How to Create a Cosmetic Formula From Scratch

11 minutes ago
12 min read

Creating a cosmetic formula from scratch can feel overwhelming when you are first learning. You may own dozens of interesting oils, extracts, vitamins, peptides, emulsifiers, and preservatives—but having ingredients is not the same thing as having a formula.

A properly designed formula begins with a plan.

Before deciding whether to add niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, green tea extract, or your favorite oil, you need to determine:

What product you are making
Who will use it
What the product needs to do
What physical structure will deliver that performance
Which ingredients are necessary to build and protect that structure

Here is a beginners formula template for you to use:

For this tutorial, I am going to use a basic oil-in-water lotion as our example. The goal is not to give you a lotion recipe to copy. The goal is to show you the thought process you can use when creating your own formulas.

Step 1: Define the Product Before Choosing Ingredients

Begin by writing a short product brief.

A product brief describes what you are trying to create before you become distracted by individual ingredients.

For example:

Product: Lightweight facial moisturizer

User: Normal to combination skin

Purpose: Provide hydration and light emollience without leaving a greasy after-feel

Appearance: Smooth, white lotion

Texture: Light lotion that dispenses easily from a pump

Fragrance: Unscented

Packaging: Pump bottle

Target pH: Approximately 5.0–5.5

This gives you something concrete to formulate toward.

“Facial moisturizer” alone is not enough information. A rich night cream, lightweight gel-cream, barrier balm, body lotion, and pumpable facial lotion all require different ingredient balances and processing decisions.

Your product brief does not need to be complicated, but it should answer four questions:

1. What is the product?

2. Where and how will it be used?

3. What should it feel and look like?

4. What type of packaging should dispense it?

The packaging matters earlier than many beginners realize. A thick cream may work beautifully in a jar but fail completely in a treatment pump.

Step 2: Identify the Product Structure

Next, determine what type of formula you need to build.

Common cosmetic structures include:

Anhydrous oils and balms
Oil-in-water emulsions
Water-in-oil emulsions
Aqueous gels and serums
Surfactant-based cleansers
Suspensions
Solid sticks and bars

Our lightweight lotion contains water and oils. Because those materials do not remain mixed on their own, we need to create an emulsion.

For a conventional oil-in-water lotion, the primary structure will usually include:

A water phase
An oil phase
An emulsifier
Supporting thickeners or stabilizers
A preservation system
A cooldown phase
A pH-adjustment system when needed

At this stage, we are still building the framework. We have not started selecting exciting active ingredients.

Step 3: Build the Functional Categories

Before naming individual ingredients, list the jobs that must be performed.

For our lotion, we need:

1. A water carrier

2. A humectant

3. Emollients

4. An emulsifier

5. A structure modifier

6. A broad-spectrum preservative

7. A chelator

8. A pH-adjustment system

9. Optional supporting ingredients or actives

This step prevents a common beginner mistake: choosing ingredients because they sound beneficial without recognizing that the formula is missing something structurally essential.

An extract cannot replace an emulsifier. Vitamin E cannot preserve a water-containing lotion. Cetyl alcohol can contribute structure and skin feel, but it is not a complete emulsifier.

Each ingredient must have a defined job.

Step 4: Research Each Ingredient Before Assigning a Percentage

Do not choose an ingredient percentage from a random formula, retailer listing, social-media post, or general usage-rate chart.

Find the supplier’s technical documentation and verify:

Complete INCI name
Recommended usage range
Solubility
Required phase
Processing temperature
Heat sensitivity
pH requirements
Ionic charge
Known incompatibilities
Whether the material is supplied as a powder, liquid, dispersion, or diluted solution
Whether the ingredient contains its own preservative

The manufacturer’s recommended range is a starting boundary, not proof that every percentage within that range is appropriate for your formula.

If an ingredient is recommended at 1–5%, that does not mean 5% is automatically better. You still need to determine how much is necessary for the performance you want.

The emulsifier requires particular attention. Its usage rate must be appropriate for the amount and type of oil phase you are trying to emulsify. Do not assume that every emulsifier works at the same percentage or follows the same calculation rule.

Step 5: Set the Essential Ingredients First

Begin with the materials that make the product function.

For our lotion, I would establish these components before adding any optional actives:

Emulsifier
Oil-phase ingredients
Structural ingredients
Humectant
Preservative
Chelator
Water

The formula should be able to become a stable, usable lotion without relying on botanical extracts, peptides, vitamins, or marketing ingredients.

This is your base design.

