4 Key Elements to Define for Developing a Solid Cosmetic Formula
Throughout my time at a contract manufacturer, I worked with a lot of new brand owners who were trying to enter the cosmetic space. The one thing almost all of them struggled with was the strategy behind their product and formula.
I have seen the whole spectrum of issues- from not having a strategy at all to using whatever ChatGPT spit out to straight up trying to copy another product on the market.
Now if you are guilty of this, don’t sweat, I am here to walk you through the process of creating a strategy for your formula that will help make it more effective and easier to market.
Table of Contents
Getting Started
Starting the formula strategy without clearly defining the product’s purpose and end goals is one of the most common mistakes new brand owners make. Many jump straight into the formulation process because they’re eager to create a product, but without a solid foundation, your entire strategy can become scattered and unfocused.
Before diving into the nitty gritty details of your formula strategy, you should first be able to answer:
The "why" for creating it and the end goals of the product
How does this product fit into your business objectives- are you trying to expand into a new category, address a specific customer need, launch a brand new business, or reach a certain sales target
The overarching category (hair, body, skin, oral, lips, color, etc.)
The main concern you want to target (SPF, acne, hair loss, cavities, etc.)
The answers to the above will be decided based on your overarching business goals, your market research and your brand’s identity and story.
Understanding the bigger picture to why you are launching a product will help make these later decisions much easier. By taking the time to clearly define your objectives you can:
Streamline decision making: A clear strategy makes it easier to choose ingredients, packaging, and marketing tactics that align with your goals.
Save you time and money: With clear objectives, you’ll avoid wasting resources on unnecessary iterations or mismatched strategies.
Increase your success rate: A well-defined strategy ensures your product is positioned to meet both consumer needs and business goals.
What is a Formula Strategy
Using your starting point, it’s time to start to build the essence of your product on paper. Your strategy will encompass everything from who you are targeting, what format you will create, what benefits you want to have, the ingredients you will use to achieve your goals, the user experience, and the testing you will do to prove your product’s outcomes and safety.
It is essentially all of the foundational information that will guide formula development and your marketing and sales strategy. Without a well defined formula strategy your final product may end up not resonating with your consumer which leaves you with money down the drain and potential distrust.
Creating your Strategy
There are four main categories you need to define for your formula:
Demographic
Format
Benefits
Aesthetics
Defining the Demographic
Using your product’s purpose and your findings from your market research, you will likely already have an idea of who you need to target with your product. Since every demographic will have their own unique concerns, it is really important to define this early on, as it will effect all of the later decisions you need to make.
For example, maybe you know you want to create a hair care product for oily skin since you have dealt with an oily scalp your whole life. Through your market research you discovered that while scalp products are increasing, there aren’t a lot of available options for women who have an oily scalp.
When defining your demographic, try to answer the following:
Age group
Our bodies changes as we age, including our skin and hair. Teenagers will have different skin than someone in their 60’s.
Skin/hair type
Each skin type has their own unique challenges that the formula should be tailored too.
Gender
Will you want to target a specific gender or create a gender-neutral formula.
Geographic location
Consider the geographic regions you are targeting, as climate could effect ingredient and format choices.
Economic factors
Assessing the income level of your target market can help you price your product appropriately.
Cultural preferences
Take into account any cultural beauty preferences to ensure that your product will resonate with the market.
Accessibility
Will your product be used by people with disabilities or mobility issues? This may alter your product direction to ensure the product is accessible to those consumers.
Lifestyle needs
What motivates and excites your target audience? For example, if your audience are mainly fitness enthusiasts, they may prefer a lightweight, sweat-proof formula.
Once you have gathered this data, I recommend writing out a paragraph similar to the below before moving forward:
This scalp product will target middle class, millennial women aged 30+ with an oily scalp and fine hair type. These women live across the United States, typically live busy lifestyles and need a simple to use product that can be easily incorporated into their routine.
Choosing the Right Product Type and Format
Having solidified the above information, choosing the correct product type and format will becoming 10X easier.
You have two major decisions to make: the category + the format
For example, within the cleanser category, we have a variety of formats such as gels, solutions, tablets, sticks, balms, etc.
When thinking about which category to develop your product within, keep in mind two very important things: the problem you are targeting + the consumer.
Going back to our scalp example, since those with fine hair/oily scalp often get weighed down by hair products, we need something that will either dry very quickly or can be washed away. Since this product is targeting excess sebum, a leave on serum is better suited since sebum reduction often requires a leave on application for best results.
