Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products

Yes! The Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products is accredited by the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Certification Service. The CPD Certification Service is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors. They are a globally recognized institution and accredit courses by prestigious organizations including the University of Westminster and the London School of Economics – and ours, too! The CPD Certification Service assesses each course individually, evaluating the quality of training materials and learning activities against the highest standards. We are delighted to have passed the formal and impartial CPD accreditation process carried out by the team of experienced assessors at the CPD Certification Service. See our Accreditations and Memberships page for more information on our professional memberships and accreditations.

Yes! The course is hosted inside an easy-to-use online classroom. It is designed to be taken at home from anywhere in the world. The products we make meet global quality and safety standards and we’ll provide information on ingredient suppliers in many different countries. We have students in over 150 countries so you’ll be joining a thriving global community.

We are an international school with students worldwide. US dollars are the most widely recognized and accepted currency. You can check the exchange rate for your local currency using exchange rate sites such as xe.com. Either your bank or PayPal will exchange the enrollment fee for your local currency when you join.

The Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products is our shorter beginners’ course. The time it takes to complete the course really depends on how many products you want to make. You can make as many or as few as you like! We estimate allowing approximately 40-80 hours. Most students complete the course within 3-6 months. You could immerse yourself in all the material over a few days, study one module a week, or take several months. The choice is yours.

If you are looking for a longer and more in-depth course then you may wish to consider our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation.

Studying online is easy and convenient. You can study at your own pace from the comfort of your own home (or office/library – wherever you wish!).

As soon as you enroll, you receive access to the course inside our online classroom. There you’ll find the whole curriculum laid out for you. We provide a variety of study materials – written lessons in beautiful downloadable PDFs, video demonstrations, audio lessons, downloadable worksheets, reference charts, activities and quizzes.

Each week you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions to our experienced, professional Cosmetic Scientists through our specialized Tutor Q&A forums, hosted in our online classroom.

You’ll meet your classmates in our private online student and graduate community. Here, you can chat to other students and graduates to ask for their advice, knowledge and expertise. We encourage peer-to-peer support and know how valuable access to a community of like-minded individuals can be when studying remotely. 

When you have worked through the lessons you can take the end-of-course quiz. Once you have successfully completed the quiz you’ll be issued with your Certificate of Completion. You can retake the quiz as many times as you need to.

You’ll have access to the online classroom for 18 months, so plenty of time to study. We recommend that you download the files and documents to your own computer for safekeeping, that way the material is yours to keep forever! You can renew your course enrollment for a small fee, which will also give you additional time to complete your end-of-course quiz, further access to the tutor Q&A and any updates to the course made during this time.

In terms of ingredients, we recommend that you start off simple! With just a handful of ingredients you can make many types of product. We suggest you begin with inexpensive carrier oils that are still very beneficial for the skin. This means as you are practicing and learning you won’t waste expensive ingredients.

So it’s probably best to start with:

• 1-2 emulsifiers.
• 1 preservative.
• 1 antioxidant (Vitamin E).
• 2 stabilizers (cetyl alcohol and xanthan gum).
• 1 humectant (glycerin).
• 1 wax (beeswax or a vegan alternative).
• A few basic carrier oils (eg sweet almond, sunflower, apricot kernel).
• A few specialist carrier oils (eg avocado, macadamia, rosehip, raspberry seed, evening primrose).
• A few butters (eg shea and cocoa).
• A few essential oils (the course covers 14 essential oils in depth – you could start with 3-5 of these).

You can download the ingredient list for the course here: Ingredient List. You don’t need to buy everything. We suggest that you read through some of the recipes and decide what you’d like to make. You can also look through the ingredient charts to see which oils sound appealing to you. Then you can order your ingredients accordingly.

Don’t get overwhelmed – keep it simple! You can always add more ingredients to your collection later.

If you are looking for a wider range of ingredients and more advanced ingredients, then our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation or Advanced Certificate in High-Performance Serum Formulation might be a better choice for you.