The advantages of being a manufacturer

How are we different from other cosmetic brands?

Our main difference from other cosmetic brands lies in the fact that we formulate and manufacture all our products. In other words, we develop our own cosmetic formulas with our in-house R&D team (6 people) and we produce and package our products ourselves in our production laboratory (15 people).

Contrary to what one might think, this is not the case for most cosmetic brands. Indeed, they generally use external subcontracting laboratories for the formulation, production and packaging of their products.

What are our commitments as a formulator?

From the outset, we chose to develop these skills internally in order to better control the quality of our products. Indeed, it is our teams who select the raw materials from which our products will be made. The selection is made according to strict specifications because our products must be certified Cosmébio COSMOS ORGANIC¹, labeled Slow Cosmétiques² and be rated "Excellent" on Yuka³. However, they must be pleasant to use and, above all, effective!

Before our products are put on the market, they are tested by a panel of local volunteer testers for 21 days. At the end of this period, they complete a questionnaire allowing us to collect their opinions on the tested product. If the product's score is less than 8/10, we rework the formula until it obtains this minimum score.

We have blacklisted certain ingredients such as allergenic preservatives or those potentially identified as endocrine disruptors, alcohols, petrochemical derivatives, synthetic fragrances... in order to guarantee products that are 100% natural in origin and suitable for vegans since they do not contain any animal-derived ingredients (only vegetable or mineral origin). Like all cosmetic products sold in Europe, they are not tested on animals (nor are the raw materials they are made of) although we do not claim this on our packaging (explanations here).

All our products undergo a battery of tests before being commercialized: +40°C, 4°C, darkness, natural light, challenge test, microbiological analyses, toxicological validation, patch test (if specific claims such as "sensitive skin" are made)... in order to guarantee the quality of the product over time and your safety as a user.

What does "being a manufacturer" mean?

As a manufacturer, we produce the finished product from A to Z.

• Weighing and mixing of raw materials to obtain the "bulk"
• Packaging (bottling or flaconing) of the "bulk" on our packaging lines
• Labeling or boxing

Throughout these stages, our Quality team carries out checks to ensure the safety of our operators, the conformity and the proper traceability of the manufactured products. Our operators comply with quality processes and are also aware of these checks.

Our production laboratory is equipped with production machines for mixing as well as packaging lines for bottling. We have to adapt our techniques according to the textures of the different products: some products are more complex than others and need to be packaged "by hand", others can be passed on lines where 2 to 3 operators work in rotation on different workstations. Solid products such as shampoos and dermatological bars are poured into molds and demolded one by one after cooling before being put into boxes.

The main difficulty lies in the good reproducibility of the product because there are many factors that can have an impact: mixing speed, product temperature, ambient temperature and humidity... Not to mention the raw materials themselves which can slightly vary from one batch to another (color, smell, texture...). As a manufacturer, we must control all these factors so that the final product is always identical and conforms to the product validated after the R&D work.

What are the advantages of being a manufacturer?

As you may have understood, being a manufacturer means being able to control the quality of our products from their formulation to their labeling and even their shipping, since we also have our own in-house logistics. This ensures that our products are always compliant and that we can react and adapt very quickly in case of a problem.

Of course, we in turn assume all the risks and potential product losses linked to machine bugs or human errors, because we remain above all a team of humans. But keeping all this know-how in-house allows us to develop skills that some laboratories do not possess...

This also allows us to be competitive on the prices of our products since we have no intermediary. Thus, we can make "organic beauty" accessible without neglecting the quality of our products!

_____

¹ Logo indicating that the cosmetic is organic according to the current COSMOS specifications: On the total product, limitation of petrochemical origin (list of authorized ingredients with maximum dosage), which amounts in fine to approximately 95% minimum of ingredients of natural origin. 95% minimum of organic ingredients on all ingredients that can be organic (such as plants, beeswax, milk...) and 20% minimum of organic ingredients on the total product (10% for rinse-off and mineral products - water and minerals considered non-organic because they are not cultivated)

² The Slow Cosmétique Label guarantees a natural product, without synthetic materials, but also without controversial compounds for health or the environment. This is the very heart of the Association's action: to advocate for total transparency and more sensible consumption of beauty products. The Slow Cosmétique Label goes even further since it also guarantees a product whose price-quality ratio is honest, and a brand that does not resort to marketing abuses for its advertising.

³ The cosmetic rating system is based on the analysis of all ingredients used in a product's composition. Based on the current state of science, each ingredient is assigned a risk level according to its potential effects on health or the environment: endocrine disruptor, carcinogen, allergen, irritant or pollutant. The potential risks associated with each ingredient are displayed in the application, along with the associated scientific sources.