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com
 How to Knock-off Any Cosmetic Formula

Perry Romanowski

©2021 Element 44 Inc ChemistsCorner.com

How to Knock off Any Cosmetic Formula
SecondEdition

Publication date April 2021

Published by: Perry Romanowski

www.chemistscorner.com

©Copyright 2021 Element 44 Inc.

NOTICE OF RIGHTS All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
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case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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information herein. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express
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Neither the authors and Element 44 Inc, nor its dealers or distributors, will be held liable for any damages
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 Table of Contents

Topic Page

Introduction - 10 Steps to duplicating a formula 4

Step 1 – Obtaining Competitive Products 7

Step 2 – Becoming an Expert User 10

Step 3 – Analyzing an Ingredient List 12

Step 4 – Using Patents to Get you Started 16

Step 5 – Generating Starting Formulas 17

Step 6 – Getting Clues from Key Suppliers 19

Step 7 – Creating and Revising Prototypes 20

Step 8 – Laboratory Testing of Prototypes 23

Step 9 – Matching Product Aesthetics 25

Step 10 – Testing the Formula with Consumers 27

Next Steps 28

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Introduction
Cosmetic Chemistry

While chemists learn about molecules, organic synthesis, and thermodynamics in college
chemistry courses, they don't actually learn any practical skills that directly apply to a
science job in industry. In the book Beginning Cosmetic Chemistry you will find an overview
of all the relevant topics to becoming an excellent, well-rounded cosmetic chemist.

In this e-book, the important skill of duplicating the formula of a competitor is outlined. If
you find this information helpful, you should consider getting a copy of Beginning Cosmetic
Chemistry for a full treatment of more than 50 other topics essential for cosmetic
scientists. Also, be sure to visit ChemistsCorner.com for tips, discussions, and information
important for scientists in the cosmetic industry.

Why Learning to Knock-off Products is Useful

As a cosmetic scientist, you will be frequently faced with the task of copying or knocking-
off a competitor's formula. This is a standard practice in the cosmetic industry for a variety
of reasons.

• It's faster
• It's easier to manufacture
• Success in the market provides proof and a feeling of less risk
• Most companies are trying to solve the same consumer problems
• It's hard to create a truly new product from scratch

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Learning Opportunity

While copying a competitor's formula will not ultimately lead to revolutionary new
products, it is an excellent opportunity for a beginning cosmetic scientist to develop their
formulating skills. For the seasoned formulator, it is a great chance to hone their
formulating skills in areas which they may not have had much experience. Many cosmetic
formulators spend their careers getting proficient in one or two formula types. It’s
extremely difficult to become expert in all product areas.

Expert Evaluator

Knocking-off a competitor’s product gives you a great chance to become an expert at

evaluating these types of formulas. To be able to duplicate a formula you have to be able
to first know how the product you're trying to emulate performs. That means for cleansing
products you'll have to learn how to test foam. Moisturizing products will require you to
learn how to judge the condition of skin after treatment. For makeup you might have to
test formula ease of application, texture and match colors.

Ingredient Specialist

You'll also quickly learn which ingredients are essential to a formula and which are just
“fluff” that support the marketing story. Cosmetic formulas are often filled with
ingredients that have limited or no noticeable effect on product performance. During the
process of knocking-off a competitor’s formula you’ll gain invaluable experience about
working with a variety of raw materials.

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10 Steps to Knocking Off a Competitor's Formula

This book goes through ten steps you can follow to duplicate nearly any cosmetic or
personal care formula you encounter. If you follow these steps, you are practically
guaranteed to quickly succeed. There is almost no product you can find that can’t be
copied using these techniques. By the time you’ve completed step 10, you’ll have a product
formulation that performs almost identically to the one you copied.

Here is a quick summary of the 10 steps. They are further explained in the subsequent
pages.

1. Obtain samples
2. Become an expert user
3. Analyze the ingredient list
4. Use patents to get you started
5. Generate starting formulas
6. Get formulation clues from key suppliers
7. Create and revise prototypes
8. Conduct laboratory evaluations of prototypes
9. Match product aesthetics
10. Finishing touches - Test the formula with consumers

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Step 1: Obtaining Competitive Product

Importance of having the product

Perhaps the most important thing you’ll need for copying a competitor’s product is a
sample of the product. This will enable you to figure out the aesthetics, performance and
other characteristics needed for judging whether you are successful. The best way to prove
that you copied a competitor is to put the formulas side-by-side (in the same package) and
see whether someone can tell them apart. Ideally, you’ll get multiple samples because
there are a number of tests you can conduct to help in your copying efforts.

