Fresholi | Melting Pot Café

Hi all another newbie here, I am interested in making my own brand of beauty creams and lotions for resell at craft fairs. Does anyone know if I can just sell them or do I need to get a certificate or something.
thanks all
Katrina

Hello Katrina - welcome to the forum.

You will need to have the products assessed by a cosmetic chemist, there's quite a bit of information around the topics on the forum so good luck with your creams.

HI Elaine
thanks for that
Katrina

Hi Katrina!

To start with, you will need a few hundred hours spare to read read read and study to make sure you know how each and every ingredient in a product behaves and what qualities it brings to the product. The you will need a few hundred £££ to buy supplies to experiment, formulate, tweak, tweak and tweak again. Then, when you are happy with your formula, you need to get each product safety assessed by a lab/chemist. Lotions/creams etc. should be challenge tested. Then you have to get yourself insurance. Then you find willing testers for your products to be able to get feedback for your products. That will probably take care of a year or so.

I know this is probably not what you were expecting, but regulations are very strict where cosmetics are concerned. I started making my own stuff over two years ago, and have only recently started to sell. It is not something you can do overnight. It takes a lot of commitment.

If all this hasn't put you off, then you are dedicated, LOL, and probably will get well and truly hooked on making your very own formulations. This is a great place to get help, information and inspiration.

Oh, should have said WELCOME right at the start, silly me!

Hi sorry didn't make myself clear, can tell I'm new!!
I am a trained beautician and aromatherapist and buy base creams and oils which I then add essentail oils too. I make creams up for my treatments which obviously people pay for and I am allowed to do so , but not sure if I can resell them at fairs etc or other salons. Clients are always saying how wonderful they are and come back again and again so thought I could expand, just not sure on the legal requirements.
Thanks
Katrina

Ah - you have a similar background to Helen and one or two others who post here ('cept that Helen is intending to sell lotions and potions ATM).

Hi Katrina,

A very warm welcome to the boards - lots of VERY knowledgeable people here and inspiration seems to just pop up out of the blue  :idea:

Anyway, yes, you are of a similar background to myself, Zoe, Sharon, Karen S...  As far as I am aware, if you are adding EO's and other ingredients to the base creams etc....  you still need to have it safety assessed.  Also, I believe you ok selling it to your (consulted) clients - but check that first.

The best thing to do though is, firstly, to ask your base cream supplier if they would give you the name of their assessor (they may, they may not). They will not want to divulge their formula but their assessor will already have it and the additions you make to that forumula will be a much more simple process.  If you have to go to a different assessor, this may complicate things in that you will need to get hold of the base formulation or organise it to be sent to a different assessor.  Could cost you more??

Anyway, there's plenty on this around the forum and we had a very similar discussion a while back on one of the threads somewhere (although I forget where)

I look forward to chatting with you around the boards and welcome again  ;D

Hi Katrina
Welcome, I have no idea as we always used known brands in the salon, but am always interested in the answer.  I'm just stepping into the world of making it myself, only soaps for now but really enjoying myself  ;)

Best wishes
KarenS.

Hello and welcome  (:hug:) You've already been giving lots of great advice so I won't repeat it only to say you really need to approach the supplier of the base creams etc first. If they won't give you the name of their safety assessor, there is little chance they will give you the formula details that you will need for your own safety assessor.
I think you might need some tests as well if you are producing creams that contain water and preservatives to make sure the preservatives are effective.
It is not impossible though so don't be too disheartened if it is something you really want to do! It might just be that you do something a bit differently.

thanks everyone for a warm welcome and thankyou for all your comments, all very much appreciated. I look forward to chatting again.
Katrina

I've split this topic and moved the discussion down to the Members Lounge.

Ameela did say "Hi" to Katrina.