Product Development

The following fees could become applicable depending on how far you wish to take the project:

Product development: £195 for initial research and development and one sample. Additional samples are £100 per sample. (Unusual or organic ingredients could incur higher development/research costs that can be agreed at initial consultation stage).
Stability test: £395.00
Preservative Challenge test: £390.00
Health and Safety Assessment: £480 - £680. The cost of health and safety assessments due to new legislation is now a guideline. The cost will depend on the complexity of any formulation and ingredients. Health and Safety assessments (CPSR) with unusual ingredients with little scientific information available may well cost more to complete as research will be greater. These are EU compliant only. Global or regions outside the EU will incur additional charges.
Preparation of the Product Information Pack: £200.00

All the costs stated are per product, per test. If the product starts to fail the Stability test within one month, we will re-formulate at no additional cost. After 1 month we will negotiate a fee. These charges will be payable at the start of each stage of the work. If challenge preservative test fails then a refund will be given of 50% of weeks not completed, but re-testing will incur another full charge.

Product Development

This will vary depending on the complexity and the amount of work required. In a significant number of cases the initial sample costs are covered by £195, but in some cases these can be higher depending on the nature of the changes which are made during the development stage. The costs include any special ingredients which may be required, administration and laboratory time. We will provide ingredients lists of the samples sent, but INCI lists for labels will not be sent until sample is approved and testing completed.

Stability Test

This involves testing the stability of the approved formulation to determine the shelf life of the product prior to sale of unopened containers. The time period for this test is 12 weeks.
Preservative Challenge Test: This is designed to determine the effectiveness of the preservative system. This test takes 5 - 6 weeks.
Health and safety assessment: CPSR cosmetic product safety report. It is also a requirement that a health and safety assessment be made on the product to determine if the product is safe and will not cause any harm to human health. This includes an assessment of the ingredients, the formulation, and manufacturing method. This should not be confused with a dermatological test which would give information on sensitisation and irritation. A dermatological test can be organised and would cost between £800- £3000 depending on the number of products being tested at one time. We could organise a special price of £800-£1000 per product if the test was pooled with other companies. Further details can provided upon request.
Preparation of the Product Information Pack: This is again a requirement if your products are for retail use.
Registration to Cosmetic Product Notification Portal – required to be completed by Brand Owner for any products launched after July 2013. Ingredients must be listed, packaging and label details.

Manufacture

Terms and conditions of manufacture are given on our website.
Plantain OEM Products and bespoke formulated products manufactured and filled into companies chosen packaging and labelling will be charged for in the following way:-
On placement of order, 50% is paid by customer to cover purchase of their ingredients, manufacture of bulk and TVC testing. Final 50% is paid before despatch of goods.  No exceptions are made for OEM manufacture.
Any special ingredients required to be purchased for OEM customers must be purchased in advance of manufacture. OEM customers are free to purchase direct form suppliers and free issue these items. However all legal documentation must accompany any free issue products as regards, conformity to EU cosmetic regulations and bacterial content. This will include MSDS sheets, Certificate of Conformity, IFRA documents (if required), full ingredient and allergens listings and full TVC testing.
Any containers supplied must also be sterile and suitable for manufacturing use. Any free issue containers must be tested for leakage and suitability for filled ingredients. It is the responsibility of OEM customer to ensure their compatibility with ingredients and suitability of use whether free issued or purchased by Plantain on behalf of the customer.
Labels must be suitable for our filling machines and on reels. (This data will be given to customers or their printers). It is the OEM customer’s responsibility to ensure that labels are designed that can be applied onto their containers using our label machines.  Any labels not correctly designed and therefore requiring hand application will incur additional charges.  Manufacturing stopped due to incorrect labels will incur a £100.00 small order charge.
Plantain will provide full ingredients for labels on payment of development costs. INCI names will be provided on completion of testing.  Claims made on labels, website or packaging regarding the finished product are completely the responsibility of the brand owner.  INCI lists given for labels are given in good faith at time of printing. Label ingredients can change for a number of reasons: ie, if a supplier changes the composition of the ingredient, the ingredient name is changed to be globally compliant or a new supplier has to be found and composition of ingredients is slightly changed.

In most cases this does not result in any re-testing of the product, but if the composition of the product is changed significantly due to an ingredient change out of Plantain’s control then the cost of any re-testing is the responsibility of the brand owner. Sample costs are also charged for re-approval at £100.00

All information is given in good faith on ingredients and timings. There are many stages to go through and it takes time to develop and launch new products. Usual time is minimum 6 months and this depends on approval of formulations and samples.

All information passed on by Plantain and intellectual property remains the property of Plantain until ALL payments for outstanding work is cleared.

Any non- payment of work completed automatically allows Plantain to sell the finished items and formulations to a third party of its choice to recuperate any losses incurred due to work carried out on behalf of the OEM customer. No formulations developed specifically for a company and paid in full will be used for any other customer of Plantain.

Plantain will endeavour to keep to expected delivery dates and cosmetic formulation specifications at all time. However many natural ingredients show variations in colour from batch to batch. These variations are usually very small and we do our best to keep them to the minimum. Natural Essential oils can also vary in aroma from season to season and we try to minimise these variations within our quality control processes.

Delivery of many active ingredients have a lead time from suppliers of 4-6 weeks in some cases and an order is only placed for these active fresh ingredients once a confirmed order is received from the OEM customer and 50% payment. If any ingredient falls outside the 4-6 window of delivery the customer will be advised immediately. From receipt of ingredients, containers and labels, a minimum of 6 weeks is required for manufacture and TVC testing.

Actual Fill and Visual Fill

All unit costs given to customers are for actual fill. If containers chosen by customer whether free issued or supplied by Plantain require additional product over and above the actual fill, this additional fill will be charged for on top of the actual fill cost.  Sample containers must be sent in prior to manufacture for ‘fill checking’.  When a customer purchases 25 kilos (or 250 x 100gm) if more product is used to fill the container to an acceptable visual level then less than 250 units will be supplied. The customer will then be credited for the filling and labelling of units not supplied. If more units are supplied then the customer will be charged for the additional units. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU PUT ML ON YOUR LABEL INSTEAD OF GM FOR VISCOUS ITEMS (ie, cream, scrubs) THEN WE HAVE TO FILL TO THE VOLUME AND NOT THE WEIGHT. THIS CAN LEAD TO A FAR GREATER AMOUNT IN GRMS HAVING TO BE USED TO MEET YOUR VOLUME STATED ON THE LABEL. You will in these cases receive far less units than expected or we will have to re-cost you on the grms required per unit.
Manufacturing units ordered and provided can vary due to viscosity of product and natural filling wastage. We aim to keep any variation between a 10% plus or minus. Additional units or bulk will be charged for.

Minimum order is 25 kilos for each product. (This quantity can be split between pack sizes). Any orders under 25 kilos will incur a £100.00 small order charge. Formulation costs for OEM products are £3000 per product and £5000 for Organic. Payment of product development costs does not mean formulations belong to OEM customers. Unless purchased at a price detailed above (or other agreed price in negotiation with Plantain) to cover all our development costs, formulations of any product developed by Plantain will remain the property of Plantain.