If the base is poorly designed, adding more actives will not rescue it. It will only make the formula more expensive and more difficult to troubleshoot.

Step 6: Design the Oil Phase

The oil phase affects much more than moisturization. It influences:

Slip
Cushion
Absorption speed
Greasiness
After-feel
Viscosity
Emulsion stability
Packaging suitability

Avoid choosing three or four oils that all produce essentially the same skin feel.

For a lightweight facial lotion, you might build a small emollient cascade using:

A lightweight ester or triglyceride for quick spread
A slightly richer plant oil for cushion
A fast-spreading emollient for a less greasy finish
A small amount of silicone, if desired, for additional slip and reduced tack

The exact percentages depend on the desired texture and the emulsifier being used.

More oil does not automatically mean a better moisturizer. Increasing the oil phase may make the product richer, but it can also make it heavier, greasier, more difficult to emulsify, and unsuitable for the intended packaging.

Step 7: Select the Emulsifier and Structural Support

Choose an emulsifier that matches:

The type of emulsion
The oil-phase percentage
The intended viscosity
The required pH
The ionic character of the formula
The planned processing method
Any electrolytes or active ingredients being used

Then determine whether the emulsion needs additional structure.

Fatty alcohols such as cetyl alcohol or cetearyl alcohol can increase viscosity, improve body, and change the sensory profile. They are not interchangeable in every formula, and they should not automatically be added simply because another lotion contains them.

A lightweight lotion for a pump, needs enough structure to remain stable, but not so much that it becomes a dense cream that will no longer dispense properly.

Step 8: Design the Water Phase

Distilled water will usually make up the largest portion of an oil-in-water lotion, but the water phase may also include:

Humectants
Chelators
Water-soluble thickeners
Water-soluble powders
Heat-stable water-soluble ingredients / Actives

Glycerin is a practical beginner humectant, but its percentage still needs to suit the intended sensory profile. Using more can increase hydration, but it may also increase tack/stickiness.

Water is usually the flexible portion of the formula. You do not have to know its final percentage at the beginning.

Enter the fixed ingredients first. Once everything else has been assigned, calculate the water required to bring the formula to exactly 100.00%.

In a conventional oil-in-water lotion, distilled water commonly accounts for approximately 70–80% of the complete formula. This is a practical starting range—not a rule. Lightweight lotions may contain more water, while richer lotions and creams generally contain less. The finished texture also depends on the oil phase, emulsifier, fatty alcohols, polymers, and processing method—not the water percentage alone.

Step 9: Build the Preservation Strategy

Any formula containing water—or likely to be introduced to water during use—requires a preservative.

Choose the preservative according to:

The manufacturer’s recommended usage rate
The formula’s final pH
Whether the product is an emulsion or aqueous system
The preservative’s solubility
Its permitted processing temperature
Compatibility with the other ingredients
The expected contamination risk
The packaging and method of use

A preservative is not selected because of habit or because that’s what everyone else uses. Example: Liquid Germall Plus, just because

Also consider supporting preservation hurdles. These may include:

Using distilled water
Following sanitary manufacturing practices (GMP)
Adding a compatible chelator
Maintaining an appropriate pH
Reduced Water Activity, using binding ingredients like glycols & humectants
Antimicrobials such as essential oils that disrupt microbial cell membranes
Using packaging that limits repeated hand contact
Following the preservative’s processing requirements

Vitamin E is an antioxidant. It can help slow oxidation of susceptible oils, but it is not a broad-spectrum preservative and cannot protect a water-containing lotion from bacteria, yeast, and mold.

The FDA notes that cosmetic products can become harmful when contaminated with microorganisms and that the party manufacturing or distributing the product is responsible for its safety. FDA: Microbiological Safety and Cosmetics

Step 10: Add Actives Only After the Base Is Complete

Now you can consider optional active or benefit ingredients.

For a beginner formula, choose one or two purposeful additions rather than filling the formula with every ingredient you own.

Ask the following questions about each active:

Does it support the product brief?
Is it soluble in this formula?
Is it compatible with the emulsifier and preservative?
Can it tolerate the processing temperature?
Does it require a particular pH?
Will it add a meaningful benefit at the selected percentage?
Does another ingredient already perform the same job?
Will it make the formula unnecessarily difficult for a beginner?

If an ingredient does not earn its place, leave it out.

A simple, well-designed moisturizer is better than an unstable lotion containing twelve impressive-sounding actives.

2 of the more popular actives are Niacinamide and DL Panthenol.

