Raw material suppliers often give the suggested use level of ingredients. In reality, these are just estimations or motivated suggestions that don’t necessarily reflect what would be best in your own formulation. Consider them good starting points, but to get to the final formula, you’ll have to optimize the ingredient level yourself. Unless you’ve done this before, you won’t have an easy method. Here’s one you can follow.
Starting Formula
We’ll assume that you have a standard base formula with which you are starting. This is pretty standard practice in the industry. It’s even more difficult to optimize a raw material level if you have multiple new ingredients in the formula.
When adding a new raw material to your formula, the first thing you have to decide on is a starting level. To figure this out, you need to decide whether your driving force is performance or cost. On some level, it will be both but one of them should take prominence at first. Personally, I like to ignore cost in the beginning and focus on performance. I figure if a new material provides an impressive new benefit, the additional cost can be overcome through improved marketing.
Looking for ingredients for your cosmetics formulations?
Prospector has listings for thousands of materials from global suppliers. Get technical data, request samples and more now…
Search Materials Now
When focusing on performance the starting level should be the highest level suggested by the raw material supplier, or 1%, whichever is higher. The 1% level is nice to use because it is the maximum level you can use without affecting the ingredient list. The reason we say to use the supplier’s suggested level is because they will usually give the highest level they can. Suppliers are inclined to do this because they want to sell more product.
Make your batch
After you’ve figured out your starting level, make a batch with the new raw material. If you are working with a solution and a water soluble ingredient, you can post add the ingredient to a finished base. However, if it is a more complicated formula form like an emulsion or the ingredient is oil soluble, you should start from scratch.
While you’re creating the prototype be sure to observe the effects the ingredient has on your formula (e.g. On appearance, viscosity, etc.)
Test with and without
After you’ve made your batch you should compare it to a sample of the base formula (without the ingredient). The exact test that you do depends on what the raw material is supposed to do. For example if you are testing a new moisturizing ingredient you can test how it feels on your skin. For a hair product ingredient you can compare performance for combing or feel on hair tresses. Ideally, you’ll do these evaluations in a blinded manner to remove any bias. As a formulator you are motivated to create improved formulas and this can cloud your judgement in favor of the new ingredient.
If you can’t tell any difference at this point, it’s probably not worth going any further with the ingredient. There are a lot of ingredients out there so you don’t want to waste time on ones that don’t show any obvious differences at high levels.
Optimizing cosmetic raw material levels
If you find some type of formula improvement, great! The next thing you have to do is optimize the level of the ingredient. This is an iterative process but you can be most efficient if you follow the “half and double” technique.
To use the half and double technique, you simply make one batch where you cut the level of the ingredient in half and another where you double the level. So, if your starting level was 1% you would make one batch using 0.5% and another using 2%. Then you evaluate the samples (blinded) and see if you can tell a difference. If you can’t tell a difference between the samples, you can repeat the test a few times just to make sure you’re not missing something. But if you still can’t tell a difference, then use the lower level. Repeat the process of cutting the ingredient level in half or doubling it until you get to a point where you figure out the exact, optimized level. Using this process should get you to an optimized ingredient level within 7 batches.
While this method is focused on evaluating new raw materials it would work equally well with the ingredients in your current formula. If you have a formula in which you want to reduce the cost optimizing each ingredient (starting with the most expensive) is a great technique.
The views, opinions and technical analyses presented here are those of the author or advertiser, and are not necessarily those of ULProspector.com or UL. The appearance of this content in the UL Prospector Knowledge Center does not constitute an endorsement by UL or its affiliates.
All content is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without prior authorization from UL or the content author.
The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. While the editors of this site may verify the accuracy of its content from time to time, we assume no responsibility for errors made by the author, editorial staff or any other contributor.
UL does not make any representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness or completeness of the content. UL does not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of sites listed or linked to in any content.
i need more information about
This is an excellent way to get an idea about cosmetic formulas. Thank you for your explanation regarding this .i have got a sound knowledge on this.
Hi perry
In this article, you are talking about the new raw materials testing, when you say if you can not tell any difference between “with” and “without” test , it’s probably not going any further action, I think your point is more adaptive for those instant effect raw materials, what if for the chronic effect raw materials such as whitening or anti-aging effect raw materials?
Hi Perry,
Great article once again!
Can I ask you what you mean by the 1% use level effect on the ingredient label?
….”The 1% level is nice to use because it is the maximum level you can use without affecting the ingredient list…”
Are you implying that you do not need to label ingredients used at <1%? Or other meaning?
Thanks.
Emile
.
structured approach for product optimization. thanks.
recently i have read about rice bran oil being used as an active ingredient in skin creams to give benefits in moisturizing and anti wrinkles. any thoughts!
regards,
There are lots of ingredients touted as active ingredients for skin creams. Most are just good moisturizers. I suspect that is true about rice bran oil.
The cosmetic labeling rules (at least in the US) are such that you have to list every ingredient you add. If the ingredient is added at a level greater than 1% concentration then you have to list it in order of concentration. But if the level is 1% or less you can list it in any order.
That’s a great question. You are right that ingredients that do not have an immediate benefit are more difficult to evaluate. However, that just means your evaluation time needs to be done over a few weeks. That slows up development significantly.
Also, the reality is that consumers have a tough time noticing long term differences so I would argue that unless there is some immediate, noticeable difference, it’s probably not worth pursuing.
Thanks!
Hi Perry,
Great article for optimizing raw materials used in formulation – both as an active ingredient or ingredient used as a Marketing tool.
HI Perry,
That’s a great one, but in an instance where the quality integrity of the product lies on the most expensive material in the formulation, who do you do?
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “quality integrity”.
No matter how much an ingredient costs in the formula if a consumer can’t tell a difference between 5% or 1% there is no good reason you should use 5%.
If the fact that there is 5% of the ingredient in your formula is part of the marketing story then there is not much you can do about that from a formulation standpoint.