From brief to formula: translating marketing claims into lab work
Rahmita Paramita Sudirman
Turning a claim into a measurable target
Every brief arrives as language, and language is the enemy of formulation until it becomes numbers. 'Deeply hydrating' might mean higher humectant loading, extra occlusion, or faster absorption — three different chemistries behind one adjective. My first job on any project is to force the words into targets: a texture profile, a sensory word bank, an active level someone is willing to pay for and defend.
For Herbiglow's glowing essence, that meant agreeing on what 'glow' would look and feel like in four weeks — a hydrated surface with visibly calmer tone — before a single gram was weighed.
Building the experiment ladder
With targets fixed, the work becomes planning the shortest ladder of experiments that gets there. Taking the hardest question first — usually the active system — saves whole months compared with the tempting route of perfecting the pleasant base before knowing whether the star ingredient even works in it.
Each rung of the ladder has a pass or fail criterion written down before the beaker is touched, which keeps a project moving when a batch comes back disappointing.
When to say no to a brief
Not every claim is achievable within budget, timeline, and regulation, and the most valuable thing a formulator can bring to a brand conversation is sometimes a polite no — plus the closest thing to it that is achievable. Saying yes to everything is how products end up making promises their ingredients never had a chance to keep.
Honest briefs make honest products, and honest products are what earn the repeat purchase — in whitelabel work as much as in my own brands.