Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation
Learn to formulate organic skincare products and launch the beauty brand of your dreams with the most popular formulation course in the world.
Suitable for: Beginners
Pre-requisites: None
Time: 60 study hours
Course Modules: 9
Coursework: Self-study + tutor graded
Access duration: Two year deadline
Cost: £997 (British Pounds).
Payment plan: 6 consecutive months x £197 (British Pounds).
Next enrolment period: Enrolment opens on 16th January 2025
Enrolment opens in:
Enrolment closes in:
Our Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation will teach you to become a certified organic formulator, confidently creating 25 of your own organic skincare formulations (not following recipes) that you could use for yourself or sell in your own skincare brand.
This online natural skincare course has been followed by over 17,000 people all over the world and has launched thousands of careers and businesses in the organic skincare sector. Our foundation Diploma is our most popular course and is suitable for anyone who is completely new to skincare formulating.
Look at just a few of the formulations you’ll learn to make:
Become a Formulator
(Not a Recipe Follower)
We teach you our award-winning 6-step formula for creating any organic skincare product from scratch, which will set you apart from other skincare makers who just follow recipes. Instead, you will be taught to confidently create your own unique formulations that reflect your vision and contain your favourite ingredients.
Study the Science
of Natural Skincare
Become fluent in the language of skincare science. Learn all about the anatomy and physiology of the skin. Study how to formulate (it’s easy and fun!) and learn how to research your ingredients. Understand how to turn your skincare business into a success and make your skincare range compliant with the law.
Create Beautiful Skincare
to use for yourself or to sell
Learn how to formulate natural skincare products that contain the finest botanical cold-pressed oils, luxuriously rich organic butters, subtly fragrant flower waters, sun-dried clays, all-natural waxes, and the most exquisite essential oils. Create wonderful aromatic blends with essential oils, flower, seed and plant extracts.
Build your own
Indie Beauty Brand
Take your newly-found formulation skills and become an indie beauty formulator, confidently creating your own unique creams, lotions, cleansers, toners, moisturisers, gels, foaming products, masks, balms, butters, and more, using gorgeous natural ingredients. Then learn how to sell those formulations anywhere in the world!
Why enrol with Formula Botanica?
This course is for you if:
Teri, USA
One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was to enroll with Formula Botanica. All of the students, tutors and instructions are the best!!!
35 Lessons
Learn directly from the Formula Botanica team with our professional videos and course lectures.
Fun Online Games
Play games to help you learn how to reinforce the learning outcomes for your course.
97 Formulations
Before you design your own formulations, you get to follow ones made by us.
Tutor Support
Speak directly to a tutor in our private “Ask the Tutor” forum for students.
Sequential Learning
Unlock new modules as you work through the course sequentially to enforce learning points.
Graded Coursework
Receive expert-graded feedback to help you make your formulations safe, stable and sellable.
Module 1
Understanding skin
Before you learn to formulate, it’s important that you understand the skin.
In this first module of our award-winning natural skincare course, you will learn about the structure and physiology of the skin. We’ll bust some of the best-known cosmetic myths on the internet, teach you how to understand a skincare ingredient’s technical data, and teach you about holistic skin health.
Module 1 Lesson 1
Skin Science
- Study the anatomy and structure of the skin
- Learn how to identify the three main layers of the skin
- Understand the skin’s functions and physiology
- Course bonus: Cosmetic science glossary
Module 1 Lesson 2
Holistic Skin Care
- Understand which factors can affect the health of your skin
- Learn the role cosmetics play in skin health
- Study the difference between cosmetics and drugs
- Understand how to care for the skin from a holistic perspective
Module 1 Lesson 3
Busting Cosmetic Myths
- Understand what toxicity does and doesn’t mean in relation to skincare
- Debunk 15 myths in the natural skincare world
- Learn how to read and understand a cosmetic ingredient’s data specification sheet
- Course bonus: Bundle of data specifications for 23 different natural and synthetic ingredients
Module 2
Formulation Skills
It’s time to learn to formulate! Learn Formula Botanica’s 6-step process for designing your own unique, safe, organic skincare formulations from scratch.
