EP49. The Three Step Process of a Cosmetic Formulator

Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make and sell your natural beauty formulations. We tackle topics that will make you think and encourage debate about green beauty with your friends, followers or customers. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmeyer. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist, and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school, Formula Botanica. We have thousands of students in over 160 countries worldwide who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free formulation training. In today's episode, we're talking about formulation. What is it, how does it work, and what's it like to be a formulator? If you buy natural skincare, hair care or makeup, then you'll have bought a product that was created by a formulator. But how do formulators come up with these ideas? What's the creative process like? And how do they sift through the infinite number of ingredients available in the cosmetics world? Today, we're going to go deep inside the mind of a formulator and give you a newfound appreciation for the people who make our beauty products. And I've got a great treat for you because I'm interviewing Formula Botanica's head of formulation and research, Timmy Ratz, who has worked with us for the last five years and who is the best and most creative formulator I've ever met.

Welcome to the podcast again, Timmy.

Hello. Thank you for having me again.

Oh, it's fantastic to have you here because I'm super excited to talk about Formulation today. So let's dive straight in. What does a formulator do?

Okay, well, this is a question that I've been thinking about a lot. For me, a formulator is someone who uses a huge amount of creativity and draws inspiration from anywhere in life and pairs that with science to create super products. That's a short version. Don't let me go on.

No, I love that. So basically you're saying that a formulator is instills all of their creativity in the lotions and the serums and the cleansers that we buy in the shops.

Exactly. For me, that has to be the key part of formulation, to bring your inspirations and that your creativity and just create something that you haven't seen before or something that's meaningful to you, to your brand, to, you know, to whatever you're working for.

Wow.

Or towards.

That's beautiful. So you have a three stage process that you go through for each of your new formulations and you obviously formulate for Formula Botanica. You also work for Green Alchemy, which is our consultancy arm. You also do other consultancy. So you're always making formulations, Always. Can you walk me through this three stage process? Let's start with the first stage.

Yes. So the first stage for me is always preparation. And this is the part which I think is the most time consuming bit. This is when you have to find out more about what product you are going to make and how you're going to approach it. So whether you are a formulator yourself for your brand, for your family, or you're working with a client, you need to really understand what the goal is. And for that I always go through a kind of checklist. In the beginning I had a kind of template that I worked with. Now I just follow because I'm used to it. So it comes with experience. So basically you need to be able to answer questions such as, what my product will be, what kind of ingredients will I need to have? How does that solve a problem I'm trying to solve? What kind of scent does it have? What kind of color will it have, How I'm going to package it. So there are various questions you will have to find the answer to in order to clear up this phase. And for me, this is really, really time consuming. And I think even in our courses we do say that formulators spend much more on paper than they would in the lab. And that is because of this phase, the preparation. The first thing is you really need to understand your ingredients, otherwise you won't be able to choose. So this is a detective work kind of in the very beginning where you really have to ask yourself questions and find the answers to each and every one of them. And that will make your life easier in the long run.

Wow, that's a lot of questions to answer. I can. Super time consuming, but a lot of fun as well. I would imagine it is, because this.

Is the part where I find I learn a lot. Obviously we've got the practical side, which would be after this. But, you know, doing research, every single research will add to your knowledge. And you may go, oh, I didn't know this before, oh, I need to try this. Or I often kind of wander off like, oh, that gave me an idea for another product. It happens, but it's fun. It can be a bit monotonous, but I also feel that it really helps build my knowledge all the time. And often we see that people, you know, whether it's students or colleagues, we often get impatient with this bit. And you mustn't.

You must take your time and go slow. Love it.

Awake.

Okay, so at this point, you're sifting through all the available ingredients as well that you might want to use in your formulation. And as we know, there are almost, I suppose, an infinite number of ingredients you can choose from. There are so many different plants and butters and oils and waxes and emulsifiers and preservatives. So how do you choose the right ingredients for this first stage of your formulation process?

