Development models: how your formula is created

Before talking about timing or budget, every project has to answer one question: where will your formula start from? The answer changes the investment, the schedule, and what you take away from the project at the end.

There are three possible routes. This page explains how each model works in practice and what the contract settles about exclusivity and use of the formula.

The three models

A summary before the detail:

1. Customised base formula

We start from a technically validated base — already tested for stability, sensory profile and compatibility between components — and adapt it to your project: actives, fragrance, texture, colour, claims and packaging.

It is the fastest and most predictable route, because the technical core of the formula is already solved. Development time goes into customisation and sample approval, not into solving stability problems from scratch.

It makes sense when a base close to what the project needs already exists and the launch schedule is firm.

2. Development from scratch

We create a new formula from your brief, with no prior base. It involves more bench stages, more stability testing cycles and, consequently, more time and more development investment.

It makes sense when the intended product has no close equivalent among our bases, when the positioning requires a specific technology, or when formula exclusivity is central to the brand’s proposition.

Assessed case by case, from the brief.

3. Your formula

You already have the formulation and we manufacture it. We adapt it to our process, validate it in a pilot batch and produce. The formula remains yours: it does not enter our library of bases, nor does it serve as a starting point for another project.

Suited to companies that have already developed the product and need capacity, a format, or regulatory structure they do not have in house.

Exclusivity and use of the formula

Your formulation is not supplied to another client. That is the contractual commitment, alongside confidentiality of the project and non-disclosure of the relationship.

Formal exclusivity can be contracted — of formula, category or territory, with a defined term and scope. It is the usual route in development from scratch, where the development investment justifies specific ownership terms. We define it before development begins, not afterwards.

What we do not promise. Technical bases, actives and manufacturing processes are shared knowledge across the industry — it is what makes short lead times and an accessible minimum order possible. Another project may address a similar proposition without being your product: same active, same category, different result. The guarantee covers your formulation, not the category it sits in.

Formula handover and transfer. Handover of the quantitative formula, ownership, and the right to transfer production to another manufacturer vary by model and are defined in the proposal and the contract, before development begins.

A formula you bring. It stays yours. We manufacture under confidentiality and do not supply it to anyone else. We retain the technical documentation for as long as batch traceability and regulatory obligations require — a quality requirement, not appropriation.

What drives cost

We do not publish a price list because there is no unit price before formula, packaging and volume are defined. The total project investment has two parts, and only the first is in the Hibiscus quote.

The Hibiscus quote covers:

• Formula development and samples
• Raw materials
• Manufacturing, filling, labelling and finishing — depending on production volume and number of batches
• Substantiating the claims you want to make — each claim that needs substantiation adds testing and documentation
• Testing and regulatory work

Stays with you:

• Packaging, caps and accessories
• Label: artwork and printing

Freight and export are set out in the proposal, depending on the destination.

Two projects with the same formula can have very different unit costs purely as a function of the packaging chosen and the quantity produced.

How many units a batch yields

The minimum order is 20 kg per SKU, in any format. We do not promise a number of pieces: the packaging is yours, and it is the packaging — volume, format and the formula’s density — that sets how many units come out of a batch. Once the packaging is specified, we estimate it for your project.

Packaging and labelling: how far our scope goes

Buying is yours. We guide the packaging specification — material, closure system, barrier to light and oxygen. Purchasing stays with you and your suppliers: we do not buy materials on your behalf or act as a procurement desk. The label follows the same rule — artwork and printing are your brand’s, and you send us the finished labels; what the label has to carry by law is covered under labelling. In production, we fill and label with the material you deliver.

What does not change is the need for a compatibility test between formula and packaging. A stable formula can behave differently depending on the bottle material, the closure type, and the barrier to light and oxygen.

Packaging runs in parallel with formula development, not after it:

1. Formula development and samples
2. Packaging sourcing and compatibility testing
3. Brand identity and label artwork
4. Final quote
5. Production and filling

Lead times: what the numbers include

The first sample usually arrives within 30 days of the brief, and production takes 10 business days, counted from the arrival of raw materials and packaging. These are real figures, but they measure specific stages — not the total time until the product reaches the shelf.

A realistic launch combines all of those fronts. In a first conversation we can estimate the full schedule for your specific project — and that estimate is far more useful than the sum of the two numbers above.

For manufacturers

Much of what we produce is contract manufacturing for other cosmetics manufacturers that need a capability they do not have in house, or additional capacity in a specific format. The commercial terms, volumes and confidentiality clauses differ from those of a brand project — we have gathered that information under contract manufacturing.