mikethair
Forum Replies Created
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I think that it very much depends on the market you are targeting.
With my experience as
the co-founder of a skincare manufacturing factory in Viet Nam and Malaysia
since 2006, and producing shampoo bars for brands globally, we stayed well away from melt and pour and made the shampoo bars in very large moulds of 12 Kg and did 5 of these moulds in every production run.Melt and pour syndet bars is a very competitive space with low-profit margins. Not the space we wanted to be in.
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Having formulated and manufactured pet products some years ago, my immediate questions are why the 2% acetic acid and 2% glycolic acid? And why a pH of 5.9?
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My approach would be to contact the cosmetics compliance authority in your country and ask for details. You could also ask about their standards and requirements for the inspection of your premises.
My company was manufacturing products and doing compliance for companies globally. And I figured that it was safer to sort out the cosmetic compliance before we started manufacturing.
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Yes, I have faced this issue. My immediate thoughts are:
(1) Choose unrefined oils that have smells you and your customers can live with. That’s why I did with the products I was manufacturing and exporting globally.
(2) Any ingredients that could help in covering the smell are going to introduce their new issues. They are probably going to synthetics, which introduces a new set of issues.
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Yes indeed @baileybreakthrough ….. “Murumuru Butter and have just experimented with some lip balms today
using it. What an AWFUL smell/taste it has!!! Even raw, and then while
melting, and in the final product.”I have been formulating for 30+ years and along the way co-founded a factory in Viet Nam and Malaysia to produce skincare for global brands, and I’m still learning.
It’s why I love this profession!!
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And exactly where are you located? This makes a difference……different countries have different compliance regulations.
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I have experienced similar issues, and my approach has always been a focus on the individual ingredients. I ALWAYS insist on a CoA for each ingredient and buy from the same supplier. This ensures ingredient consistency.
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Yes indeed, “100% natural” is a great sales pitch. I do not see any “natural” ingredients here, but hey, that’s just me.
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hi @PhilGeis the limited shelf life was based on a series of trials we did in our laboratory and a number of simulated shippings plus actual data from selected consumers before we shipped proper.
As a scientist, I tend to go to extreme lengths to test out our systems and products.
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Hi, @DiscoMonkeys I would be looking very carefully first at your brand ideals before going too deeply into the product. It helps if there is a common thread tying your brand and products together.
In our case with my brand, we had two themes (1) to replace more functional benefits with experiential ones, and (2) we were all about “trading down,” down to the local, the simple, the unrefined but raw and true. And we went for prestige, high-quality products, and high retail/wholesale price.
So in our case with room spray, I went for very high-quality hydrols imported from Grasse, France. There was no preservative, and the shelf life was short. So, therefore, this puts this product into the exclusive high-price category because of the source, and short shelf life. These factors provided customers with the allure of a balance between inclusivity and exclusivity so consumers experience both - belonging and longing - proximity and distance. And we did not SELL, I preferred to turn the sales pitch into the art of seduction.
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My guess is to control pH.
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And what business are you referring to @fareloz ? My company shut down last year and no longer exists.
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My thought is that after the passing of Anita, the founder, they have lost their competitive edge.
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@PhilGeis , NO, I do not need to be any more specific. You are not a Compliance Authority, and for 20-plus years I have responded to global compliance authorities with these sorts of questions for this Room Spray.
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@Meet yes, I would agree.
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No surprises here. Have you spent any time in India?
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Hydrosols are common, they are not an invention of mine. The hydrosol is collected directly from the still where it is sterile, and then rebottled under sterile conditions. Under the supplier’s GMP, bottles are retailed and tested beyond the designated shelf life. These products are not preserved.
With our GMP facility, we retained bottles, and these were tested regularly to well beyond the marked shelf life.
All in all, all the boxes ticked, and over many years we did not experience any issues.
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Hi @Perry44 with respect, I see riding around in a car not wearing a seatbelt akin to producing room spray without GMP compliance. It’s dangerous and can cause injury.
A good idea is to produce room spray with all the safeguards of GMP compliance.
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@PhilGeis there is nothing irresponsible about a short shelf life if the consumer follows the product instructions.
And of course, Hydrosols are not preservatives.
And I should add that I produced these products in a GMP Certified production facility, so we had full compliance and safety regimes.
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Hi @Abdullah
In our 20 years of manufacturing, we never had any issues with reduced foam. However, some oils we saponified produced more foam than others. For example, cocononut oil produced more foam than olive oil.
Have you experimented and done the comparison?
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Hi again, @Paprik. I have noted your comments and will keep them in mind. Thanks.
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Hi @Paprik Are you a soap maker? If not, then probably of no interest to you. And if you do make anything, it would be great if you could do a similar post exploding common myths surrounding the product type you are producing. I want to read it. I’m on a continual learning curve, yep, even in my mid-70s.
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Hi @fareloz
As identified in my post, the bone-lazy approach of copying a soap formulation from the internert and expeting it to produce a good soap bar. And the myth of shortcuts. There aren’t any, I sorry.
Most soap bars are made using soft oils, and they will not last very long. And I explode the myth of palm oil. It’s an exccellent oil that adds hardness to the bar and extends it useage time. And yes, Certified RSPO palm oil is available.
Are you a soap maker?
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As a scientist, I believe that articles written in well-known scientific books and journals are credible at the time of publishing. But having said that, we must remain open to new data which may change your mind. So, for a scientist, the mindset is that no conclusion is 100% definitive. Later articles in journals may shed new light on an issue.
There are no definitives or absolute truths in ongoing research.
For example, in my younger years, I did a lot of research on marine algae (seaweed). What I read last week completely contradicted what I had concluded so many years ago. And the focus these days includes the use of seaweed in producing skincare ingredients.
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@nielrobertlim If you are following what your competitor does and relying on what your ingredient supplier suggests, then you are certainly limited.
I have mentored a few African companies that wanted to break out of this mould. I developed their capacity to manufacture body wash, face wash and shampoo via the saponification of plant oils. I did this all remotely.
These companies are now doing extremely well, and exporting their products globally. One of them is currently attracting a lot of attention attending a trade show in Europe.
My factories were located in Viet Nam and Malaysia, so I guess we were into “Asian skincare.” But certainly not “whitening.”