You can’t put everything in a beaker, mix it, and achieve your end formulation. Ingredients are grouped into different “phases” based on the following factors:

• Solubility (e.g., water-soluble ingredients are mixed first with water, oil-soluble ingredients are mixed first with oil, etc.)

• Processing temperature (e.g., you don’t want to add temperature-sensitive ingredients at a hot temperature, you may have to melt some waxes, etc.)

• Mixing factors (e.g., it’s better to disperse xanthan gum in a glycol before adding it to water so that it doesn’t clump in the water)

As you become more familiar with different formula types, you’ll have an easier time understanding why certain ingredients are grouped together in processing instructions.

This is the column where you list out each ingredient by trade name or INCI or both.

Professional formulas should always start in percentages and then be converted to the required batch size (weight). Having your formula broken down in percentages allows you to make sure the ratios between your ingredients can be scaled up and down accurately and know how much of that ingredient is required. Knowing your formula by percentages helps you understand where a formula has perhaps gone wrong. For example, we know that for most people if glycerin is added at more than 3% it can feel sticky.

AMOUNT TO ADD (G)

We use this column to determine how many grams of an ingredient we’re going to add depending on our batch size. In the example formula, we will make a 500 g batch size. If we are to add 1% of glycerin to a 500 g batch size, then we need to add 5 g of glycerin to the formula:

This column is how much you actually put in your formula as you’re making it. This is very important to keep track of while you’re making your batch so that if things go sideways, you can review what you did to make sure you didn’t accidentally add too little or too much of an ingredient.

It can be kind of difficult to write things and take notes as you make your formulas, but it’s important to do. I try to pre-weigh everything in beakers, weigh boats, and weigh papers as much as I can so I have less to write when I’m actually putting everything together.

EXAMPLE:
Simply put, 1% is equivalent to 1g, 5% is equivalent to 5g. In all cases 100g is the same as 100%. If you want to make double the amount you would multiply each ingredient by two. If you want to make 300g you would multiply by three and so on. If you wanted to scale up the above formula to 250g then it is easy. You will simply multiply each ingredient by 2.5 as below:

Cocoa Butter 26.00 x 2.5 = 65g

Kokum Butter 9.00 x 2.5 = 22.5g

Sunflower Oil 17.00 x 2.5 = 42.5g

Rosehip Oil 32.00 x 2.5 = 80g

Vitamin E 1.00 x 2.5 = 2.5g

Beeswax 15.00 x 2.5 = 37.5g

TOTAL 250g

q.s. stands for qauntum satis in Latin, which means the amount which is enough. When you “q.s.” an ingredient in a formula, it means you add the remaining amount of the q.s.’d ingredient in a formula. In most formulas, this will almost always be water. To calculate how much water you need to add in the example formula

Concentration is the final expression of the ratio of the amount of an ingredient to the amount of product.

Concentrations of ingredients are reported (if they are reported at all) as percentages. More specifically, they’re reported as weight percentages.

There are three common ways to report it: volume per volume (v/v), weight per volume (w/v), and weight per weight (w/w).

Example:

An alcohol based fragrance’s concentration is 70% - 92% alcohol, depending on the type of fragrance.

There is a limit on ingredients as well. For example. A lactic acid serum.. The maximum permitted lactic acid concentration in skin products is: 10% at a pH ≥3.5 for consumer use. It is 10–30% or a pH between 3.0–3.5 for professional use.

To learn more about your formulation / manufacturing process click HERE.

Weight percent (w/w)

w/w is used to report concentration. For this measurement, volume measurements are ignored regardless of if components are liquids and only the weights are used.

Example:
20 grams Shea butter.
20 grams Jojoba oil
20 grams Beeswax.
35 grams of Sugar
3 grams of Vitamin E oil
2 grams of Essential oil

The weight percent (w/w) of each ingredient is:
20% Shea Butter w/w
20% Jojoba Oil w/w
20% Beeswax w/w
35% Sugar w/w
3% Vitamin E oil w/w
2% Essential Oil w/w

Weight per volume (w/v)

Example: Vegetable Stock

If you have a single solution (water) that is dissolving several different solid ingredients (vegetables), then mass concentration, or weight per volume (w/v), might be used to denote the concentration.

It’s difficult to accurately report mass concentrations of solutions because the density has to be taken into account.

For example, let’s say you’re dissolving 400 g of diced celery x into 600 mL of water to make 1000 g of a final solution. Let’s also say that the density of the final solution is 0.98g/ml. The final mass concentration is not 40% of celery , but rather 39.2% w/v because it must be multiplied by the final density.

If you find that it’s complicated to report mass concentration accurately, we use it because there are small amounts of solid compounds (vegetables) dissolved in water. Water’s density is about 1, and the small amounts of dissolved compounds (vegetables) are most likely not changing the density. You can use this to keep track of concentrations.

Volume per volume (v/v)

Volume concentration, or volume per volume (v/v), is mainly used for solutions that are made up of liquids.

If you have 20 mL of perfume that is made up of 20 mL water, 3mL of Rosemary oil, 1 mL of preservatives, and 1 mL of essential oil, the concentration of each ingredient would be 20% water v/v, 3% Rosemary oil v/v, 1% preservatives v/v and 1% essential oil v/v.

To tare a scale means to zero out the weight of whatever was already on the scale, such as a bowl, plate, or container.