One of the most important decisions you’re going to make in the development of your cosmetic product line is deciding which cosmetic chemist to hire. Your first consideration is whether you want to have your products developed by an independent cosmetic chemist or by a contract manufacturer.
Contract Manufacturer
Contract Manufacturers are companies that develop and manufacture cosmetic products. Contract Manufacturers generally offer to develop products at a lower cost than independent cosmetic chemists. But, the disadvantage in having a contract manufacture develop your product is that you do not own the intellectual property to the formula. Moreover, you won’t know the details of the formula such as percentage of ingredients, ingredients trade name and ingredient suppliers. Instead, the contract manufacturer will grant you an exclusive license to use the formula they develop on your behalf. If your business relationship with the contract manufacturer becomes problematic, you do not own a formula, nor know the details of its manufacture, that you can take to a different contract manufacturer.
Many contract manufacturers do offer an option for you to acquire the intellectual property to the formula after you have manufactured a certain number of units and/or a cash buyout.
Independent Cosmetic Chemist
Independent Cosmetic Chemists specialize in new product development and generally do not engage in product manufacturing. The advantage of working with an independent cosmetic chemist is that you will own the intellectual property to the formula and are then afforded the flexibility to interview several different contract manufacturers to find the right fit for you. Since you will own the IP to the formulas, if the business relationship with your chosen contract manufacturer becomes strained, you can transition your manufacturing to a different contract manufacturer.
If an independent cosmetic chemist develops your products you will need to have your formula transferred to your chosen contract manufacturer, so it is important to ask your cosmetic chemist which contract manufacturers she usually works with.
How To Find A Cosmetic Chemist
Let’s assume you have decided that you want to work with an independent cosmetic chemist because owning the intellectual property is important to you. First, you can begin by going to the website www.chemistscorner.com which is a community website for cosmetic chemists. On the chemistscorner.com Forum is a link “Need Formulating Services: Here Are Some Contacts” which is a listing of independent cosmetic chemists who offer formulating services. You can also find independent cosmetics chemists by doing a Google search for “Cosmetic Chemist Labs” The website www.uplinkconnects.com run by Beauty independent has a listing of cosmetic chemists.
If you are looking for a cosmetic chemist with specific expertise, such as natural formulations, put those qualifiers in your Google search. Understand that chemists may have different areas of expertise. Some may specialize in skincare products, some haircare, some natural/green chemistry so it is important to find a cosmetic chemist whose area of expertise aligns with your particular product development requirements.
Conducting The Interview With The Cosmetic Chemist
Let’s assume that you have done your research and know what products you want to have developed and your competitive benchmarks. And, you have also researched cosmetic chemists and from various sources found three (3) cosmetic chemists whose professional experience is aligned with the products you want to have developed.
Note: It is critically important that you have done your research in advance on both your product concept and the background of the chemists you will be speaking with for the most productive interview. Read the Blog: How To Develop A Skincare Product Line for details. Now, it’s time to contact and interview the chemist. It is important to understand that while you are interviewing the chemist, the chemist will also be interviewing you and assessing whether or not they want to take you on as a client, so the interview is mutual.
The Introductory Interview
Non Disclosure Agreements
It is generally a red flag to a cosmetic chemist when a potential client requests a Non Disclosure Agreement be executed prior to an interview. The primary reason is that truly innovative cosmetic product ideas are very rare and more likely than not, the cosmetic chemist will have already developed products similar to your concept.
Unless you have a proprietary ingredient or unique technology that are patentable asking for an NDA signals to the cosmetic chemist that you are inexperienced and may be difficult to work with. Experienced cosmetic chemists are highly professional and have seen most every cosmetic product concept you can imagine and are going to prefer to not enter into an NDA unless you actually become a client.
Assess Chemistry (Quite Literally).
You’re going to be working closely with your cosmetic chemist for a few months so it is important that you have personal chemistry. Start off with introducing yourself and segue to giving the chemist an overview of the products you want to have developed.
