Formulation Tools: The Must-Haves & The Nice-To-Haves...
- thereformedproduct
- Jan 20
- 5 min read
When you start looking at making your own skin/body products it can seem overwhelming, especially when you start looking at incorporating specialty ingredients or doing emulsified products. The goal of this post is to help you get setup with tools and basic ingredients that are a good investment to get up and running!
I'll try to keep this post up to date with any new additions
Please Note: The single most important thing to me in creating this entire blog site (and life in general), is honesty and transparency. So in that spirit, know that this page contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases.
Glass Beakers & A Precision Scale
The first 2 things I tell people to invest in, whether you just want to make anhydrous formulas or emulsions...is a beaker set (you can purchase the glass rods here) and a scale. These are critical - you cannot precision measure .5% of an active or essential oil with out it. And yes...it does need to be THAT precise, essential oils and specialty ingredients have a specific usage rate associated with them and it must be followed to ensure your formulations are safe. Unfortunately, the beaker set I originally bought (see pic below) when I started doing this about 3 years ago is no longer available, but I have linked something similar with a decent capacity range for beginners.
The scale linked has a measurement range of 0.05 grams - 500grams and reads in increments of 0.01 gram which is great making most things ranging from an ounce to 12 ounces. If you are whipping or emulsifying something you should make less than the beaker can hold - otherwise you will end up with product everywhere. I know from experience and I hate wasting ingredients... Now if you are like me and you just know you are going to be looking into peptides and other various actives you might want to also look at this microgram scale. It has a maximum capacity of 50 grams and reads in 0.001 gram increments. I have plans to try a small batch of Methylene Blue facial moisturizer and it only uses .014 grams, so this is a great use case for something like that. The other thing about the beakers are that they are thin glass and should not be set directly on a hot plate or on your stove.
Emulsion Specific Tools
Emulsions...they were the bane of my existence when I first started. I had a few fail and separate, some that were too thin...don't even get me started on trying to hand pour lotion into those teeny-tiny little bottle openings 😡…here's a secret: save your sanity and buy wide mouth containers!!! Anyway...I highly recommend buying this immersion blender to use just for your formulating, it's just sanitary - which should be something we always have on our minds when formulating products, especially emulsions, because they contain water, and water breeds bacteria/mold and other things. I like this blender because it comes with the milk frother, which I use when formulating anhydrous oil serums, it helps to make sure everything is incorporated really well.
Another necessary and somewhat cumbersome part of creating emulsions is the pH testing. Now I use a pH pen (this is not the exact model I have, but it's close) because I make a good amount of stuff and I am pretty anal retentive about the quality of what I'm making. Having a proper pH for products that contain water is ESSENTIAL for safety, effectiveness of the overall product, and effectiveness of certain ingredients (some may fail or breakdown when the final product pH is not in the correct range for that product). With the pH pen, I highly recommend getting a pH solution kit that allows you to calibrate the pen and has a storage solution to maintain the probe inside the pen. The pen will come with instructions on how often to calibrate and how to store. Now - I know most people's first thought is "can't I just use pH test strips"...........technically? Sure. Is it as accurate? Not as accurate as the pen. But to start out, it will do in a pinch. I used these test strips, they were easy to read and pretty close to my pH pen. When I first got it I used both the strips and the pen to compare results.
Other Fun Tools
If you want to do emulsions I high recommend some spatulas. This set is nice for hand stirring after you use your immersion blender. Here is another mini spatula set which is great for scooping out of small jars or stirring very small mixtures.
I used to just setup my frying pans as a "double boiler" with water in them, when heating up water and/or oil phases, then I'd heat the glass beakers in them. I still do this but now I use a hot plate that I bought off of Amazon. I have it setup in another room (where I store all my supplies). I bought 2 cheap, small frying pans about 5.5" to 6" inch wide to fit nicely on my double hot plate. You do not have to do this - I just like to keep everything together and got tired of not having a dedicated space to formulate.
Pipettes! They are your friend when you need to add a .02 of a gram to your formulation. Don't try to freehand it. I have done this and ended up wasting precious (expensive) ingredients. I like to keep 1ML and 5ML pipettes on hand.
Containers
There are so many options. I really think it depends on the formula and the final consistency. There are also a lot of cool/specialty type of containers now. A "quick" scroll on Amazon will show that. If you create some formulas that you know you will be keeping and want to make for friends as gifts, I highly recommend looking at Uline - it will last a long time and it's way more cost effective - though it may not be as cutesy. If you are interested here are some of my top picks from Amazon:
Plastic Pump Bottles (wide mouth)
Ceramic Foam Pump Bottles (wide mouth - love these for foaming hand or facial washes)
Black, Amber or Blue 2 oz. Glass Jars (these are so classy looking, my favorite is the black and they are fantastic for protecting your product from light, which causes formulations to breakdown quicker - I'd stay away from clear glass)
Amber Dropper Bottles 1 oz. (perfect for serums, hair & scalp treatments, homemade cuticle oil, etc...also these little funnels are fabulous and highly worth having)
Amber or Blue Dropper Bottles 2 oz. (once I know the formulation I like, I make a larger quantity)
I am also a huge believer in reusing containers I have. From sample containers I got as gifts, to empty bottles or jars, I try to clean and repurpose them.
Ingredients
Technically the overall theme of this post was about tools and equipment, but I know a lot of people don't know where to start when sourcing ingredients. So I'm going to put some links below (I do not make a commission off of these links, I just really like these online stores 😊)
https://www.voyageursoapandcandle.com/ (this is the only place I can find the natural preservative I use in my emulsions/water products)
And of course Amazon has loads of butters, oils, essential oils, and many other things...