In this second module of our natural skincare course, you’ll learn how to set up your home formulation lab, choose the right ingredients, layer a formulation, apply maths for formulators, assess your ingredient safety, modify the pH and undertake basic cosmetic preservation. By the end of this module, you’ll be formulating!
Module 2 Lesson 1
Setting up your lab
- Learn how to set up a suitable workspace for formulation
- Understand the simple tools you’ll need to get started
- Course bonus: Equipment guide with detailed descriptions of all the equipment you’ll need to formulate
- Course bonus: Prepare-to-formulate checklist for you to print out and use in your lab
Module 2 Lesson 2
Meet your ingredients
- Learn the 6 ingredient categories found in all organic skincare formulations
- Understand how to research botanical ingredients for skincare
- Course bonus: Downloadable PDF ingredient research form
- Course bonus: “Is it natural?”; our guide to assessing whether an ingredient is natural or not
Module 2 Lesson 3
Formulation Design
- Use our formulation flowchart to learn how to structure a skincare formulation
- Learn how to layer ingredients to create your own formulation
- Follow our 8 steps to create your own formulation from scratch
- Learn how formulators develop new organic skincare products
Module 2 Lesson 4
Calculating formulas
- Learn how to do maths for formulation
- Understand how to convert from weight to percentages and vice versa
- Learn how to accurately record your formulations
- Course bonus: Printable formulation worksheet
- Course bonus: Formulation calculator for Excel
Module 2 Lesson 5
Ingredient safety
- Understand the safety aspects of skincare ingredients
- Learn the precautions you must take when working with essential oils
- Learn the 4 steps for calculating sensitisers in essential oils
Module 2 Lesson 6
Formulation safety
- Understand what pH is and why it’s important for your formulations
- Undertake your first experiments with testing and adjusting the pH
- Learn the foundations of natural cosmetic preservation
- Access our list of recommended natural preservatives
Module 2 Lesson 7
Your first formulation
- It’s time to formulate; create a simple organic facial oil using only 3 ingredients
- Use all the knowledge you gained throughout Module 2 to design your first formulation
- Complete your first formulation worksheet with your own designs
- Learn how to experiment with formulation ideas
Joana, Portugal
Formula Botanica is absolutely amazing! The courses are packed with brilliant information and knowledge and the team is incredible, very helpful and always there!
Module 3
Formulation Skills: Organic Anhydrous Formulations
Now that you’ve learned the skills to formulate, it’s time to start making the first formulations for your organic skincare range.
In this third module of our natural skincare course, we start with organic, anhydrous – waterless – formulations, including facial, lip, massage, & body oils; creamy butters; whipped body butters; facial and body balms; and lotion bars. By the end of this module, you’ll be surrounded by beautiful botanical anhydrous formulations for the skin.
Module 3 Lesson 1
Oil Blending
- Learn how to explore the properties of plant oils
- Understand the principles of oil blending
- Understand the difference between facial, body, lip and massage oils
- Ingredient highlight: antioxidants
- Formulations: try our 6 oil blend formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the science of oxidation
Module 3 Lesson 2
Creamy Butters
- Learn how to blend oils and butters using cold and warm process techniques
- Understand the principles of butter blending
- Ingredient highlight: plant butters
- Formulations: try our 6 creamy butter formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the science of butter crystallisation
Module 3 Lesson 3
whipped butters
- Learn the difference between a creamy butter and a whipped butter
- Discover how to vary the texture, feel and scent of your whipped butter
- Ingredient highlight: emollients
- Formulations: try our 5 whipped butter formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: hydration vs moisturisation
Module 3 Lesson 4
Balms
- Learn how balms are formulated and used
- Understand the difference between facial balms, lip balms and body balms
- Ingredient highlight: waxes
- Formulations: try our 6 balm formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the science of occlusive ingredients
Module 3 Lesson 5
Lotion Bars
- Learn how lotion bars are formulated and used
- Gain inspiration for your own organic lotion bar designs
- Ingredient highlight: fatty thickeners
- Formulations: try our 6 lotion bar formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: molecular structure and skin feel
Module 4
Formulation Skills: Aqueous & Cleansing Formulations
In this next module of our natural skincare course, it’s time to move on to creating formulations that contain water.