I think it all comes down to all those questions I mentioned in the preparation phase. So if you cleared up all these questions, such as, you know what the product, your packaging is ready, do you have hero ingredients, and so on, it will be much easier to select the ingredients. Now, the biggest hurdle people face here is that they don't know their ingredients. So the ingredients are the product. And in order to make this as easy as possible and, you know, successful, you really have to understand and know your ingredients. And we always say for you to know that, to know your ingredients, you have to try them, you have to work with them, you have to have, I don't know, a separate notebook maybe to jot down your thoughts. Write down if it's a no, no for you, or is it something you want to explore further? So this is how I select my ingredients that I fully understand my project and I can just choose accordingly. But that is because I know my ingredients. This is a process that took me years. So obviously, as everyone knows who knows me, I'm not a chemist. I have background in education. However, I've been formulating for many, many years, on and off. So whether it's work or outside work, all the time, pretty much my weekends as well. And this for me has always been an enjoyable process. So I enjoyed trying new ingredients. I enjoyed learning about them. I've never been a kind of person who. Who really liked when people told me black and white. So, for example, let's just say something. I am looking for a thick and nourishing oil. I never wanted people to tell me which one to choose. I wanted to try them. I wanted to choose. I don't want you to tell me black and white. This will work. I want to experience that. And I think it's very important for everyone who formulates to know this that you need to try them. Don't wait for me to tell you, go for it and just see what you think.

Oh, I love that. There's obviously a lot of time involved in this preparation stage. And as you say, you're testing things out, you've got all the background knowledge through all those additional tests you've done. So now we get to the end of this preparation stage. What happens next?

Okay, so because I've got the experience, I pretty much know what I'm looking for when I create a product. So, for example, let's just take an example that many people love. Let's just say a balm, a lovely facial balm. And so if I work towards a balm now, I know what kind of ingredients I need to use and what kind of percentages, what kind of ratios I'm looking for to achieve the consistency I'm aiming at. But this part came with experience. So if somebody is a new formulator, I highly recommend that they try a basic formulation. So in this case of a balm, let's just say you choose one wax, one butter and one oil, and work with only these three ingredients to find the right ratios for you, what you, for your, for the climate, for the packaging you chose. I now know because I've done many balms, but if someone is new to it, this is the first step I would recommend that they take. So it's still the preparation phase because they need to find out the consistency and the viscosity they are working towards. In the beginning, I did this as well, and I'm sure you did when you formulated in the very beginning. So just keep it very, very simple. And then I start layering in all the ingredients I had chosen previously. So if, let's just say in this balm I worked with one wax, now I'm going to choose three. If I worked with one butter, I may choose two, or maybe I choose five. It depending on the previous phase. So, yeah, so you've got your basic formulation and you start layering. And I think that's pretty much concludes my preparation phase, so to speak, because now, okay, I have my formulation, I have a good idea about what I'm going to use, and now I can move on to the next stage, which is the main phase, I call it, which is actual formulation. So this is the fun part.

Yes, I love it. You're going through all this preparation, then you start to really get ready for formulating and you're starting to test out ingredients. So I often see people expect that they can make a product once and it's ready to be sold straight away. And I think we know that is very unrealistic. And this is also something we keep trying to tell our students at Formula Botanica. So I thought it'd be interesting to explore how many iterations you typically go through when you're preparing these formulations.

Sure. Well, I remember in the very beginning, oh my God, at least 20, 30, depending on what I wanted to achieve. I am highly critical. So I think it's a kind of a downfall for me that nothing is ever good enough. And I'm sure many formulators who have done products before, they know how this feels, that I'm sure I could just make this a bit better. And it's still very hard for me to stop when I come to this phase where I make the products and I have to fine tune it. Now when. Let's just say I work with clients over at Green Alchemy, I'm usually around four or five trials before I say, okay, now this is good to go and do a short evaluation. Even if I write something for Formula Botanica's blog post again. Now, 2, 3 would be a typical number of trials I do. And I keep on fine tuning. If someone works with a client or if somebody works with a focus group, obviously they get this feedback from them and they fine tune their formulation based on the feedback they receive. But I would say 4, 5 on a good day. It can be more depending on the ingredient I'm working with. I mean, I think last year I worked with someone and I had to use a brand new surfactant I have never heard of. And I thought, oh, perfect, it's a challenge, let's go for it. And I did have to make, I think 10, 12 different versions before I felt that. Now I understand. I know what will happen and this is a product I'm happy to send over for testing. However, I'm not sure if you've seen this. There was this comment, I'm not even sure maybe a couple of years ago, a year ago in our online classroom, somebody went even to 90 trials to get 1997, something like this. And I went, wow, good for you. I mean, yeah. So it really depends. It's just I think we need to know when to stop and maybe test and evaluate.

