Product Development - Frequently Asked Questions
The following questions and answers address the most common enquiries received from brands and product developers considering a bespoke formulation project with Hera Beauty Ltd. All responses are intended for professional audiences already familiar with the personal care manufacturing sector.
Q: What does Hera Beauty's bespoke product development service
involve?
Hera Beauty offers a fully integrated development pathway, from initial brief through to regulatory-compliant finished product. Our in-house technical team and formulation chemists work directly with your brand to define the formulation specification, active ingredient selection,
packaging, and marketing positioning.
Depending on your requirements and existing warehouse stock, we may adapt an existing validated formulation as a starting point or build the product entirely from scratch.
Q: How do I initiate a development project?
The process begins with a structured discovery call, during which your account manager will capture the full project brief: target product category, desired actives and INCI constraints, fragrance preferences, packaging format, intended market (UK, EU, or export), performance claims, and any sustainability or certification requirements. This brief serves as the foundation for all subsequent formulation work.
Q: What is the typical timeline for a development project?
We advise clients to plan for up to twelve months from initial brief to finished, compliant product. This timeline accommodates iterative formulation development, stability and compatibility testing, Preservative Efficacy Testing (PET), the Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR), raw material procurement, and production scheduling. Individual stages may be shorter depending on formulation complexity and brief clarity; however, compressing the timeline carries risk to product quality and regulatory compliance, and we do not recommend it.
Q: Can you expedite the development process?
In certain circumstances, where a client's brief aligns closely with an existing validated Hera Beauty formulation, the development phase can be substantially shortened. In this case, adjustments to efficacy, texture, fragrance, or actives are made to the existing base rather than
originating a wholly new formula. The viability of this approach depends on warehouse stock and formulation proximity to your specification and will be assessed during the initial call.
Q: What is the minimum order quantity for a development project?
The recommended initial order size for a development project is 5,000 units per product. This quantity is appropriate for the commercial validation stage and provides sufficient volume to justify the regulatory investment and production setup costs inherent in bespoke development work.
Q: What testing is included as standard?
All products developed at Hera Beauty undergo Stability Testing, Compatibility Testing, Preservative Efficacy Testing (PET), and a Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR) as standard components of the development programme. Additional testing, including challenge testing variants, dermatological assessment, or specific claims-substantiation testing may be arranged upon request.
Q: How does the sample approval process work?
Once an initial INCI draft has been agreed and approved by your team, laboratory samples will be submitted for your evaluation. You are then able to request adjustments to the formulation (including modifications to consistency, efficacy, skin feel, and fragrance profile) before sign-off is given to proceed to stability testing and production scaling.
Q: Will I have visibility over the project once it is underway?
Yes. Each development project is assigned a dedicated account manager who acts as your primary point of contact throughout the entire process, from brief receipt through to delivery. Regular updates are provided at each project milestone to ensure alignment and flag any lead-time dependencies, such as specialist raw material procurement.
Q: Does Hera Beauty manufacture the product once development is complete?
Yes. Following successful completion of the testing and approval phase, raw material orders are placed and production is scheduled at our GMP-certified manufacturing facility in Peterborough. The transition from development to manufacture is managed by your account manager with no handover disruption.
Q: What regulatory frameworks does Hera Beauty work within?
All formulations developed at Hera Beauty are assessed and documented to comply with UK Cosmetics Regulation (retained from EU Regulation EC No 1223/2009) and EU Cosmetics Regulation where relevant. Our in-house regulatory and QC team manages product notification via SCPN (UK) and CPNP (EU), ensuring your products are market-ready upon completion.
