My 7 step design process for making our skincare and haircare (part two)

If you've ever wondered what it takes to go from a skincare idea to releasing a finished product, this two-part series is for you. I'm sharing the step-by-step design process behind how I make our skin and hair products so you can see behind the curtain of how products get made. You just might pick up a thing or two about what sustainable choices in skincare design mean too!

If you missed numbers 1-3 where I shared how I do research and choose sustainable ingredients, you can check out part one here. Or, if you fancy starting with a prototype and seeing how it comes to life, keep reading.

Clue: It always takes longer than you'd think!

4. Testing my skin and hair products in real life

When I've buffed up that ugly duckling draft product so it's just about a protégé cygnet, it's time to test it with real people (i.e. not the maker as I'm biased!) Sending my products out to you lovely people to test is one of the most worthwhile things I do and so, so interesting...

It's how I learnt that organic sea buckthorn extract was making my moisturiser look like self-tan. Or that the exact drop of my facial serum needed to drip better (who knew? And cue months of work.) This summer with my shampoo bar, it was... all good! I know now to line up more testers in case I need to make big changes, and usually they're things I'd never have thought of myself.

Last June, I set up a haircare testing pool. As the writer of my weekly newsletter, Ideas Book, it's sometimes hard to picture the people reading it. That is, of course, until you come back to me with all your lovely hair types and curl patterns! I made bars for just 5 testers, although I'm hoping to do it again soon.

Turns out there's nothing that makes running an online small business feel more human than chatting about shampoo and hair washing down the phone, as well as hearing all the interesting minutiae about how people take care of their hair!

How to test new skincare products

Thinking about it, we're all testers when we try a new skin or hair product. A good idea is to introduce just one product into your routine. Skin takes about a month to regenerate, which is when you'll start seeing the effects so it's worth sticking it out with your skincare. For your hair, you'll see a difference more quickly as, most of the time, repair is temporary and happens with each wash.

It being small business land though and because I don't have that much time, I get customers to test products for about 2 weeks. If you'd like to help me test products in future, make sure you're subscribed to my mailing list.

5. Making it official: How I check my skincare is safe

When I first released my sustainable skincare set, this was the stage that intimidated and pretty much baffled me! The answer was to work through it like you'd climb a steep mountain, concentrating on one step at a time.

Once I have a draft product that my testers love, the next step of my skincare design process is stability testing. This means imagining every awful thing that could happen to your skincare. It freezes in the post, then you store it on a sunny window in a heatwave, for a long, long time... And then it's finding ways to simulate that.

When I stability test, it's to find out if my hair or skincare has design flaws that'll show up later on. And sometimes they do! At Christmas in 2022, my Think Again Facial Serum was a bit of a nightmare, splitting into oil and cream again and again. 'Let's Stay Together' became the soundtrack, and my hummed wish, for those uncertain weeks.

At the same time as stability testing, there's lab testing. It felt so special the first time I sent my skincare away to be tested, and just a bit nerve-wracking! After all, as you know now, tests fail and will! Luckily, I haven't had this with my lab testing yet... touch cedarwood. As an artisan skincare maker though, I have to be so, so careful with timings and guesses as to when my skincare is finally ready.

6. A note on what it means to be Leaping Bunny approved

Of course, there's no animal testing in my skincare design process and, thankfully, it's been illegal for cosmetics since 2013 in the UK and Europe. When I first made my skincare though, I wanted to get Leaping Bunny approval as a second certification I could aim for after our 1% For The Planet.

In practice, this means all my suppliers need to sign forms confirming there's no animal testing. You'd think this would be a default, but in reality just asking questions has shown up which suppliers monitor their supply chains, and which don't! Just like when we learn about living sustainably, there are tricky questions to ask. And, of course, it's up to us to choose what to do with the answers, or lack of them.

This summer Authentic House had a Leaping Bunny audit. This meant an independent auditor was able to go to my suppliers and see documents they wouldn't have shown me, to make sure there's no animal testing.

I'm proud our compliance was 'outstanding', but Rebekah did find a case of testing that my supplier hadn't remembered to share. This meant lots of forms and sharing information I didn't really understand, but that Cruelty Free International were able to look at and confirm that the testing was allowed for now - as sometimes it's required in other industries.

Which is to say, being Leaping Bunny approved is much more than a bunny-shaped logo.*

*Though it's pretty cute too.

7. How I launch my skin and hair products

The dream! Often after testing, people will ask me how soon my products will be available - maybe in a couple of weeks? As you'll know now, there's so much around legalities and testing that it can take months.

With all the work I put into my products, photoshoot day is like bringing them to life. I work with our photographer Gabby who has her studio just across the Bay in Penarth. I love her style which you'll see all over the Authentic House website and she was kind enough to give me a free shoot way back when I started out (I hadn't judged how speedy she'd be and was very unprepared!)

Something I've found a challenge as a small business is finding models for photoshoots. I have friends and my sister who have helped, as well as Roanna Lewis who is an actor and yoga teacher I met initially as a customer (I also recommend her autumn coven yoga classes in Cardiff...)

On a small budget, working with an agency often isn't an option, but I'm still on the lookout for models with different hair textures and skin colours. If you live in Cardiff and would ever like to model, do let me know.

And then it's launch day. It's time to celebrate and get the tingly feels packing our first products to go out. I love to read reviews and feedback. I'm also on the lookout for things I can improve for next time.

Why, in reality, you're always testing your skincare

This year we entered the Free From Skincare Awards and won silver for our Think Again Facial Serum. Second to the jaw-drop moment of realising I'd actually (as a former literature student, not a scientist as I won't lead you to believe) had won a medal, was the feedback notes too. Not just the good things, but also thinking about how I can improve my packaging.

Also, whenever people return refills of our skincare, it's a moment to see how they used the product too. How easy was it to return, and also to clean ready for reuse?

If you try any of our hair or skincare, please, please leave a review or give me some feedback on what I can improve. It's so helpful.

A final word on hair and skincare design

And there you have my complete 7 step design process for making our skincare and haircare. Turns out, when I start writing, I can share a lot! I'm proud of this process too as, years back when I began Authentic House, designing skincare from scratch would have felt pretty impossible

I hope this also gives you an idea of all the thought around sustainability that goes into making our products. If you're in the midst of your own design process, bookmark this post to come back to. I think the answer is, back to the mountain, to go one step at a time.

If you enjoyed my post, make sure to subscribe to my Ideas Book newsletter. It's where I share my thoughts and what's inspiring me each week around creating a sustainable home.