Now within a specific category, the formula could take a variety of different format directions. We could make this scalp serum a thin, water-based gel, an emulsion or even an oil-based format.
Ideally your format makes sense for the demographic, the application area, the budget, and the ingredient stability.
Since our scalp product needs to dry down quickly and not leave a residue, making a thin, water-based serum is preferred. Leaving out oil-soluble ingredients can prevent the already oily scalp from feeling weighed down.
Here are a few tips for picking the best format:
Don’t ignore the skin/hair type.
For example, people with oily skin typically don’t want to use heavy, emulsions as they associate them with feeling greasy.
The application area matters.
For example, in scalp products the product often needs a thin consistency because our hair is in the way.
Understand the concern you are targeting.
For example, some concerns, like sebum reduction, take time to counteract and need a leave on application for best results.
Get your Guidebook
Dive deeper into formula development and gain clarity on the essential steps needed to develop your cosmetic product with our guidebook.
Picking the Right Benefits, Ingredients and Claims
To keep your formulation streamlined I recommend to stick to three main benefits that your product will achieve. This should go without saying, but the benefits you choose need to align with the actual issues that your target consumer is dealing with. This is where researching the market and the concern you are targeting comes into play to ensure you are properly aligning the key benefits. For example, someone with an oily scalp is probably not going to care that much about making sure their scalp is properly hydrated, so that shouldn’t be a focus for the serum.
When defining these benefits keep in mind both instant/short term and long-term effects. Most consumers don’t understand just how long products can take to work, so having some sort of instant effect can push them to continue using the product long enough for the long term effects to kick in.
For our scalp serum, we want the product to provide instant oil reduction, reduce sebum levels and reduce symptoms of excess oil like flakes and itchiness.
Once you have these key benefits solidified you will need to find ingredients that have scientific data for your desired outcomes. When searching for the right ingredients, keep the following in mind:
Compatibility
The ingredients need to be compatible with your chosen format and the other ingredients
For example, in our serum, we would need to pick only water soluble actives since our chosen format likely can’t handle oil-soluble actives
The ingredients all need to be stable and effective within the same pH range. For example, you can’t have one ingredient that only works at pH 4-6 and another that needs a pH of 6-8
Mechanism of Action
The ingredients need to work in a way that should produce the desired benefits. Meaning, the ingredient should exert its effects on specific target pathways within the skin that will either counteract or boost the desired outcome.
Synergy of chosen actives is also important. Picking two ingredients that work on the same mechanism can actually cause competition and a reduction in potential results.
Sound Scientific Data
The ingredients should have sound scientific data that supports their efficacy. Generally, this means a combination of in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies that have been conducted using sound scientific methods.
Brand Story/Ingredient Philosophy
The ingredients should fit well within your overarching brand story and any defined ingredient philosophy
For example, if your brand is science-forward with a focus on synthetic and biotech ingredients then your choices should reflect that
Consumer Knowledge
The ingredients should be either well known and sought after for your consumer or have a good marketing angle that can be used to educate and excite your consumer enough to try it out
Pricing
The ingredients should fit within your target formula COG. It is also important to assess the MOQ and shelf life of the ingredient at this stage. If you are only going to produce 5,000 units but you have to buy material that would last 15,000 units, you need to determine if the ingredient will be able to be used up before it expires.
Regulatory and Safety
The ingredient should be approved for use within your desired market and have good safety data to support its use in your target application
With your key ingredients chosen, you should start to consider any claims you want to make on your formula. Your claims should be meticulously considered to ensure they are appealing to your target consumer but also reasonable based on the data and efficacy of the chosen ingredients.
There are a few categories of claims you should consider at this stage:
Performance claims
Will you conduct any clinical testing to prove the performance of your product
For example: in our scalp serum we want to show a reduction of sebum levels by X% after 1-2 months and have before and after photos showing the visible difference in oiliness and scalp health.
Safety claims
Will you perform any safety testing that could be appealing to your target consumer
For example: we want to test our scalp serum to ensure it is non-comedogenic (meaning it won’t clog pores)
Value based claims
Will you make any claims surrounding specific values that your brand aligns with
For example: we want to make an alcohol-free claim as it can be overly drying, even for oily-skin types.
Certifications
Will you apply for any certifications for the formula that can help build trust with your consumer
For example: we want to apply for leaping bunny, so consumers know we are cruelty free.
