Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General Most expensive raw material

  • Most expensive raw material

    Posted by belassi on April 7, 2016 at 3:54 pm

    What is the most expensive raw material you use?

    I’ve never really thought about it in any depth, but I am now - because I’ve just been quoted $2,400 per kilo. I haven’t yet fed the data into my pricing model with a use rate of 1% but it should be interesting to see what the projected retail price will be!
    David08848 replied 8 years ago 7 Members · 10 Replies
  • 10 Replies
  • Anonymous

    Guest
    April 7, 2016 at 5:31 pm

    I am small, oh so small, but my most expensive ingredients are Neroli EO and HA.

  • Microformulation

    Member
    April 7, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    I do quite a few US FDA Monograph OTC Formulations. Some of the OTC actives can dwarf the cost of many if not all Cosmetic Raw materials.

  • DragoN

    Member
    April 8, 2016 at 2:35 am

     Some of the OTC actives can dwarf the cost of many if not all Cosmetic Raw materials.


    This^^
  • Bill_Toge

    Member
    April 8, 2016 at 2:26 pm

    the most expensive material per weight that we currently buy in substantial quantities is hexylresorcinol (for a skin lightening product), which if memory serves is about £700/kg

    also, some of our dyes run into hundreds of pounds per kg, but the cost per weight is offset by the fact we only buy 1-2 kg at a time

    as for expensive raw materials we don’t use, we once had an enquiry from a customer who’d had a load of formulas developed by a consultant; several of the fragrance ingredients were several thousand per kg, the most expensive being rose absolute, which was about £6,000 per kg at the time

    (it never went anywhere as all the formulas turned out to be paper exercises and the consultant had never checked whether or not they could actually be made, but that’s a whole other story)

  • Chemist77

    Member
    April 8, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    Have seen in Middle East people buying oud wood at USD 50000/kg and as Bill said even the rose absolute is almost there up at the top. 

  • belassi

    Member
    April 8, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    What on earth is oud wood?

  • Chemist77

    Member
    April 9, 2016 at 3:54 am

    Agarwood and which generally comes from Cambodia, Indonesia and some eastern parts of India (though I am unaware of other places of origin), older the wine better the price is how it goes. Just like the rose absolute which is very rare and as far as I know comes majorly from Bulgaria, Taif (Saudi Arabia) & India. Have literally seen people doing such heavy transactions, Imagine the fake agarwood that comes from Indonesia is sold for USD 2000/kg and which sells in tons and tons. 

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    April 15, 2016 at 3:55 am

    Welcome to the world of expensive:

    Tradename: Plantaderma
    Inci: Nicotiana benthamiana
    Hexapeptide-40 sh-Oligopeptide-1

    Cost ~ $750,000/kg !!!!! (its sold by the mg)
    Use level: 0.01 - 0.02 ppm
    This is purified epidermal growth factor, its crazy expensive stuff, but in the world of biotechnology this is what you are looking at in terms of expensive. The literature and studies are compelling, but not worth the cost in my opinion, it is worth sampling if they let you get your hands on it.
  • DavidW

    Member
    April 26, 2016 at 11:37 pm

    Never bought it for production but once developed a formula for a customer with bee venom. It was $109 for a 25mg package.

  • David08848

    Member
    April 27, 2016 at 2:14 am

    Essential Oils have been my most expensive raw material!  Absolutes too!  Several of them never made it to a final product and I just kept them for myself!  Anything that is over $100 a bottle isn’t something I would think of buying now!

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