etc.?
  • What properties do you want in the product? Example- moisturizing, protecting, vitamins, etc.
  • What kind of container are you going to use?
  • How will the product be applied?
  • What color will the formula be once all the ingredients are in?
  • How much will the product cost?
  • What shelf-life will the product have?

Math

To build your formula, you will need to use simple math to create a formulation key. The easiest way is to utilize percentages. Your total formulation will amount to 100%. Then each ingredient will be a percentage of 100. This way you can increase or decrease your amount easily by utilizing the percentage to determine the amounts in grams or ounces of your ingredients. The ingredients in your product will fall into the following categories: water, oil, emulsifiers, and additives. Depending on what kind of product you’re making, each category will have a different percentage range. Experiment with different amounts of each ingredient until you get the end-product you want. This will now be your formulation!

Formulation Resources

As you can see, a lot goes into building the formula, however don’t let that scare you from trying! At Joan Morais Naturals we have a lot of resources to assist you in the process, including additional factors to consider regarding your product, more specific instructions on how to do formulation math, basic ratios of ingredients depending on the product, formulating worksheets, and more!

For more in-depth information on formulating natural skin and hair care products check out our professional product making courses.

Professional Natural Skin Care Product Making Course

Professional Natural Hair Care Product Making Course

These courses are online-based and can be taken anytime and you will have course lifetime access.


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