To get the product, go to your local drug, grocery or department store and buy samples if
they have them. Often they’ll have multiple samples of the same product so get as many as
you can. If you need more, go to other stores in the area and buy away. Depending on the
project, you should get a half to a dozen samples.

Where to get multiple samples

While getting products from stores is a great option, you will sometimes have a hard time
finding them. For example, if a product is produced and sold outside your country, a local
store won't help much. Also, if the product has been discontinued or is popular, your area
stores may not have it in stock. In these cases you’ll need another option. Enter the
wonderful world of online shopping!

Nowadays, finding products is often just a Google Search away.

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Mainstream products

Target – Here’s where you go to find the most comprehensive list of

mainstream products. If it’s put out by a big brand, you’ll probably
find it here.

Walmart – They’re the biggest in the world so they have a huge

number of products listed. This is the first place to go for
mainstream beauty products. Information is highly reliable.

Walgreens – Another source for mainstream personal care and beauty

products. Highly reliable information.

Specialty brands

Ulta – If you’re looking for salon brands or products from department

stores or spas, this is a good place to. Ingredient lists are highly
reliable.

Sephora – Another source like Ulta with salon brands and higher end
specialty products. Another highly reliable source.

Credo Beauty – If you’re looking for indie beauty, natural products

you can probably find it here. But this source is less reliable because
some of the small companies don’t follow proper labeling rules.

Beautypedia – Lots of specialty brands here and a nice format for

finding information. Information is reliable.

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Unique Sources

Amazon – The biggest retailer on the Internet. You can likely find
almost any product listed here. Unfortunately, not every product has
the full ingredient listing. Also, the information is not always official
and there are a lot of individual sellers who don’t put accurate
information. So, this source can be a bit hit or miss.

Ebay – Like Amazon, there is are a lot of products listed here and
things from around the world. But not all the products have
ingredient lists although you can contact the seller and get some
ingredient lists. I’ve found this useful for products from outside the
US.

Of course, a great place to find products is the brand website. Many beauty brands include
their full product ingredient list. However, there are a number of brands that don’t. Or
they provide their “marketing” ingredient list which can be misleading. It may be helpful
for consumers / marketing but not as helpful for formulators. You can typically purchase
product directly from these sites.

If you can’t get the product

Sometimes the product you are trying to copy is too expensive to get multiple (or even 1)
product. In these cases, try to get small samples which may be available fro free or at a
reduced cost.

If you absolutely can't get the product, you can proceed but your chance of success will be
limited. Of course, the chances that someone would know you didn't succeed are even less.

Even if you can’t get a sample of the exact product it is helpful to get something that is
similar. Before formulating be sure to get example of other products in the category of the
one you are trying to copy.

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Step 2: Becoming and Expert User

Importance of using the product

To successfully knock-off a product, you have to know the product inside and out. This
means you will have to know everything you can about the product and the user's
experience with that product.

In subsequent steps you will learn how to analyze the product in the lab. But before you
start chemically breaking down a formula and building it back up, you have to figure out
what the consumer's experience with the product is. The best way to do this is to USE THE
PRODUCT ON YOURSELF! That’s so important it should be repeated.

“USE THE PRODUCT ON YOURSELF!”

Don't be shy. Most cosmetics and personal care products create temporary effects and are
easy to wash off. Remember your skin and hair is not necessarily much different than the
consumers that will be using the product.

Be an engaged user

Use the product a few times and keep records of your experience. The first time you use it,
imagine you are the consumer. Take notice of the way the product is applied. Ask yourself
different questions and keep track of your responses. Is it easy? Do you like how it looks or
feels? Is there anything different compared to other products? Is it fun?

On subsequent trials, see which things you keep noticing over and over and which things
don’t seem to matter. If you had another product in the same category try it and see what
differences you notice.

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Forget about the claims that the product makes and the story used to support it. Most of
these statements are marketing stories anyway and don't reflect how the product will
perform.

Going through the experience of using the product will allow you to pick up subtle clues
about what is important and what is not. You will get information about things like
rheology, feel, greasiness, etc.

The more interaction you have with the product the better. If you can use a product
exclusively for a week, this is an excellent practice. At the very least, use the product 3 or
4 times just so you know the experience of the consumer. You don't have to continue to use
the product once your project is done but while you’re trying to knock off a competitor,
the more exposure to the product, the better.

You can’t try the product?