Introducing water into your formulations means that you can start to incorporate even more beautiful botanical ingredients, such as hydrosols and water-based plant extracts. We’ll now also start to apply everything you learned in Module 2 about pH and preservation.
Module 4 Lesson 1
Toners
- Follow our framework for designing your own toner formulation
- Understand why we need preserved hydrosols for our formulations
- Ingredient highlight: humectants
- Formulations: try our 5 toner formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: humectants and the Natural Moisturising Factor (NMF)
Module 4 Lesson 2
Gels
- Immerse yourself in the wonderful world of natural gums
- Learn how to formulate your own organic gels for the face or body
- Ingredient highlight: gums
- Formulations: try our 5 gel formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the science of rheology
Module 4 Lesson 3
Using solubilisers
- Discover what a solubiliser is
- Learn how to add a solubiliser to disperse small amounts of essential oils
- Ingredient highlight: essential oils
- Formulations: try our 4 toner formulations with a solubiliser before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: understanding essential oil distillation
Module 4 Lesson 4
Liquid Cleansers
- Learn how liquid cleansers are formulated and used
- Gain inspiration for your own organic liquid cleansers and micellar waters
- Ingredient highlight: surfactants
- Formulations: try our 7 liquid cleanser and micellar water formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: primary and secondary surfactants
Module 4 Lesson 5
Gel Cleansers
- Learn how to thicken your cleansing formulations with gums
- Learn the difference between a face wash gel, body wash gel, shower gel and gel cleansing scrub
- Ingredient highlight: cleansing surfactants
- Formulations: try our 5 gel cleanser formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the double-edged sword of sulphates
Module 4 Lesson 6
Shower Bars
- Learn how to create shower bars—solid foaming cleansers for the body (not soaps!)
- Gain inspiration for your own organic shower bar designs
- Ingredient highlight: solid surfactants
- Formulations: try our 4 shower bar formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: Active Surface Matter (ASM) in solid surfactants
Module 5
Formulation Skills: Emulsification
You’ve made anhydrous and aqueous formulations so far in our natural skincare course. It’s now time to combine those two skills to blend oil and water together and create one of the most popular types of formulation in the cosmetics industry: emulsions.
In this fifth module, you’re going to learn everything to do with emulsification, oil-based cleansers, bi-phase cleansers and cream cleansers. Let’s blend oil and water together!
Module 5 Lesson 1
Bi-Phase Formulations
- Study the concept of polarity and how it applies to your ingredients and formulations
- Understand how bi-phase formulations are used as toners and cleansers
- Ingredient highlight: electrolytes
- Formulations: try our 4 bi-phase formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: electrolytes and skin hydration
Module 5 Lesson 2
Oil-in-Water Emulsions
- Learn how emulsifiers work in natural skincare
- Access our list of natural emulsifiers, which are great for new formulators
- Ingredient highlight: emulsifiers
- Formulations: try our 6 oil-in-water emulsions before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: understanding the HLB system
Module 5 Lesson 3
Cream Cleansers
- Learn how to turn your emulsion into a cleanser
- Understand how to formulate and tweak your cream cleanser formulation
- Ingredient highlight: plant extracts
- Formulations: try our 4 cream cleanser formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: CO2 extracts
Module 5 Lesson 4
Oil-Based Cleansers
- Learn how to cleanse the skin using 3 different types of oil-based formulations
- Learn how to design your own cleansing balm that easily rinses off the skin
- Ingredient highlight: sensory modifiers—texturising agents
- Formulations: try our 3 self-emulsifying balm cleanser formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the difference between silicon, silicone and silica
Module 5 Lesson 5
Water-in-Oil Emulsions
- Understand how water-in-oil emulsions are used in cosmetics
- Learn the intricacies of making water-in-oil emulsions
- Ingredient highlight: water-in-oil emulsifiers
- Formulations: try our 3 water-in-oil emulsions before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: polyglyceryl esters
Bhavyashri, USA
Thanks to this course, I now feel confident and ready to pursue my dreams in this field. I learned how to create beautiful and safe skincare products like a pro!
