Contract Manufacturing: The Move From Home To the Lab
Say you have a beauty brand and yous started it at home. It went from a DIY project to a complete full-on functioning company that’s growing fast. Or maybe you’re looking to expand your brand and make the jump from an at-home kind of thing to a more professional and profitable business. Then, let me tell you how to execute.
This blog will tell you all that you need to know about moving your beauty brand from home to the lab.
Taking Your Brand (from Home) to Genie Supply (a Lab)
It starts off like this. If you want to have a third-party (that’s us!) make your formula so you can devote your time to other important things, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get started!
Step One: Fill Out An Onboarding Form
For us to manufacture your products, you need to fill out a contract manufacturing onboarding form. On this form are four things we need to know.
Properly identifying Ingredients: Common Name, INCI or Trade Name?
Though it sounds simple, to properly move from your home to a lab, the ingredient list needs to be specific. Let’s look at “Jasmine Oil” as an example. You might be tempted to just call it “jasmine oil” or “jasmine scent”, but that’s a common name, or slang.
We need the the trade name (i.e. “Superscents Jasmine”) and the INCI name (i.e. jasminium officianale (jasmine) oil). INCI stands for International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient and these names help identify cosmetic ingredients. By having both names, there won’t be any confusion over what the exact ingredient your formula needs.
Reminder, we measure our ingredients by percentage by weight. With a home to lab situation, specificity is very important!
Calculating Ratios: Percentage by Weight
We need to know the percentage by weight of each ingredient that you use. This means you need to take the measurement in grams of each ingredient used, then calculate the percentages.
To do so, you take individual weight measurements of each addition and sum all the ingredients used. Then, you’ll take the weight of each ingredient over the total sum to get their percentage. All percentages should then add up to 100%.
Packaging Fill Weight: Calculating Net Weight / Fill Size
Next on the home to lab list, is fill size! We need to know the exact fill in grams.
To find the fill size and get the information to us, take the packaging you want and place it on a scale. Make sure you tare (set it to zero) and then fill it with water to what you think’s best. You MUST fill with water to find the proper measurement. 1 gram of water equals to 1 milliliter. So you just found the exact fill capacity in milliliters (ml).
It can get a little more complicated from there, because to figure out the real fill weight of your formula into your packaging, you must measure the density of the formula and multiply it by the fill capacity. This is because your formula likely does not have the exact same density as water, so 1g of your formula wouldn’ take up the same space as 1g of water.
Alternatively, you can work backwards. If you do not know the density of your formulation, you can fill with your formula up to the EXACT same fill line as you filled with water and measure that weight, just like you did with water. That’s your real fill of your formula in your packaging. To calculate density (if you need it)”
(weight of your formula to the fill line / water weight to the fill line) = density of your formula
Manufacturing Instructions
Mixing instructions have to be super detailed. After taking the percentage of ingredients and keeping the other details in mind, we want to make sure we execute the product correctly when you move your brand from home to a lab. Detailed instructions include phases, temperatures of said phases, temperatures at which items can be mixed, cooling instructions (if applicable) and speed mixer heads. Any special transfers or equipment used must be denoted.
Step Two: Manufacturing
Time to move on to manufacturing! After you’ve filled out the form, we’ll give you a quote for contract manufacturing, including any samples or testing that needs to occur FIRST before we can do a full manufacturing run. Read our “What You Need to Know About Contract Manufacturing” for a full explanation on what that all entails. In the meantime, here’s a summary.
Basically, you give us the detailed form. We recreate your formula for a sample round. Once finished, we give it back to you for comments and feedback. We adjust if needed. It costs around $300 - $800, but if you book an order with us, it’s included for free! Then, we manufacture the rest.
Additional Step: Testing
Running your beauty brand from home isn’t a bad thing, but creating your products at home could be. Our “Dangerous DIY: Should You Make Cosmetics at Home?” blog explains it all.
If your products don’t go through the proper testing, it could lead to bad situations. For example, say your product doesn’t have preservatives to prevent mold or bacteria and it gets shipped to a customer. That customer will open it, be upset, and post a terrible review. Or worse, they sue.
If you move your product from home to a lab, Genie Supply will help you find the proper testing you need. For example, if your product contains any water, then it definitely needs PET (preservative efficacy testing). We’ll do any testing before moving on to manufacturing.
Optional Step: Certifications
With testing comes certifications. Clean beauty is all the rage these days and Genie Supply just so happens to specialize in green, clean beauty. People like to know that what they put on their skin is healthy for their body.
Genie Supply offers testing certifications and matches up our products to other big names like Sephora, Credo, and Whole Foods. Want to know how your product matches up to clean standards? Contact us and you’ll find out!
Conclusion: You Should Definitely Take Your Brand From Home Life to Lab Living
Having someone else manufacture your formulas will allow you more time to invest in elsewhere. When you don’t have to roll up your sleeves, you can get down to business and work on other important aspects of your brand like marketing. Moving from at-home to a lab is simple with Genie Supply. Fill out form (with plenty of details), submit, approve the quota, and we’ll start manufacturing!
Ready to expand your brand from home to a lab?
Contact us today and we’ll get you started!