Yeah, that's a fair point. You do need to know when to stop. But on the other hand, I like that perfectionist streak. I've got an element of that as well, where you just keep going until you're very happy with it. And I suppose, you know, if you're making particularly a product to sell, then it's good to keep going until you've got the very best product that you think will really take the market by storm and really give your customers what they want. I was talking to Timmy only a few weeks ago, and you were preparing a. It was a blusher for one of the workshops to be teaching at in cosmetics. And I said to you, how many iterations did you go through? And you went, six. And I went, is that all? That's incredible. How did you do six? And I thought that didn't sound like much. But I think to some people who maybe aren't that familiar or new to formulating, they might think that 6 is actually way too many, that you should.

Be able to do it in one.

So I'm really glad to hear you say that, actually. Sometimes it's good to just keep going until it works. Totally.

I just wanted to say that, yeah, I mean, with this particular product, with the blusher, it literally, it was just amazing to see that even 1% change in the ratios made such a big difference how the product felt, how you applied it, how it stayed on the skin. And I was fascinated by it. So, yeah, six wasn't much. I still think that I could work on it a bit more, but.

I'm sure it's perfect as it is.

Okay, so we've gone through the first.

Two stages of formulation of your process. What is the final stage of Temi's formulation process?

It's definitely testing and evaluation. So chances are that with the main phase, while you're working on perfecting your formula, you get continuous feedback whether you test it yourself, your friends or family, which I personally don't normally recommend, simply because they can be biased. And it's nice, except it may not help with this process. So we always recommend at Formula Botanica that, especially if you create a product for your brand, get a focus group together, and chances are that you've been doing initial testing with this focus group or with other people while you were working in the main phase. Now with the last phase is, for me, it's more about the legalities and making sure that the product is not only suitable for the target market, but also making sure that I comply with the law. So this is where we talking about preservative challenge testing, stability testing, as well as the safety assessment, especially if you are in the eu. Although I highly recommend, regardless where you are, that you follow these three tests because they are quite strict, they are there for a reason, and they will give you a peace of mind as well. And there's nothing, you know, worse than having a product that you just fell in love with, that you just created, and then finding out that, yeah, after three months, it's just not going to work with this legal side of formulating. We always say that you should kind of pay attention to them straight from the beginning. So you should always create a product with certain elements already decided rather than create a product and then you decide. So, for example, so you understand if I create a bomb, it's good that you, for example, know what shelf life you are aiming for. You know how you're going to package this, because everything in your formulation will be affected by these decisions. So many times we see these mistakes in our community where people create a lovely product and they go, hmm, how do I package this now? No, it should be the other way around because everything will affect your actual formulation. So this is the part which is the testing side and the legalities. It is time consuming. So in case anyone is not familiar with this part, the preservative testing is about 30 days long. An accelerated stability testing is 12 weeks long. So I often hear from people, they want to launch something within two, three, four months. I tell you now, no, adjust your timeline. You need at least 12 weeks just for the testing and then you haven't done the paperwork. So it's good to give time for yourself when you create a product. Especially when you create a product for sale.

Yes, and you're right. We get this question all the time at Formula Botanica. You know, I want to launch within three months, I want to have my business going in the next six months. And you go, well, that's going to be a challenge if you're going to do all these tests. And even if they're not mandatory in the country where you're living, you should do them because they're best practice. They are the big players in the beauty industry. Do them. And so should the indie sector. We should hold ourselves to the same standards because we're all producing amazing consumer products.

Yeah, no, these testing, very strict about this. So I don't let these skip. They have to be done not only for legalities, but as you said, it's good practice. And not to mention, it also gives you an idea about what you need to change or if you need to change something further down the line. So, for example, if, let's just say in this case of the balm, I mean, I remember I had this product from a brand that I admired some time ago. I bought the balm from them and within two months it became super grainy. And that's not something, you know, it's nothing wrong with the balm, but it's not nice. It doesn't create that feeling anymore that I don't want to use it, if that makes sense. And that could have been avoided by doing proper challenge testing. Maybe it was a climate change, maybe it was the shipping to this country because it wasn't from the uk. But the fact remains that especially if you sell or you expect to expand your customer base, you need to be aware how conditions change. And the only way to do that is by testing.

And if you haven't tested your products properly and they do disappoint your customer, your customer isn't going to come back and buy another one, which is. It's as simple as that, right?

Yeah, it does have consequences. Yep.

Okay, so you've been talking about your formulation process and obviously you made me formulate with natural ingredients because that's what we do at Formula Botanica. So I wanted to know, how do you think natural formulation differs to sort of mainstream traditional formulation? Okay.

For me, the biggest difference, and I hope it's not going to be too controversial for the listeners, for me, the biggest difference is the creativity I see behind the product. So, for example, if I just take, let's just say a shower gel or a shampoo, for me, the mainstream is pretty much the same.