Module 6
Formulation Skills: Sensory & Self-Care Rituals
You’ve already formulated an entire organic skincare range based on oils, butters, waters and emulsions. The final step is to think about the texture of those formulations and play around with fun self-care products, such as scrubs, polishes, masks and oleogels.
By the end of this sixth module of our natural skincare course, you will have created an incredible 22 different organic skincare formulations. Let’s get formulating!
Module 6 Lesson 1
Polishes & Scrubs
- Study the different types of polishes and scrubs you can formulate
- Learn how to modify the formulations you’ve already made and turn them into facial polishes and body scrubs
- Ingredient highlight: mechanical exfoliants
- Formulations: try our 8 polishes and scrubs before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: sustainability of exfoliants
Module 6 Lesson 2
Face Masks
- Study the different types of face masks you can formulate
- Learn our 2-step formulation design for face masks
- Ingredient highlight: clays
- Formulations: try our 6 face masks before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: the processing of clays
Module 6 Lesson 3
Oleogels
- Understand how oleogels can be formulated and used
- Learn about the different types of ingredients used to make oleogels
- Ingredient highlight: oil-gelling agents
- Formulations: try our 3 oleogel formulations before making your own
- Bonus deep dive: oil polarity and oleogels
Module 7
Formulating with essential oils
You’ve now made an entire range of organic skincare and have mastered foundational formulation techniques. We’ve kept the fragrances quite simple until this module, so it’s now time to learn how to blend essential oils to create beautiful scents for your formulation.
In this module of our natural skincare course, you’ll learn how essentials oils work together, how to create harmonious fragrances and how to ensure they’re safe for your skin. Let’s create some gorgeous blends!
Module 7 Lesson 1
Essential oil blending
- Meet your aromaceuticals—the ingredients that give your formulations a beautiful fragrance and offer amazing skin properties
- Learn how essential oils work on the skin
- Study our list of the 10 most popular skincare essential oils to get started
- Learn our 10 rules of blending essential oils
- Create your first harmonious essential oil blend for skincare
- Bonus deep dive: Essential oil chemistry
Module 7 Lesson 2
Essential oil safety
- Learn how to store and handle essential oils safely
- Study sensitisers in essential oils
- Understand dermal limits: what they are and why we need to know them
- Cover our 4-step method for calculating sensitisers
- Course bonus: Sensitiser calculation sheet
Module 8
Global Cosmetic Compliance
It doesn’t matter how small your business is; you still must comply with the law. In this final Module of our natural skincare course, we will introduce you to the cosmetic regulations all over the world. We encourage you to comply with the strictest regulations in the world—those in the EU—but we also cover the requirements in the USA, Canada, ASEAN countries, India, Australia, New Zealand, and others.
You will learn how to correctly label, manufacture and sell your products so that they comply with the law. We break down global cosmetic regulations for you in 8 easy steps. If you complete the requirements step-by-step, then your indie skincare brand can become compliant.
Module 8 Lesson 1
Global cosmetic compliance
- Study the difference between cosmetic regulations all over the world
- Learn how to implement cosmetic Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
- Find out if you can manufacture cosmetics at home in your country
- Learn the different tests you’ll need to undertake to sell your cosmetics
- Create your own Product Information File with our 11-step checklist
- Research which type of business insurance you’ll need
- Course bonus: Product Information File template
Module 8 Lesson 2
Cosmetic labelling
- Learn how to correctly label your skincare product, step by step
- Understand how to set up a batch recording system
- Learn which claims you can and cannot make around the world
- Study the different labelling requirements around the world
- Work through our handy checklist to ensure your labels are compliant
Module 9
Beauty Business Skills
Now that you’ve learned how to become a formulator and how to make your skincare compliant to sell, you are likely thinking about starting your own indie beauty brand. This is an exciting time to be you!
In your final module of the Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation, you’ll gain a detailed introduction to branding and marketing so you can learn how to turn your formulations into a business.