Cosmetic Formulation Chemist Relevant Experience
Ask the chemist to describe to you how her past experience aligns with your proposed product line including examples of other products they have developed that are similar to your proposed products.
Cosmetic Chemist Client References
Ask if the chemist can provide to you references … past clients for whom the chemist has developed products similar to your product concept based on their answer to Question (3) above. Most cosmetic chemists either have an NDA, or a mutual non-written understanding of non-disclosure, with their past clients. So, be prepared for the chemist to tell you that, “Yes,” they can provide client references, but must first contact their past clients to inquire if the past client would be open to speaking with you. It is most common that the past clients of cosmetic chemists prefer to keep their relationship private and undisclosed.
Product Development Approach
Ask the chemist to describe to you how they would approach the development of your products to create competitive, differentiated products. The chemist will need to understand precisely what you are looking for to give you good answers to your questions, so it will be essential that you have first provided the chemist information prior to the conversation outlining your product concept and commercial benchmark products you would like to use as development models.
At this point in the conversation, you should have a good sense for whether or not you and the cosmetic chemist have personal “chemistry” and the cosmetic chemist is a professional that you would enjoy working with and you feel they have the proper experience to develop your products. If you have come to the conclusion that you would like to pursue working with this cosmetic chemist.
Product Development Quotes And Contract Documents
Ask the cosmetic chemist to provide you with quotes for the development of your products
Ask the cosmetic chemist to provide you with blank contract documents so you can review the contract.
The Contract Details interview
Assuming that the price quote the cosmetic chemist has given you for the development of your products is acceptable to you, review the language in the blank contract documents and highlight any questions you may have or any additional information you feel you may need to be comfortable actually entering into a contract. Prepare a list of questions you want to ask the chemist and arrange a second interview.
Some common questions:
Ask the chemist to describe to you the product development process step-by-step and timeline for each step. The first step is the procurement of ingredients and the cosmetic chemist has no control over the delivery of ingredient samples by suppliers, but this generally can take up to one month. Once the cosmetic chemist receives all ingredients and begins making prototypes, it may take an additional two (2) weeks to get the first prototypes to you. So, be prepared for it to take up to 6 weeks from contract signing to your receipt of the first round of prototypes.
Inquire what are the deliverables you can expect:
- What ingredients is the chemist recommending to use in your formulas
- What is the prototype sample size
- How many rounds of prototyping are allowed for in the contract
- What happens if you are not satisfied with the prototypes when you reach the final round of prototyping allowed for in the contract.
- Is there an additional fee for additional rounds of prototyping
- What happens if you request major changes in the ingredients you initially agreed to after a round(s) of prototying.
- Is there a Change-Order fee involved in making major changes to the ingredients used in the formulas
- Can you request additional samples of each round of prototyping to have your partners also test the prototypes
- Is there an additional charge for each additional prototype sample
- What stability testing will the chemist perform once you approve the prototypes
- What happens if the final prototype fails stability testing
- Is there an additional charge for preservative challenge testing
- What happens if the final prototype fails preservative challenge testing
These are the basic questions you should ask. Each contract is going to be different, so there may be additional questions specific that a particular cosmetic chemist’s contract documents.
Once you are satisfied with the answers to these questions, the cosmetic chemist will prepare a final contract with your agreed upon terms and a Product Development Brief for each product listing the product form/format/function and ingredients to be used in the prototypes.
Reference Checking Your Cosmetic Formulator
Once you are aligned with the cosmetic chemist on the terms of the contract and the product development briefs request a couple of client references from the chemist. Your conversations with the client references will be general in nature, but will give you some comfort that the chemist is easy to work with and has successfully developed products similar to yours for other clients.
Executing The Contract
If you are in alignment with the terms of the contract, product development briefs and client reference checks, you are ready to execute the contract and proceed with the development of your products.