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Experience with fancy ingredients
Hi!
So, a client’s team that I’m coaching is fixated with the use of fancy ingredients. By fancy I mean specific supplier’s blends (a known performing ingredient plus a claim ingredient) or molecules that no one else has.
In my experience, there are no new materials for hair care that clearly surpass in performance old goddies, and that’s been the case for few decades (I stopped going to InCosmetics since the last innovation awards were given to….extracts). That’s why, for instance, P&G’s formulas didn’t change much in the last decades, and use only a small number of performing ingredients.
What I tell the team is that, to use one of these fancy ingredients, a few requirements should be met:
1) they should produce a perceivable benefit over similar standard materials to support they higher price,
2) they should be tested against a good placebo (with a comparable material at the same active level in a simple base, in a blinded controlled test)
In the end, I’d like them to choose as source of information papers and scientific books instead of suppliers info (which is baised most of the time), but I understand that suppliers info is more appealing.
I’d like to know what are your thoughts on this.
Thanks!
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4 Replies
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Hello,
Whereas I still have some way to go till I can call myself an experienced formulator, I do have experience in working with people.
It seems the conundrum is maintaining your reputation vs condoning such requests.
I think you can do both, as long as your client knows that you do not agree with the team’s opinion.
You’ve made clear you view from the scientific point, so now you can let them choose some “fancy” ingredient(s), providing that they’ll also use the known performing ingredients you’ve recommended.
I’m sure they’ll come around after they’ll gain more knowledge and experience. We all grow at a different pace, right?
Regarding the higher cost of the “fancy” stuff: I’ve fallen in the cost-trap as I’ve used to look for the most cost-efficient solution, and I’ve learnt that my role was just to guide and make my comments, as the decision was theirs. Learnt that the hard way, after one client bluntly asked me “Did I appoint you to guard my money, Miss?”- nope, he obviously didn’t…
Finally, there’s only that much you can do once they have already set their minds on something else than your suggestion.
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Thanks for your comments.
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I think your approach is a scientifically grounded one although ultimately clients will likely find it unsatisfying. That might not be good for your coaching business. 😉
You’re right there really haven’t been any innovative new materials in hair care in a long time. And scientific papers are better but in most cases, the supplier literature is all the there is. No one is spending research money to evaluate someone else’s raw material.
But you have to also realize that this is a marketing driven industry. Marketers need stories and consumers want stories.
My approach is to be familiar with the stories and how it can be useful for making a product stand out. But I always end with, “but of course, this isn’t really proven and probably doesn’t really work”
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Thank you for the advice Perry, I appreciate it 🤓
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