Step 11: Make the Formula Total Exactly 100%

Cosmetic formulas are normally written in percentages so they can be scaled to different batch sizes.

The total formula must equal exactly 100.00%.

Step 12: Convert the Percentages Into Batch Weights

Once the formula totals 100.00%, choose a batch size.

For a 100-gram batch, each ingredient’s percentage is the same as its weight in grams.

For example:

76.80% distilled water = 76.80 grams
5.00% sunflower oil = 5.00 grams
2.00% niacinamide = 2.00 grams
0.50% preservative = 0.50 grams

Because the formula totals 100.00%, the completed batch will total 100 grams.

Step 13: Organize the Formula Into Phases

Ingredients are assigned to phases according to their solubility, temperature requirements, and method of incorporation.

A typical heated oil-in-water lotion may contain:

Phase A: Heated water phase

Distilled water
Humectants
Chelator
Heat-stable water-soluble ingredients

Phase B: Heated oil phase

Emulsifier
Oils and emollients
Fatty alcohols
Other heat-stable oil-soluble ingredients

Phase C: Cooldown phase

Preservative, when required by its documentation
Heat-sensitive actives
Fragrance, if used
Final pH adjustment

Do not assign an ingredient to the cooldown phase simply because it appears there in another formula. Follow the documentation for the exact raw material you are using.

Step 14: Write the Procedure Before Making the Batch

A formula table tells you what is in the product. It does not tell you how to make it.

Write the procedure before going to the bench.

The procedure should state:

Which ingredients are combined
How powders are dispersed or dissolved
Which phases are heated
The required temperatures
When the phases are combined
What type of mixing is required
When cooldown ingredients are added
When the product is weighed to account for evaporation
When and how the pH is measured
How the product is filled and packaged

Avoid vague instructions such as “mix everything together” or “blend until done.”

A beginner should know what physical change to look for at each important stage.

Step 15: Establish Finished-Product Specifications

Before making the batch, decide how you will judge the result.

Specifications might include:

Appearance
Color
Odor
pH
Texture
Viscosity or flow
Skin feel
Packaging

Specifications turn “I think it came out okay” into an actual evaluation.

For our example, the lotion might be expected to have:

A smooth, uniform appearance
No visible oil separation
A lightweight, pumpable consistency
A non-greasy after-feel
A final pH of approximately 5.0–5.5

These are development targets—not test results. You cannot report a final pH, viscosity, stability outcome, or shelf life until the product has actually been made and evaluated.

Step 16: Make a Small Batch

Your first version is a prototype (called a trial), not a finished formula.

Make a small batch large enough to process accurately with your equipment.

A 100-gram batch is convenient for percentage calculations, but it may be too small for some mixers or homogenizers to work properly.

During the batch, record:

Actual ingredient weights
Heating temperatures
Mixing time and method
Appearance during processing
Cooling behavior
Final batch weight
Any water replaced after evaporation
Initial pH
pH adjustments
Initial appearance and texture
Unexpected problems

If you change something while making the batch, write it down immediately.

Step 17: Evaluate Before Making Changes

Do not reformulate the product five minutes after making it.

Many emulsions continue developing viscosity as they cool and settle. Record observations at useful intervals, such as:

Immediately after production
After 24 hours
After 48 hours
After one week

Evaluate one issue at a time.

If the lotion is too thick, possible causes could include:

Too much fatty alcohol
Too much waxy emulsifier
An oil phase that is too large
A rheology modifier used above the necessary level

If it is unstable, randomly adding more thickener may hide the problem temporarily without correcting the emulsion itself. Don't do that.

Step 18: Change One Meaningful Variable at a Time

When revising the formula, make deliberate but controlled changes.

If you simultaneously change the emulsifier, oil-phase percentage, thickener, preservative, and pH, you will not know which change caused the new result.

Create a new version number for each revision:

Trial 001
Trial 002
Trial 003

Keep the previous versions and record exactly what changed.

Professional formulation is not about getting everything perfect on the first attempt. It is about learning from controlled, documented batches.

Step 19: Test the Finished Formula

A product looking stable on the day it was made does not prove that it is stable, adequately preserved, or compatible with its packaging.