If you can't try the product (for example a bald man working on a shampoo) you can still
use the product to wash your hand or rub through your scalp just to mimic the experience
of the consumer. The more information you can get (even if it is not complete) the better.

Another alternative when you can’t try a product is to have your spouse, friend or relative
try it and then interview them about their experience. Be sure to prep them with the types
of things you want them to notice prior to using the product.

Take notes so you can refer to them later when you try to determine how close your
prototypes are to the original.

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Step 3: Analyzing the Ingredient List

Get the list of ingredients

In most places around the world, all cosmetic companies are required to put a list of
ingredients (LOI) on their products. The first thing you will want to do is copy that LOI and
put each ingredient on a separate field in a spreadsheet. This will be where you begin
making your preliminary formulas.

Internet sourcing

If the product you have doesn't have an LOI on the container, see if you can find one on the
Internet. There are some excellent resources for this task.

The first place to look is the company's website. Many / most reputable companies have the
ingredients listed for all their products. Ideally, they will list them by the approved names
found in the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) published by the
Personal Care Products Council. If not, some further investigation will be required from
you.

If the company’s website doesn’t have this information, check out websites like the ones
previously mentioned. These sites provide a nice listing of the ingredients (and the claims)
in a handy digital format. You can also do a Google search of “Ingredient list” plus the
product name. Sometimes you’ll find that a person has typed it out on a public forum or
they have taken a picture and posted the image.

Example of an LOI for body wash

INGREDIENTS: WATER (AQUA), SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE,

PEG 8, GLYCERIN, DISODIUM LAURETH SULFOSUCCINATE, FRAGRANCE (PARFUM),
POLYQUATERNIUM 10, PEG 7 GLYCERYL COCOATE, DMDM HYDANTOIN, IODOPROPYNYL
BUTYLCARBAMATE, CITRIC ACID, TETRASODIUM EDTA, RED 33 (CL17200), BLUE 1 (CL42090)

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Putting the ingredients in order

Once you have the ingredient list, enter the information into a spreadsheet program and
make note of the number order of the formula.

Here is an example of that body wash ingredient list in spreadsheet form.

# Class/Function Ingredient Amount %

1 Water (aqua)
2 Sodium Laureth Sulfate
3 Cocamidopropyl Betaine
4 PEG 8
5 Glycerin
6 Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate
7 Fragrance (parfum)
8 Polyquaternium 10
9 PEG 7 Glyceryl Cocoate
10 DMDM Hydantoin
11 Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
12 Citric Acid
13 Tetrasodium EDTA
14 Red 33 (Cl17200)
15 Blue 1 (Cl42090)

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Next, you should look up all the ingredients in the INCI and figure out the class of
ingredient. This will help you in figuring out the formula. With time and experience you will
learn what all these ingredients do. The formula above contains various classes of
ingredients including

• Solvent
• Primary Surfactant / Detergent
• Secondary Surfactant / Detergent
• Conditioning Ingredients
• Preservative
• Adjusting Agents
• Chelating agents
• Fragrance
• Color

1% Rule

If it is a product produced in the United States and they follow standard labeling rules,
you’ll know that anything above 1% concentration in the formula will be listed in order.

Your next step will be to guess where the 1% line might be. While many of the ingredients
below 1% can have a significant impact, the ingredients above this level will provide the
bulk of the aesthetic and performance characteristics. By listing the ingredients you will be
able to tell the relative formulation levels of the key ingredients.

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 # Class/Function Ingredient Amount %

1 Solvent Water (aqua)

2 Primary detergent Sodium Laureth Sulfate
3 Secondary surfactant Cocamidopropyl Betaine
4 Secondary surfactant PEG 8
5 Conditioning Glycerin
6 Secondary surfactant Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate

Likely 1% line – Ingredients below are less than 1%

7 Fragrance Fragrance (parfum)

8 Conditioning Polyquaternium 10
9 Conditioning PEG 7 Glyceryl Cocoate
10 Preservative DMDM Hydantoin
11 Preservative Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
12 Adjusting agent Citric Acid
13 Chelating agent Tetrasodium EDTA
14 Colorant Red 33 (Cl17200)
15 Colorant Blue 1 (Cl42090)

Sometimes a product will list out “active ingredients” and put a specific % for them. This is
incredibly useful because you know exactly how much of this ingredient to use. Put this
number next to the ingredient on your formula spreadsheet. dHowever, unless those
products are OTC drugs, you can't be completely sure of the amounts listed. There is no
legal obligation to tell you but they might try to trick you by listing the % of the raw
material rather than the % of the ingredient. Raw materials are often composed of only a
small percentage of the ingredient in a solvent.

