Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General Introduction

  • Introduction

    Posted by SolarMuse on November 14, 2016 at 3:06 am

    hello there! I just want to introduce myself and say hi. I was an electrical engineer, turned stay at home mom. Now, I hope to start a successful small batch home based body care line. I am starting out making anhydrous products in my kitchen. I plan to move my manufacturing into my carriage house once it’s ready, and expand into aqueous products. I think I have a few solid formulas and am awaiting APC test results. Once those results come back, I’m sure I’ll be asking question!

    SolarMuse replied 7 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • OldPerry

    Member
    November 14, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    Welcome.  I think you’ll find that if you want to do this successfully you need to work just as hard (or harder) on the marketing piece. 

  • Bobzchemist

    Member
    November 14, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    I think you’d be a lot better off staying anhydrous for as long as you can. Aqueous products increase the difficulty exponentially in terms of formulating,  product safety, and regulation when you’re running a business.

  • SolarMuse

    Member
    November 14, 2016 at 3:16 pm

    Thanks Perry and Bobzchemist! I agree with you both. I have a steep learning curve in both marketing and chemistry. My background is in power systems and the only marketing or chemistry expirence I have are in wholesale electrical markets and solid state electronics. 

    I hope to approach this this endeavor correctly, with my limitations known, reach out for expirenced advice, and test, test, and test. 

    Bobzchemist- I will not touch water based formulas while I am still in my kitchen. I hope to start experimenting with that sometime next year.

    Perry- I am sure there are a wealth of marketing ideas and stradegies on this forum that I have yet to look into. As a first step, I have a graphic designer working on my labels. 

  • johnb

    Member
    November 14, 2016 at 3:39 pm

    If you are serious about setting up a commercial/semi-commercial concern it would be wise to pay careful attention to the premises you are intending to use.

    I’m not sure what “carriage house” means -we don’t tend to have them in the UK - but it hints of a stables or similar. That is a definite no - no!

    The hygiene in a cosmetics preparation/packaging area should at least as good as for commercial food handling/preparation. The first mouse dropping, dog hair, horse hair in or with product would kill your business stone dead as soon as that news was picked up by your local shopper newspaper.

  • OldPerry

    Member
    November 15, 2016 at 1:00 am

    @SolarMuse - you might find our other free report helpful.  http://startacosmeticline.com

  • SolarMuse

    Member
    November 15, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    Haha! Johnb, A carriage house does sound like a horse barn! My house is 100 years old, and the garage,which used to house the carriage, has an upstairs studio. We call these old garages carriage houses when they have an upstairs space. We are doing a complete renovation.

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