Image via: Pinterest

By Shilpa Bhim

Every morning you diligently apply your serum and SPF. Every evening, you apply your facial oils and overnight face masks. 

Whether they’re in a tub, tube or come in stick form, your skincare products are always there, working their magic. Question is, how do they end up in their final form and on your shelf?

It’s not like we click our fingers and *poof* our skincare products magically appear! We’ve done all the research to break down how skincare products are made.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

The first step when creating anything is to do your research. There’s no point in making skincare products if you can’t tell people what it does and why it exists!

There’s two key things to look into: product market fit and ingredients.

Product Market Fit

You want to ensure you’re making skincare products that people will use. Ya know, give the people what they want (or need) and all that. There’s two key questions to ask:

1. What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? 
2. Is there a gap in the market that you’re trying to fill?

For example, maybe you’ve got a full on schedule and are looking for a multi-tasking product will nourish your skin overnight. Spoiler alert: this may have been the problem and gap that our founder, Adeline, wanted to address when she decided to create the Glow Slow Overnight Mask.

Ingredients

Skincare products are made up of different ingredients. Even if you’re using skincare products in their most natural form, for example: aloe vera gel straight from the aloe vera plant, you’re still using an ingredient. 

Different skincare products contain different ingredients that work their magic in different ways. Depending on the purpose of your skincare or the problem you’re wanting to solve, you need to research what the most effective ingredient(s) will be for your skincare products. 

Using our Glow Slow Overnight Mask as an example, Australian-grown Lime Pearl extract is one of the hero ingredients. Why? It’s a slow release AHA, which means it gently and safely exfoliates and renews all skin types.

FIND YOUR NICHE

This should be relatively easy to do once you’ve done all your research!

You want to make sure you know who will be using your skincare products and why they’ll want to use it. This will help you stay focussed while formulating your skincare products, and you’ll know exactly who to market your products to!

Your niche could me that your skincare products are for people with sensitive skin. Or perhaps all your skincare products contain one specific ingredient. Share your story and your point of difference behind your skincare products.

FORMULATE THEN TEST, TEST, TEST!

Now for the fun, science-y stuff - get ready to get your hands dirty! 

Depending on what skincare products you’re formulating, you may be able to formulate (initially) from home. Skincare products like body butters and face oils are usually relatively to play around with from your at home lab. Who doesn’t love a bit of DIY?!

But if you’re wanting to experiment with a few different ingredients from the get-go, you might want to partner up with a manufacturer. Their professional lab and chemists will help you figure out the correct mix - or concentration - of each of your ingredients. 

Then comes one of the most important steps. Test, test, test! It’s the only way to know that your skincare products meet the criteria you’ve set out for them, and that they’re effective at targeting the problem you’re trying to solve. 

Remember that good things take time and you may have to go through multiple rounds of testing to make your skincare products perfect.

PACKAGE AND SELL YOUR MAGIC CONCOCTION

Once you’ve formulated and tested your skincare products, you can finally share your magic with the world! 

Well, once you decide on the right type of packaging and labelling of course. If you’re working with a manufacturer they’ll be able to help you figure out the packaging and important labelling details, like expiry dates.

In terms of selling your skincare products, you’ll want to make sure you’re marketing it to your target audience and talking to stockists who you can partner up with.

And that’s the full story behind how skincare products are made. A lot of research, formulating and testing before your skincare products are ready for their shelfie!

Have any other questions about how skincare products are made? Feel free to reach Instagram or email us - we love hearing from you!

Shilpa is a freelance beauty and lifestyle writer and the founder of Glowreel. You can check out her latest articles here and keep up with her adventures over at @shilpa.bhim.