Moving forward, the goal of your research efforts will be to figure out the % of all the major
ingredients on your ingredient list. We are not so worried about minor ingredients because
they usually have minimally perceptible effects. But it is important to know that even
ingredients at tiny amounts can have an impact especially colors, pH adjusters, and
polymers.

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Step 4: Using Patents to Get You Started

Mining patents for clues

Many of the cosmetics and personal care products you'll be asked to copy will have patents
related to them. While the exact formula the company used in making the product won't be
listed, their patents will still have example formulas which provide a great starting point
for prototypes.

They also provide an excellent source of background information which will help you better
understand the role of all the ingredients in the formula. This will help immeasurably in
your copying attempts.

Patents will also give supplier names of blends that might have been used. You can talk to
your suppliers about the concentration of these blends and get a good idea of how much
the ingredients are used in the formula.

Patents tell you what you can’t do

In addition to providing you formulating clues, the patent will also give you direction on the
things that you can not do. It will show you which combination of ingredients and at what
level you will not be able to ultimately launch.

At this point, do not worry about what you can and can't launch. Your first goal is to get a
prototype that closely mimics the competitor's product. After you've created the knockoff,
you will be able to make adjustments to the formula to get around the patents.

There are almost no patents of personal care and cosmetic products that can't be worked
around.

Where to find patents

The most accurate source for patents is directly from the United States Patent Office. The
full text of every patent since 1976 can be searched. Another excellent source is Google
Patents. They also list all the patents but have a better search function.

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Step 5: Generating Starting Formulas
Analyze the formula

Before you start making prototypes you’ll want to analyze the formula you are trying to
copy. If you have access to an analytical lab, that is great. Send it out to them and have
them analyze the sample for anything that may help. For example, if water is the first
ingredient you can have the lab test the percent solids. This will tell you exactly how much
water is in the formula. Often this is 80-90% of the formula.

Other ingredients can be determined with standard tests too. Things like surfactant level,
silicone concentration, and protein concentration can be determined using instruments like
the GC, IR and Mass Spectrophotometer. You can investigate the literature to find what can
and cannot be measured.

At this point you will also want to take measurements of the pH and viscosity so you know
what your target specifications will be.

Starting formulas

Once you have your ingredient list, have investigated the patent literature, and have
analyzed the formula using lab tests, you are ready to write out some potential starting
formulas.

If the patent work didn't reveal any helpful information and you are unfamiliar with the
formula category, look at the way other similar products are formulated. A great way to do
this is to look through free, online formularies of suppliers, magazines, and other sources.
ULProspector.com provides a listing of thousands of different types of formulas. As does
Happi.com. Also, most chemical suppliers have formularies on their websites.

These formulas typically have a listing of the class of the ingredient that is used. Since you
already know what ingredient types are in your formula, you’ll be able to get a good guess
for the levels of all the different types of ingredients used.

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The most important ingredient classes will be things like the following

• Primary surfactant
• Secondary surfactant
• Conditioning ingredient
• Thickener
• Emulsifier
• Solvent

At this moment, you don’t have to worry about things like color, fragrance, adjustment and
“feature” ingredients. Later you will add these to complete the knock-off.

When you are putting together your starting formulas, create half-dozen formulas using
different levels of the key ingredients. Be sure to vary only one ingredient at a time so you
can see what effect the ingredient has on the product.

# Class/Function Ingredient Amount %

1 Solvent Water (aqua)

2 Primary detergent Sodium Laureth Sulfate
3 Secondary surfactant Cocamidopropyl Betaine
4 Secondary surfactant PEG 8
5 Conditioning Glycerin
6 Secondary surfactant Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate

*You’ll also want to include a preservative like 0.2% DMDM Hydantoin or the Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

A more sophisticated way to create prototypes is to follow a Design of Experiment (DOE)

protocol. This topic is more advanced than necessary for our purposes, but you can look to
standard reference texts on the subject for more information. DOE is not something that is
yet standard practice in cosmetic formulating.

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Step 6: Getting Clues from Key Suppliers
What to get from suppliers

While you come up with your potential starting formulas, check with your trusted suppliers
to see if they might provide you clues as to what the formula could look like. For cleansing
formulas your primary surfactant suppliers could give you suggestions on specific ranges to
try. They may even reveal that the makers of the product you're trying to mimic use one of
their surfactant blends. Blends are raw material mixtures that companies use to reduce the
number of ingredients/steps required to manufacture a product.