Further reading: Introduction to writing compliant claims
Defining the Aesthetics
One of the last big decisions you need to make for your formula strategy is the user experience. How do you want the formula to look, feel, smell like, etc. Make sure you consider the aesthetics for the entire user experience, such as appearance, texture, spreadability, sensory, dry down, and after feel.
Your aesthetic properties also need to highly align with your target consumer, the chosen format and your target packaging.
I haven’t talked much about packaging, but it isn’t something you should ignore during this process. Ideally, defining all the above information will make it easier to choose a packaging direction.
For example, since scalp products often can be challenging to apply, dropper style packaging is the preferred path forward for ease of use.
Your packaging choice can cause limitation in the formula aesthetics, especially things like texture and viscosity, so it needs to be considered early on. For formulas in a dropper, they need to be thin enough that the dropper picks up enough product and dispenses it without getting stuck to the sides.
In general, when defining your aesthetics be specific, use clear adjectives, and keep it simple.
For our scalp serum we need a serum that is thin, transparent or translucent gel that spreads easily with little to no tack. It needs to dry down extremely quickly and not leave any visible residue or sticky/oily skin feel.
Good Strategies in the Wild
Prequel Glycerin Cleanser
Why I like this strategy:
The product aligns with the brands overall messaging and mission of being clinically tested, safe for sensitive skin conditions.
The product filled a gap in their portfolio as being one of the only cleanser options
A unique cleanser format with high levels of glycerin that helps them differentiate in the marketplace
Focused on benefits that individuals with sensitive skin types, such as providing effective cleansing without stripping the skin barrier
Designed a well thought out clinical study that targeted specific skin concerns that those with sensitive skin deal with such as flushing, redness, etc.
Chose well-studied ingredients that work in this format and help them achieve the desired benefits of the formula
Focused on intentional safety testing that their demographic cares about such as testing around sensitive skin and allergies.
Gain consumer trust through the Eczema and Rosacea association seals
Focuses on what is in the formula and the science behind the ingredients, rather than fear-mongering
Deinde Skin Strengthening Serum
Why I like this strategy:
The product fills a gap in their portfolio as being the only serum option and helps complete a simple skincare routine that combines well with the other product offerings
The product supports the companies overall goal of biotech based skincare and the lab behind the scenes
The milky format resonates well with normal to dry skin types, seen as more nourishing and fits in well with the anti-aging and skin health benefits they call out
Uses a patented biotech ingredient that helps them stand out in the marketplace and support the products benefits
Well thought out clinical study that includes before and after images, expert grading and consumer perception results that boost trust around the formula’s efficacy
Gains consumer trust through the Eczema association and skinsafe seal
Murad Superactive Moisturizer SPF 50
Why I like this strategy:
Helps solve the problem of getting retinol-like benefits during the day time (retinol can’t be worn during the day due to irritation potential)
Utilizes ingredients that work in synergy together to both reduce and prevent signs of aging
Pairs well within their portfolio of other anti-aging formulas
Speaks well to consumers who want to reduce the amount of product’s they wear by utilizing this multi-functional formulation
Focuses on benefits that sunscreen users care about such as layering under makeup, white cast and irritation potential
A consumer perception survey conducted on a large skin tone range (important for sunscreen) that showed results within one week
Common Pitfalls
Focusing too Much on Trends
We have all seen brands blow up on the internet and I get it, you want that for your brand as well. But for all we know that trend could be gone tomorrow. Cosmetic products can take years to develop and launching a product solely based on a trend can be a very risky strategy. While you certainly can take trends into account, it shouldn’t be your main focus. And if you do take them into account, try focusing on ones that have a more long term trajectory like sustainability, minimalism, science-baked, clean beauty, etc.
Case Study #1 Purple Toothpaste: Working in the oral care industry, we all saw the absolute hype that Hismile’s purple color correcting serum got all over the internet. This led to a lot of people wanting to launch their own purple toothpaste in hopes of being successful like Hismile. But in reality the trend slowly sizzled out (probably because it actually doesn’t do anything)… and a lot of people were stuck with a product that no one really wanted.
Not Thinking About the Future
When developing a strategy, it is always a good idea to think about the future products you’ll want to create. That way you don’t accidentally cannibalize a future opportunity. For example, don’t create a "do it all serum" if you think you’ll want to launch another serum in the future. Lay out your desired product offerings to get a feel for the future.
Case #2 The Serum Debacle: When I worked at a brand, the product manager wanted to launch a do-it-all serum because the company currently didn’t offer any. We went down the path of development, only to have the team completely change their minds and start over with a series of serums. They were worried that having a do-it-all serum would have dug them into a hole if they ever tried to launch another one.
