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Formulation pros - what are basic things beginners need to know?
I saw a discussion in a different forum asking professional chefs what home cooks need to know. So, I thought a similar discussion of what professional chemists could let DIY formulators know. I’ll go first.
1. Formulating is not cooking! Create formulas based on weight percentages. Don’t use volume measurements like cups, tablespoons or even ounces. The preferred measurement for all ingredients is Grams.
2. Always use a preservative or at the very least have a preservative system in mind.
I have a few more but I’ll let the other pros weigh in with their thoughts.
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6 Replies
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1. Formulationg is like European cooking: We already use grams
. And I truly believe that a good cook can be a good cosmetic chemist and vice versa.2. Do some reading on the basics (emulsion principles) before you start anything but anhydrous formulations. -
I am certainly not a pro….but a beginner whom has recently traversed the many pitfalls of beginning.
My biggest eye opener….was all the fake ingredients for sale!!! My biggest piece of advice would be….buy from reputable sellers…. not ebay, Amazon, and ETSY…. (now in the same breath…not all of them are bad….just enough bad apples to ruin the barrel).
Also….even among reputable sellers…natural products such as oils…will have huge variations…not only vendor to vendor…but batch to batch. This is to be expected from natural products.
And finally…and maybe most importantly….leave your baggage at the door…. Whatever you learned from the mommy blogger sites you cruised before arriving here….might need to be unlearned.
Have an open mind. I thought I had a pretty open and science based mind…but I had to unlearn a number of things.With nice mentoring…patience, and experimenting, one can go from novice to producing reasonably nice things is just a matter of a couple years! Enjoy the journey….and make amazing friends along the way.
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My biggest eye opener was that most of the ingredients we think as good is not good, and what we think as bad is not bad.
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I’m still a beginner so I don’t have any advice but something that stumped me especially in the beginning is, generally speaking HOW do you guys know how much of each ingredient to use (ie suggested usage rate might be 1-40% then i’ll see someone here say to use 2%), when to add it (ie some gums have to be slurried with glycerin, some have to be added before certain ingredients, some after). is this learned through experience, trial and error, manufacturer info, through courses, literature, like what?
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Still a beginner..
1. Always get data sheets from suppliers and read thoroughly to understand how to use that particular ingredient. Like how to disperse gums or how to use a certain polymer, incompatibilities, etc. This will give you 70-80% idea, and will help reduce the number of trials you take.
Not every detail will be mentioned on the data sheet.
2. Do not blindly believe what a supplier says about an active ingredient, even if they show you all their clinical study report and data sheets. Many times its BS.
3. Take small trials if possible.. i usually do 100g trials for emulsions, 50g trials for surfactant systems/handmade soaps, and 20g trials for serums/oils/balms/etc. This way you don’t waste raw materials.
4. And as everyone said, always use grams and calculate in percentages.
5. Raw materials from different manufacturers may perform differently. I recently suggested to one of my clients Decyl glucoside from BASF (after doing a lab trial) and they bought it from some other manufacturer without letting us know, made a 250kg batch of shampoo.. ended up with a slimy goo and basically no foam. I had to visit their factory in person and look at all their raw materials to find this out.
Remember to take a lab trial every time you change raw material supplier, and always tell the client/3P to let you know.
6. Note down all your observations. -
domicanica said:I’m still a beginner so I don’t have any advice but something that stumped me especially in the beginning is, generally speaking HOW do you guys know how much of each ingredient to use (ie suggested usage rate might be 1-40% then i’ll see someone here say to use 2%), when to add it (ie some gums have to be slurried with glycerin, some have to be added before certain ingredients, some after). is this learned through experience, trial and error, manufacturer info, through courses, literature, like what?
Most of the time….the re-packers will increase the minimum use rate from the mfg data sheet.
I actually get a lot of amusement, using ULP to back-track the re-packer ingredients. Remember this….the mfg will generally list the minimum inclusion rate at a point where it will start to make a difference to a product it is added too. The high end is where it starts to make a product gross or unsafe.
The re-packers on the other hand…only have the incentive for you to use the product faster, and re-order. Therefore I tend to use most ingredients somewhere pretty close to the low end of the mfg’s recommendation…and NOT the re-packers info. For the most part….Re-packer info if often very close to worthless.
Most of the problems I have self diagnosed….were solved by way of going to the mfg’s site…and reading all the data and procedures they had on file. Again entering their sites via ULP…usually gives you full access.
As far as knowing use rates….that come with experience. If you have a ULP membership…..go and read 30 formulas of products similar to what you want to make….and look at the inclusion rate….a pattern ALWAYS jumps out. The other tip I might give….is make a simple solution with the ingredient in question…or apply it neat to your skin…the answer will become self evident.
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