Depending on the product and how it will be shared or distributed, evaluation may include:

Room-temperature observation
Elevated-temperature stability
Cool-temperature stability
Freeze-thaw testing when appropriate
pH monitoring
Viscosity monitoring
Odor and color monitoring
Packaging compatibility
Preservative-efficacy or challenge testing

FDA does not prescribe one universal test program for every cosmetic, but the manufacturer or distributor remains responsible for ensuring that the finished product is safe when used as intended. FDA: Product Testing of Cosmetics

The Order Matters

The correct order is:

1. Define the product.

2. Identify the formula structure.

3. List the required functions.

4. Research appropriate ingredients.

5. Build the functional base.

6. Design the oil and water phases.

7. Establish the preservation strategy.

8. Add only purposeful actives.

9. Bring the formula to exactly 100.00%.

10.Organize the ingredients into phases.

11.Write the procedure.

12.Establish specifications.

13.Make a pilot batch.

14.Evaluate and document it.

15.Revise one meaningful variable at a time.

16.Complete the appropriate testing.

The wrong order is opening your ingredient cabinet, choosing everything that sounds beneficial, assigning arbitrary percentages, and hoping the ingredients cooperate with fingers crossed.

Beginner Formula Audit

Before making your first batch, confirm:

The product has a clear purpose.
Every ingredient has a necessary function.
Every usage rate has been checked against reliable technical information.
Solubility and phase placement have been verified.
The emulsifier is appropriate for the complete oil phase.
The preservative is compatible with the formula and target pH.
Heat-sensitive materials are protected.
The formula totals exactly 100.00%.
The procedure is written before production begins.
Finished-product targets have been established.
A testing and documentation plan is in place.

That is how a formula is built from scratch: not by guessing and not by starting with the most exciting ingredient, but by making a series of deliberate, technically connected decisions.

Here is a beginner friendly lotion formula, based on everything we've discussed in this blog post:

LIGHTWEIGHT LOTION

Phase	INCI Name	%	Function
A	Distilled Water	71.80	Solvent/water carrier
A	Glycerin	3.00	Humectant
A	Disodium EDTA	0.10	Chelator
B	Emulsifying Wax NF	5.00	Primary O/W emulsifier
B	Cetyl Alcohol	1.00	Co-emulsifier / structure
B	Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides	5.00	Light, fast-spreading emollient
B	Sweet Almond Oil	3.00	Cushion emollient
B	Isopropyl Myristate	3.00	Fast-spreading, non-greasy emollient
B	Dimethicone	1.00	Slip, reduced tack
C	Niacinamide	4.00	Active — barrier support, skin conditioning
C	Panthenol (DL)	2.00	Active — humectant, skin conditioning
C	Euxyl PE 9010	1.00	Broad-spectrum preservative
C	Citric Acid (10% solution)	0.10	pH adjustment, qs to target
Total		100.00

Phase-by-phase procedure (Fahrenheit) in simplest of terms

Phase A: Combine distilled water, glycerin, and Disodium EDTA. Heat to 160–170°F.
Phase B: Combine Emulsifying Wax NF, Cetyl Alcohol, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, Sweet Almond Oil, Isopropyl Myristate, and Dimethicone. Heat to 160–170°F until fully melted.
Slowly add Phase B into Phase A at matched temperatures, mixing continuously until emulsified.
Continue mixing while cooling to below 104°F (40°C).
Phase C: At below 104°F, add Niacinamide and Panthenol (dissolved in some reserved water from Phase A), mixing until fully dissolved.
Add Euxyl PE 9010, mix thoroughly.
Check pH. Adjust with Citric Acid (10% solution) dropwise until pH reads 5.0–5.5.
Weigh finished batch; replace any evaporation loss with water.
Fill into pump bottle once at room temperature.

Processing notes

Add actives and preservative only after the emulsion has cooled below 104°F to avoid thermal degradation risk.
Niacinamide will noticeably increase the batch's water-soluble solids load — confirm full dissolution before moving to the next addition; undissolved powder can show as grain in the finished lotion.

Target specifications

Smooth, uniform white lotion
No visible oil separation or undissolved powder
Lightweight, pump-dispensable viscosity
Non-greasy after-feel
Final pH: 5.0–5.5

Compatibility and stability concerns

pH watch: Niacinamide is generally considered most stable around neutral-to-mildly-acidic pH (commonly cited stability optimum near pH 6–6.5); at pH 5.0–5.5 it remains within typical formulation practice, but slow hydrolysis to niacin (which can cause a transient flushing sensation) is more likely at lower pH and elevated storage temperature over time.

Bench testing observations to watch for

Complete dissolution of niacinamide/panthenol at cooldown (watch for graininess).
pH drift over 24–48 hours.
Any change in skin feel or flushing-type sensation on a bench patch test, given the niacinamide/pH interaction noted above.