At the very least, suppliers can give you access to their formularies that you may not have
been able to get online.

Check with distributors

If you work for a small company you may not be able to meet with sales representatives
from all the large sized suppliers. You will have to find a chemical distributor, but they can
also help the same way as if you were speaking directly to the supplier.

Resources

To find relevant suppliers for the different ingredients in the formulas go online and search
the annual buyer's guide of the Personal Care Products Council. Also, you can find even
more information through the buyer’s guide of magazines like Happi and Cosmetics &
Toiletries. You can find listing for all the companies in the industry that want to supply you
with all the ingredients you’ll need. Additionally, some online sources include aggregator
sites such as

• ULProspector
• Covalo
• SpecialChem
• Knowde

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Step 7: Creating and Revising Prototypes

Starting out

After you’ve generated half-dozen possible prototypes on paper, create your batch sheets
complete with raw material order, levels, and target specifications. Then get the raw
materials, lab batching equipment like beakers & mixers, and start making the product.
Since you won’t know exactly what order to put things, it’s best to find an example formula
that has similar ingredients and adapt the procedure to your formula.

General tips

Here are a few general guidelines that might be helpful.

• Make batches of at least 200 g. This will help prevent over mixing/aeration but still
minimize extra waste.

• Start your batch with the ingredient that is most abundant. This means that in
products where water is the primary ingredient, you start your batch by filling up a
beaker with water. Put your mixer on a moderate speed and make a note of the
temperature.

• Formulas that contain waxes will have to be heated up to a temperature above the
melting point of the wax (~85 C or more)

• The oil and water components of an emulsion will typically need to be mixed in
separate containers and blended when they reach their high temperature.

• Add preservatives and feature ingredients at the end

• Use a water bath to control the batch temperature

• Be sure to cover the batch with plastic wrap or aluminum foil to prevent water
evaporation

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Be observant

Make special note of things that change in the formula during mixing. Also, be sure to time
how long ingredients take to fully mix into the batch. This will be helpful for revising your
procedures and eventually for making the product in your production tanks.

Finishing a batch

When you are done with your batch and you’ve let it equilibrate to room temperature, take
readings for the pH and viscosity and compare how close you are to the target product.

Making adjustments

For the pH, you can try adding acid or base to increase or decrease it. If the viscosity is off
you can try adding salt (NaCl) to adjust it.

However, often these tricks won’t work or won’t be appropriate for the product you are
trying to copy. In these cases, you’ll have to adjust the ingredient levels on your batch
sheet and try something new.

Second generation prototypes

When making ingredient adjustments to your next generation of prototypes focus on

changing only one ingredient per batch. This allows you to figure out just what effect each
ingredient has on the final characteristics of the formula.

For example...

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 # Class/Function Ingredient Amount %

1 Solvent Water (aqua) 83.0%

2 Primary detergent Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS) 5.0%
3 Secondary surfactant Cocamidopropyl Betaine 5.0%
4 Secondary surfactant PEG 8 3.5%
5 Conditioning Glycerin 2.0%
6 Secondary surfactant Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate 1.5%

Note in this formula, the water level was also adjusted. When you make adjustments to any
ingredient usually you make up the difference with the ingredient that constitutes the bulk
of the formula. In most cases, this will be water.

Some of the things you might experiment with are the levels of the SLS, the
Cocamidopropyl Betaine, PEG 8, and even Glycerin. Adjust the levels higher or lower and
see what happens.

After 6 to 12 attempts, you should end up with a formula that is close enough to the target
formula that you can go ahead and do some further testing.

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Step 8: Laboratory testing of prototypes

Try it out

The first type of testing you’ll want to do is to use the product on yourself. Since you have
experience with the target product you will know how close you are to matching it. No test
will be more revealing as to whether you’ve copied the product than when you test it on
yourself. Be sure to make note of any differences you experience.

To further convince yourself and others that you’ve been successful, there are other types
of tests you can run. These will vary depending on the specific formula you are trying to
mimic.

Specialized lab tests

For skin lotions you can compare the performance using instruments like Novameter,
Cutometer, or desquamation discs.

For hair products you can test them on tresses, in a salon, or use instruments like the
Instron or Diastron.

You can also measure a wide array of other types of formula performance characteristics
like foam height, formula texture, conditioning effect, color, etc. The specifics depend on
the type of product you are trying to knock off. Consult a book like Analysis of Cosmetic
Products for more specific testing examples.

These performance tests should give you information on how you need to adjust your
prototype to get closer and closer to the target product.

