Source substitution formulating

Perhaps the most impactful change in the cosmetic and personal care market over the last forty years is the demand placed upon formulators to provide timely, market responsive, regulatory compliant and cost effective products. The time frames in which these parameters must be delivered continues to decrease. These factors have forced successful formulators to adapt in the processes used to get products developed.
Starting as new product line from scratch has become almost unheard of undertaking. Instead we have suggested using platforms for speeding up the process, making specific type of changes to demonstrate consumer driven performance enhancements.
This article will concentrate on a newer approach we have dubbed Source Substitution Formulation and it is different from and complementary to the Minimally Disruptive and Functional Formulation approaches we have recommended. Source Substitution Formulation is a process that is used primarily to substitute a more sustainable reactant for a less sustainable reactant. This could be replacing a petroleum based fatty alcohol with a naturally derived fatty alcohol or substituting a natural based ethylene oxide for petroleum ethylene oxide.