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How You Get a Cosmetic Formula You’ll Love

How You Get a Cosmetic Formula You’ll Love

by | Oct 26, 2018 | Formulation

We make custom cosmetic formulas


Since our founding in 1995, formulating a personal care product that uniquely fits your market and brand has been the goal. We have created thousands of unique formulas with care and dedication. Whether you have an existing formula or product idea, our laboratory can bring enhancements that go beyond the value of a back-of-the-box cosmetic formulation.

In this article you will read:

  • How you can have a new product formulated
  • How you can transfer a product formula
  • Who owns a formula developed by BPI Labs
  • What our fees are for formulating
You’ll love our custom formulas

Each formulation is uniquely designed to deliver the benefits of the claims you would like to make. This will be done with an intimate understanding of how preservatives work in acids and bases, emulsion technology, natural and organic substitutes, and suspension technology among many other cosmetic technologies. After we’ve developed a sample, we’ll ask you to approve the sample. If you’re not satisfied then we’ll change it to suit your marketing needs.

How do we begin formulating?

We begin formulating after we’ve received some information from you on what you would like. The best possible information we can get are examples of product already in the market you would like to mimic or position nearby. Then we need a list of all your formulation requirements, including: ingredients you want used or not used, including categories of ingredients; whether your product should be organic; a fragrance you would like used; and any other requirements you may have.

The samples come next

BPI Labs will begin by developing a ‘dry’ formulation, which is a written set of instructions for completing a sample. These written instructions will instruct our laboratory to use certain chemicals and processes. Some of these chemicals may need to be shipped to BPI Labs, which may take up to two weeks. We’ll complete a sample and ship it to you, and we’ll retain some of the sample for stability testing and reference.

You have a formula you would like to use

If you have a formulation you would like BPI to use then we’ll have our companies sign a non-disclosure document (NDA) prior to BPI Labs receiving your formula. Then we’ll get to work evaluating and validating your product formula.

We’ll verify we can produce your formula

The process for using your formula is much like the process for new formula development. We’ll ask for a sample of your product for our laboratories reference. Next, we will develop a sample of your formula and send it to you while keeping some of the same for stability testing and reference. If we don’t have the materials in stock to complete your sample, we may need to wait up to 2 weeks for them to arrive.

What if we cannot successfully complete the sample

It is not unusual that some aspect of a formulation we receive from a customer is incomplete or misidentifies an ingredient or process step. Fortunately, we can usually extrapolate from what is available and design a solution. We will notify you if we do this and update you with any changes to the listing of ingredients if any were made.

A few last things you should know:

Formula Approval

If you love one of our samples, then we’ll ask you to approve the formula for manufacture. If you need changes to the formula, then our laboratory can usually create a new sample quickly since most or all the ingredients are already in-house. The important thing is that the formula meet your brand requirements.

Formula Ownership

BPI Labs is not in the business of selling formulations. Our company only makes money when we have long and fruitful manufacturing relationships with our customers. So if we develop a formula then we are going to retain the rights to that formula. However, we can offer these services to you free of cost. You can generate entire product lines with BPI Labs and request product improvements over time that keep your product fresh and appealing. We don’t charge for these services.

Formula Fee

Sometimes we do ask for a formula fee. Customers who are new to the cosmetics and personal care industry and who do not have a history of selling into this market may be asked to pay a $2,500 formulation fee. However, once we go into manufacturing, we’ll return this fee to you as a discount off your first order.

Conclusion

Formulations from BPI Labs are packed with value. The formulation process may take up to 3 or 4 weeks to complete. Sometimes it is much faster. The better our customer understands what they would like and can describe that need to us, the more likely we get the product right, quickly. Subsequent attempts at sample development usually have quick turnaround because we have all the ingredients in-house. We do all this, free of charge, because we want to earn your loyalty and business for the long-term.

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    Our Formulas Have These 6 Things for Completeness

    Our Formulas Have These 6 Things for Completeness

    by | Oct 21, 2018 | Formulation

    Introduction

    BPI Labs’ formulas contain 6 elements that assure product perfectiveness each time we manufacture your personal care product. Does your formula have these? If not, then you probably don’t have a production-ready formula. If you want to know how we transition incomplete formulas into production-ready formulas, click here.

    The six things your formula needs

    To manufacture your personal care products accurately and consistently your formula needs the following six things.  These essential elements can be found in the formulation template we’re providing: Click here to download our formulation template.

    1. Specific gravity

    Your formulation’s specific gravity is a ratio of the weight of your formula compared to the weight of water in some known volume unit.  We need this ratio to determine the weight of your batches and each ingredient in the batch of product formula.  Our customers always order some number of units at some volume, like fluid ounces, and we will use specific gravity to convert their order into a mass measurement, like pounds.  Manufacturing in mass measurements is how we can produce your product perfectly each time, and specific gravity is the ratio we need to make the volume to mass conversion.  Read more about this here: Your Cosmetic Formula Needs Specific Gravity.

    2. Weight-on-weight percentages of ingredients

    Knowing each ingredient’s weight as a percentage of the whole formula assures manufacturing accuracy. Once we are aware of the weight-on-weight percentage of each ingredient, we can determine the amount of each needed for any batch of product, down to the gram, no matter the size of batch.  For example, if water is 10% of the formulation composition, then to make 10 lbs of product, we will need one pound of water.