Overcomplicating the Product
I often see brands trying to do too much with one product. While a lot of consumers want simplified systems and routines, it doesn’t mean you need to jam pack your formulation to hit every benefit possible. You can absolutely create simple systems and routines by being strategic and smart about your ingredient selections. The more you pack in, the higher chance you have for stability problems, an extremely expensive formula and possible supply chain headaches.
Changing your Strategy Later on
I see this one far too much and honestly most of the time it destroys the vision of the product. When I worked at a brand, I can’t tell you how many times someone would try to completely alter the strategy or try to make a new strategy work with a formula we were already done with. It almost always caused a break down in communication, a mismatched marketing strategy and a delay in launch.
TL;DR: Take your time upfront to really define a good strategy that you can stick with. If you don’t feel confident, reach out for help.
(We offer a product concept clarity package for this exact situation).
Relying on AI
I saw this happening more than I wanted to when I worked at a CM- a customer trying to replace a product development scientist and/or cosmetic chemist with Chat GPT. I have seen clients use AI to develop formula strategies and even the formulations themselves and it is almost always obvious. Why? Because ChatGPT doesn’t really understand ingredients, formulation science and the limitations that exist. There is almost always something incorrect or impossible with AI produced concepts and formulas. Now it isn’t to say you can’t ask ChatGPT the occasional question but please, please don’t rely on it to create your entire formula strategy.
Here is a snippet of an example I received that screamed "ChatGPT made this" to me.
AHA/ BHA Skin Resurfacing Solution
Required Ingredients: Glycolic Acid- 3 types of ceramides- peptides- hyaluronic acid- retinol- lactic acid- vitamin c-kojic acid-salicylic acid- Organic Jojoba Oil-Organic grape seed Oil
Why this formula has issues:
Oil based ingredients like jojoba and grape seed oil will be very hard to incorporate into a water-based toner. Ceramides will only be possible if we can find a water-soluble version.
Retinol requires a pH of 6-7ish while AHA/BHAs need a pH lower like around 3-4. We can’t use these ingredients in the same formula. Plus, retinol should not be combined with AHA/BHA in the same routine due to possible irritation concerns. They also shouldn’t be used during the daytime. Retinol also will not remain stable in a water-based formula like this.
They listed a lot of irritating ingredients (glycolic acid, lactic acid, kojic acid, salicylic acid, vitamin C) and having all of these in the same formula at the needed pH is likely going to be too much for the skin. My recommendation was be to reduce this down to one AHA with the vitamin C.
The ingredients chosen don’t match the "gentle and non-irritating for sensitive skin" benefit they want. The listed ingredients are not recommended for this consumer type and often cause irritation. They should stick to the anti-aging benefits associated with these ingredients.
TL;DR: Chat GPT has its limitations and don’t solely rely on it for such an important investment.
Copying Other Products on the Market
I also saw this once a month or more when working at a manufacturer. Clients would come to us wanting to launch a product and the only information they would give us would be "I want to reverse engineer X,Y,Z product.” Legal implications aside, this strategy in my opinion is one of the worst! Yes you should understand what is on the market and yes you can take inspiration from what is out there but you shouldn’t copy it. Use that information to figure out how you can do it better, differently or in a more unique way.
Just because a product seems successful for a brand does not mean that the same product will work for your brand. Creating a product that is unique to your brand’s mission, vision and story will make you more successful in the end. You can’t build a brand off the back of someone else.
Next Steps in the Product Development Process
Refine Your Product Concept
Take a moment to revisit your objectives and ensure they align with your brand’s mission and your target audience’s needs
Picking a Benchmark
Some brands like to find an existing product on the market that they like the formula aesthetics of that the chemist can use as a guide. Once you have your formula strategy created, finding example products is a great next step to take. It isn't necessary to include but can give the chemist a great jumping off point for your formula, and can help make formula development easier because the chemist has something tangible they can feel rather than relying solely on your descriptive words.
Collaborate with Experts
Work with an experienced product developer to review your concept, answer any questions and help you translate your vision into a successful product.
Create the Product Brief
Wrap up all of the key information around your product such as the product purpose, market position, your formula strategy, testing, desired packaging, budget, market information and development timeline
Start Formula Development
Next comes the fun part- turning your concept into a tangible formula. Work with a contract manufacturer or a formulation house to help bring your product to life.
