Do Your Courses Certify Me to Make and Sell Skincare Products? What You Need to Know about Qualifications and Certifications

As our prospective students consider enrollment, one of their most-asked questions is “Will your courses certify me to make and sell skincare products?” This is an excellent question, and one we feel is important to clarify! So important, in fact, we wanted to write an entire article about it, so that if you were curious too, you’d have the right answer.

When you know that you want to formulate, make, and sell your own line of cosmetic or skin care products, it makes sense to find out how to do this and what is required!

However, one of the common misconceptions that new formulators have about qualifications and certifications is that it’s about certifying the formulator, rather than each individual product itself. We can understand why this might be confusing. In many fields, both inside and outside of the beauty and skincare industry, this is true; someone studies, attends courses, and passes their exams, and they are then licensed as a cosmetologist or beauty professional. But that isn’t how it works with product formulation.

The field of cosmetics is different to most other professions. While an aromatherapist can only practice aromatherapy with the correct qualifications or certifications, and a doctor needs certain qualifications in medicine to practice legally as a doctor, there are no requirements of this kind for people to formulate cosmetics. You can certainly acquire a degree in Cosmetic Chemistry, but this isn’t a prerequisite for formulating and selling cosmetics.

Depending on your local laws and regulations, a formulator must have each of his/her products tested and certified individually. There is currently no certification, accreditation, or qualification that allows a formulator to make and sell whatever he/she wishes! Not even a chemist with a degree in Cosmetic Chemistry can do this. They still need to have their products individually tested.

Why is this important? Well, for passionate skincare entrepreneurs, like yourself, it’s good news that you don’t need to head off to university to formulate your own cosmetic products. But it’s important to have all of your facts straight before you start rushing ahead to launch a product. You may have some experience formulating certain products, or modifying recipes to develop your first products, and want to sell them straight away. But unless they individually pass the relevant tests to show they are safe, you shouldn’t be selling them.

Product Testing: Mandatory, or Just a Good Idea?

As the person creating skincare products and making them available for sale, you are the person responsible for ensuring they are safe. How do you do this? Well, first, you need to formulate safe and stable products, and second, you should send them off for testing which gives you confirmation that they really do meet safety standards.

Every country has their own regulations and specific requirements for selling cosmetics and skin care products. Whatever the legal requirements are, the formulator remains the person responsible for making sure that what they are placing on the market is safe!

The FDA states, 

A manufacturer or distributor of a cosmetic is legally responsible for ensuring that a marketed product is safe when consumers use it according to the directions in the labeling, or in the customary or expected way. FDA can take action against the manufacturer of a cosmetic on the market, if we have reliable information to show that the cosmetic does not meet the legal requirement for safety.

If your products aren’t formulated with safety in mind, the best-case scenario is that they’ll spoil quickly, or don’t work the way you might’ve intended. Worse-case scenario? Your unsafe products could put your professional reputation on the line, and actually harm someone. (And we know you don’t want that!)

So it’s best to do it right!

How can School of Natural Skincare Help?

A degree in Cosmetic Science isn’t required to formulate and sell products, but it is still your responsibility to formulate safe products and where relevant, have them pass the safety tests. This is where we can help! Without heading off to university, we can teach you what you need to know to create safe, stable, and effective products which have a much better chance of complying with cosmetic regulations.

Because you are responsible for placing the very safest products on the market, you’ll want to know everything you need to know to formulate products which have the highest likelihood of passing those safety tests! You need to learn how to formulate like a professional—and that’s what we teach you to do in our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation. Because the thing is, unless you’ve learned professional formulation skills from experts, you run the risk of making errors and selling products that aren’t safe, wasting time (and money!) on products that won’t pass testing. You don’t need to do it via trial and error, you need the skills you might not even know you don’t know.

While taking our course doesn’t automatically guarantee you’ll pass the testing the first time, it will give you the information and know-how to ensure you are so much more equipped to do that successfully, not to mention the confidence you’ll have from actually knowing how to create products from scratch like a professional—including knowing what you can and can’t do with ingredients, techniques, storage, labeling, and documentation.

And safety isn’t the only consideration—even though it’s a very important one, as you can tell! As the product creator, it’s your responsibility to make products which are effective, too—ones that will have the desired outcome for the customer, whether it’s soothing dry, sensitive skin or nourishing irritation. Safe products, plus healthy skin, equals happy and devoted customers!

One of the things our students tell us time and again is that our courses have given them confidence. It’s one of the top points of feedback we hear, and we’re so pleased. Whatever your starting level of experience or knowledge, you can always learn more, do better, and fill in the gaps with professional-quality formulating knowledge.

We believe that if you’re serious about formulating safely and making products you are proud to put your name on, then it’s worth doing it well and investing in your own skills. It’s true that if you have no knowledge of cosmetic chemistry, you certainly can hire someone to do it for you. But that costs money as well and you lose out on direct involvement in the creative process. If you decide to formulate without the help of a professional, and without the proper training, you are putting yourself as well as your customers at risk.

Investing in the proper training through a comprehensive course such as our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation will teach you how to formulate like a professional. Ultimately it’s your responsibility to make sure your products are safe, whether you’re legally bound by regulations or not. And beyond that, we’ll help you stamp your values and your creativity onto your brand. We will help you learn how to create products that are unique and innovative, products that allow your passion and personality to shine through.

So, while our courses don’t certify you to make and sell any product you like (no course or qualification enables you to do this!) they will help you gain the skills and knowledge you require to launch your brand. Our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation and Diploma in Natural Haircare Formulation will help you:

• Develop a unique brand centred around your values;
• Formulate safe, stable and effective products that cater to your ideal customers needs and desires;
• Give yourself the best chance of passing product testing, and peace of mind in what you are selling;
• Identify the Cosmetic Regulations that apply to you, and what to do to comply with them;
• Save time and money when you do things properly from the start;
• Have confidence you are doing things correctly;
• Feel like you’re supported by peers and fellow students, and have tutoring on-hand for all your questions;
• And avoid potential lawsuits.

We’re proud to have helped many students from all around the world realize their dream of establishing their own brand and selling their own skincare line. Our students have launched brands in every corner of the world including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Europe, Ireland, India and Saudi Arabia. Read about their inspiring stories and brands in our student success stories.

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