    3. Supplier of ingredients

    Not every supplier makes an ingredient the same way. For example, one supplier may make the ingredient glycerine with 98% glycerine and 2% water, while another supplier’s glycerine may contain 90% glycerine and 10% water. Knowing the supplier for each ingredient of your formula and the supplier’s trade name for that ingredient guarantees we make your formula exactly the same every time.

    4. Processing instructions

    These instructions will include the instruments essential to mixing your product and when to add, mix, chill, or heat your product’s ingredients and to what degree. If a compounded product is heated for too long, for example, and too much water evaporates, it can ruin the entire batch. Processing instructions are another element needed to create a consistent product every time.

    5. Specification sheets

    This sheet describes the qualities of your product regarding look, color, viscosity, feel, etc. It allows us to compare your product to what we manufacture to certify your product is manufactured according to specification every time.

    6. Formula Number

    A formula number is your product’s name-tag at BPI Labs; it is what we use to identify your product. The formula number changes between versions of your formula, and the formula number helps us gather the correct ingredients and materials when we manufacture your product. You will also use your product’s formula number when submitting a purchase order.  Click here to discover how a formula is different from a recipe.

    Conclusion

    BPI Labs guarantees consistent manufacturing results with these 6 essentials.  Every formula at BPI Labs has these essentials in addition to a record of production, which includes any troubleshooting we did to bring your product into specification.  We always review these historical records before production to verify we’re ready to manufacture your personal care product the right way every time.

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    Turning Your Recipes into Cosmetic Formulas

    Turning Your Recipes into Cosmetic Formulas

    by | Oct 20, 2018 | Formulation

    Why we need your recipe to be a formula

    We use the language of recipes and formulas to make a distinction between a product that is ready to be manufactured and one that is not. If you have instructions to manufacture a product that is measured in volume, or it doesn’t have weight-on-weight percentages, among some other aspects, then you have a recipe, and it isn’t ready to be manufactured. BPI Labs regularly turns recipes into formulas, and you should read on if you’d like to know how and why we convert recipes to formulas.

    The downside to a recipe

    A recipe of a personal care product will often take the form of a list of ingredients, each with a volume measurement, that equal some amount of product when combined. Examples of volumetric measurements include gallons, liters, quarts, tablespoons, or fluid ounces among some others.  Baking a cake is a perfect example of a listing of ingredients, with corresponding volumetric measurements, and a final result (1 cake).  Though recipes can help us bake a delicious cake, they prevent consistent and accurate manufacturing in a cosmetic manufacturing environment.  For example, volume measurements using large measuring cups would be laborious with over-pouring and cleanup, and inexact since we’d be eyeballing messy measurement lines.

    The mixing tanks used by BPI Labs are also large, opaque, and do not contain measurement marks like a common measuring cup. The constant movement (agitation) in a tank makes it difficult to get an exact understanding of how much product has been added or is needed. Moreover, air is often added to a mixture while mixing, which increases the mixture’s volume.  Finally, volumes can be deceptive since ingredients can expand and contract in warm or cold temperatures.  A chemical that is stored at fifty degrees Fahrenheit in a warehouse can expand as it sits in a 70 degree Fahrenheit manufacturing area, and we’re typically heating or chilling your mixture in a mixing tank to create your personal care product.

    The upside to a formula

    A formula for a personal care product is made with mass measurements. The amount of each ingredient needed to make your product is determined by the weight of each ingredient in grams or pounds. The advantages to using a scale instead of volume measurements include getting more exact measurements (down to fractions of a gram), not worrying about expansion or contraction of an ingredient’s volume during production, and the ability to scale the size of a batch up or down quickly with precision.

    Scaling a batch up and down in size is simple when using mass measurements and with formulations that call for percentages of each ingredient.  If 500 gallons of product is needed to fill 4000 bottles, then we can use something called the specific gravity equation to translate 500 gallons into pounds or grams of product needed.  Scaling a batch becomes as simple as looking at the percentage of an ingredient called for and multiplying it by the pounds of product needed, which we got from the specific gravity equation.  For example, if the formulation calls for 50% water (among other things), then we just need to multiply 50% by the total pounds of product we intend to manufacture.  Now we know how many pounds of water to use.  Maybe we’d like to make the batch 10 pounds larger; how much more water would we need?  We’ll just add another 5 pounds of water.

    By the way, if you’re interested in learning about specific gravity then read our post here.

    Translating recipes into formulas

    If we are asked to produce a recipe, the first thing we will try to do is convert it to a formula.  We begin by trying our best to follow the recipe’s instructions and create a sample.  Next, we’ll record the weight of each ingredient we used, weigh the final amount produced, and then measure the specific gravity.  We’ll send the sample to our customer for their approval. Assuming the sample is approved, we’ll turn our notes on the weights of each ingredient into a percentage of the total amount produced and record this into a formula with the specific gravity.  After these things, we will have the ability to create any amount of product requested and use the right amount of ingredient down to fractions of a gram.

    Conclusion

    There is significantly more to a formulation than a listing of ingredients, percentages called for, and the specific gravity.  You can look at our post on the six things every formulation needs here.  Otherwise, you can trust BPI Labs to help you purchase a formulation or transition a recipe you own into a production-ready formulation your customers will be happy with every time.

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