It's.

I'm not talking about how they work as such, but I don't see the creativity behind those products. Whereas when I see, as an artist or indie brand, you see that they went an extra mile, whether it's their packaging or it's the color of the product or it's the scent of the product or something similar. And for me, this is the biggest difference between the mainstream and the indie brand. That you see that personal touch, that a piece of their mind or their creativity or their heart in the product, which I don't find in mainstream, and I don't feel inspired by them.

No, I understand. I don't think that's controversial at all. I think you're absolutely correct. And, you know, you can go into the supermarkets and pick up all these different shower gels, for instance, or hand soaps, and if you turn them over, they are identical. Apart from maybe they've got a different colorant in them, but they are identical. And the impression I've always been given is that sort of mainstream formulators end up in a lab and they're given formulations that have been passed down from chemist to chemist to chemist, and that is how they're expected to do it. And if they change it, they tweak it slightly rather than build it from the ground up, which is what you've just been talking about on this podcast. So that's where I guess that creativity is missing, really, Because I'm guessing that most mainstream formulators and chemists aren't given the freedom to start completely from scratch and probably. And build ground up.

Yeah. And it's a shame. I think this is where I think it's a good balance between cosmetic chemists and formulators that one brings something the other one doesn't have, maybe, and vice versa. So it's not about them being against each other, but they actually come. They work well together. And I just hope it's going to stay like this and continue to grow instead of, you know, controversy.

And if you want to hear our.

Podcast on the difference between a cosmetic chemist and a formulator, then head over to Green Beauty Conversations in the on itunes or Spotify, and you'll be able to find that discussion, which we had several months ago. Okay, so final question for you, Timmy.

Go for it.

Why do you love formulating so much?

Oh, that's easy. And I'm going to repeat myself again and again. For me, this is all about creativity, expressing myself, and a challenge. I only stop formulating. And I have to say, I do stop formulating sometimes when I feel I'm getting bored when this is a product I've done again and again. However, when I actually. In the middle of researching the preparation phase, I realized that this product is not something I've done before because I changed to different ingredients. I'm using a new ingredient. I'm using a new packaging aiming to achieve. I'm solving a different problem with that particular formulation. So it's all about learning for me and challenging myself. But the best part is when I have to work on something I haven't done before, such as the blusher that we talked about previously. It's so much fun. And I have to say, I get sometimes to a stage when I can hardly switch off in the evening because, no, I'm gonna have to do it again. I have to do it. I know I can make this better. I don't understand why this happened. I have to try it again to figure it out. So it's all about that. And that is one thing I highly recommend to anyone who wants to formulate is tap into your creativity. Don't stick to the written words all the time. Don't work with a template all the time, but push yourself. And if you question that, what happens if I add, I don't know, a different ingredient? Go for it. Try it. Don't wait for someone else to tell you what will happen. Do it yourself. And that's the best advice I can give because I think it will make everyone much, much better Formulators.

I love it. Thank you Timmy, and thank you for the interview. It's been really insightful and interesting to hear about how you formulate.

So thank you very much for joining.

Me on the podcast today.

Thank you for having me again.

So next time you're in the shops and you're looking at the beauty products on the shelves in front of you, I hope you'll join me in seeing them in a new light and with a newfound level of appreciation. Formulators are hugely creative people, just like Timmy, and they love working with different ingredients. And as we heard, many natural formulators do things slightly differently by infusing so many much of their creativity and even a part of themselves into their formulations. This approach has its risks, of course, but it is also part of the reason that the indie beauty sector has taken off in such a big way.

And why so many of the big.

Brands are now trying to copy what they do. You don't need to be stifled when you're a natural formulator. There are always new ways of looking at ingredients and new ways of looking at beauty products. In the last few years, we've seen different concepts combined to create something new. Think of skin yogurts, pressed serums, micellar shampoos, or unicorn balms. These types of formulations grab people's attentions because they're different and exciting. So I hope this podcast has inspired you to want to become a formulator too. And the good news is, if you want an outlet for your creativity, Formula Botanica teaches multiple award winning online courses to help you become an organic formulator. All you need to do is head over to formulabotanica.com and pre register for our next term time or take our free training. And if you have a specific question about formulation or natural beauty products, don't hesitate to send us a message through our social media channels and we may just answer your question in one of our next podcasts. Thank you for joining Timmy and I.

For this latest episode of Green Beauty.

Conversations where we took you deep inside the mind of a formulator. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on itunes or Spotify and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn. We're everywhere. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for a free formulation training class today.

Sam.