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Revise and remake prototypes

After you’ve collected your data, adjust your formulas and make new ones for testing. With
enough adjusting and testing, you will end up with a prototype that matches the original
formula in both ingredients and appearance.

Before moving to the next step however, you should do a quick stability check to see if your
prototype is stable. If you have enough of the target product, you can put it up on a
stability test to see how well it performs. However, if you don’t have enough you should
just assume that the target is stable and see whether yours is or not. If it is not stable
you’ll have to make some formulation adjustments and try again. The topic of stability
testing is covered extensively in our course Practical Cosmetic Formulating.

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Step 9: Matching Product Aesthetics

Making the products look & smell the same

After you’ve gotten the formula performance down, you’ll need to try and match the
aesthetics like color and fragrance. Often this is not required because your marketing
department or customer doesn’t actually want an exact match, but sometimes they do.

Color matching

To match the color you can start with 1% (or 0.1%) water solutions of the colors that are
listed on the ingredient list. Start with some of the base formula and mix in a measured
amount of color. The starting levels are really up to your judgment. They do not matter too
much as you will be adjusting up or down to get the right color. The important part is to
record how much of any color you’ve used.

After you’ve mixed it, compare it to the control and determine whether it is too dark or too
light. In your next attempt double the amount of color or cut it in half so you can compare
what effect that has on the resulting color. Continue this process of doubling or halving dye
levels until you get something that matches. If done properly, you should get pretty close in
7 tries.

Make a new batch

Once the post color addition is ready, make a batch from start to finish with those dye
levels. You’ll likely find that they do not match exactly and you’ll have to make slight
adjustments until you get it right. Adding a color at the end will not always give a true
representation of what the color will look like in production. That is why you do this final
step.

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Making them smell the same

Matching the fragrance is a bit more challenging. The best option is to talk to a trusted
fragrance supplier and ask them for a sample of fragrance that duplicates the target
product. These types of projects are the kinds of things that fragrance houses do on a
regular basis, so you should have no problem getting what you need.

If there isn’t time or you can’t get a fragrance supplier to work with you, just use a
fragrance that is in the same family as the target product. Sometimes smelling close to the
same is adequate for this phase of development.

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Step 10: Testing the formula with Consumers
Try it out on people

Now that you’ve gotten the formula copied, it’s time to prove it with a small consumer
testing panel. If you are an independent chemist or you work for a small company you may
not have access to trained consumer panels. In this case, just make a dozen samples and
hand them out to coworkers, friends and family to get their reactions. Ideally, you’ll give
them a sample of the original and the knock-off and ask them to tell you what differences
they experience.

If your small consumer panel can’t tell any significant differences, you can have confidence
that the larger consumer market won’t be able to tell either .

Putting it in Packaging

For these types of tests it is helpful to put the prototype and target product in similar
packaging. This eliminates the tendency for your prototype to be judged harshly because of
the container rather than the formula itself.

You can get samples of stock packaging from your package suppliers or directly online from
companies like ebottles.com

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Next Steps...

Once you've made it through these 10 steps you should have a formula that is an extremely
close match to that of a competitor's. You’ll have something you can give to your marketing
partner (or boss) that they will be able to use for launching a new product. Additionally,
you will have gained a vast amount of knowledge about the performance of the formula
type and the different kinds of ingredients that you will use.

This is an excellent exercise to hone your formulating skills.

It's not recommended that you focus your career on knocking off competitive formulas. This
exercise is only meant to be a starting point. Whether your marketing department knows it
or not, products that are merely copies of existing products are not innovative and are
doomed to have a difficult time getting market share. Who wants to listen to a cover band
when they can easily get the real thing?

Be Creative

Be creative. While you may get lots of projects similar to the one outlined here, these will
not lead you to become an innovative cosmetic chemist. Instead use your skills to make
your own formulas. Experiment and try different ingredients at crazy levels. That’s what
innovative cosmetic chemists do. That’s where you’ll find breakthrough formulas.

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More Cosmetic Chemistry

Would you like more information about all you need to know to become a
successful cosmetic chemist?

You should check out one of our various courses including

Practical Cosmetic Formulating

Practical Cosmetic Formulating – Naturals Edition

Cosmetic Raw Materials

30 Days to Become a Better Cosmetic Chemist

And if you want to continue to learn more about formulating cosmetic

products make certain you visit

ChemistsCorner.com

The most comprehensive resource for formulating cosmetic scientists. It's

written by cosmetic chemists for formulators.

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