Module 9 Lesson 1
Introduction to branding
- Learn how to brand your formulations so everyone wants to use (and buy!) them
- Follow our 5-step branding checklist to figure out how to position your brand and bring your story to life
- Understand how to pick the right name for your beauty brand
- Study the requirements for strong visual branding
- Bonus deep dive: Emotional branding
Module 9 Lesson 2
Introduction to marketing
- Follow our detailed 10-step marketing checklist to avoid making all the mistakes that beauty entrepreneurs normally make
- Study our marketing toolkit to find out which tools and systems are a necessity to successfully market your skincare
- Learn the 3 Golden Rules of Marketing for beauty brands
- Bonus deep dive: Retail marketing
- Bonus deep dive: Marketing funnels
Jade, UK
I have looked at other skincare training providers but honestly, Formula Botanica are so much more professional. The course materials are excellent.
Look at what our graduates formulated:
Your Exclusive Bonuses
When you study with Formula Botanica, you become part of a close-knit international community of students and graduates around the world. We support you all throughout your studies and beyond, and we give you access to a whole library of amazing bonuses to help you become a certified organic formulator.
Bonus 1
Earn your Certificate of Completion
Worried that you aren’t qualified to make skincare? When you complete your course successfully, you can call yourself a certified formulator and proudly hang your Certificate of Completion on the wall of your home formulation lab! You’ll also receive special Formula Botanica badges to show the world your success in organic skincare formulation. Your certificate and badges are a sign to the world that you have invested in your education.
Value = Priceless
Bonus 2
Global Supplier Guide
Don’t know where to buy ingredients, packaging and equipment? We’ve tested many suppliers, and so has our student community. Every year, we compile a new version of our global supplier guide based on community feedback. This guide contains over 500 suppliers around the world, and every student gets access when they enrol.
Price = £97 Free
Bonus 3
Ingredients Directory with 150+ profiles
Don’t worry about not knowing which ingredients to use in your formulations. When you enrol with us, you receive this incredible 259-page document packed full of detailed ingredient profiles, covering oils, butters, waxes, hydrosols, functional ingredients, active ingredients, and more.
Price = £97 Free
Bonus 4
Essential Oil Dermal Limits Guide
There is no single textbook in the world that is always up-to-date and summarises exactly how to work with essential oil dermal limits. Believe us: we’ve looked! That’s why we wrote this one. Every new student gets access to this dermal limits guide to help you work safely with essential oils.
Price = £47 Free
Bonus 5
pH Measurement & Adjustment Guide
Every water-based formulation needs to have its pH checked and potentially adjusted. This helpful downloadable guide walks all formulators through the basics for measuring and adjusting the pH of liquids, emulsions and solid products. All new students receive this guide for free when they enrol.
Price = £47 Free
Bonus 6
Become Part of the Loveliest Formulation Community on the Internet
Once you enrol with us, you are welcomed into our international student community groups, which contain many thousands of our students and graduates from all over the world. Many of our students become firm formulation friends for life! Ask questions, share photos, troubleshoot formulations. Celebrate your victories and get encouragement when you need it. You are never alone.
Value = Priceless
Prerequisites
None. This natural skincare course is suitable for complete beginners.
Start Date
Term Times. Self-paced training where you have up to 2 years to complete your course.
Assessment
Projects, activities and reflexive learning. Each module ends with a short test.
Online Classroom
Peer support & tutor support via a private Facebook group.
Accreditation
Formula Botanica is accredited by the Open & Distance Learning Quality Council.
Expert Support
Our Tutor Team has an educational background in cosmetic chemistry, biology, education and business management. Let us support you.
Formula Botanica’s Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation was the first course of its kind on the internet when it first launched in 2012, and it is now the most popular formulation course in the world. This foundation Diploma has launched the careers of thousands of organic formulators and beauty entrepreneurs.
We created this Diploma with the input of more than 30 people, including formulators, chemists, pharmacists, scientists, regulatory experts, teachers, students and graduates. We know that it can completely change your life.
We’ve kept the course fees intentionally low as part of Formula Botanica’s mission to teach the world to formulate, but in reality, the price should be at least £2,000 (British Pounds) for this course alone. The Diploma is currently available for enrolment at £997, but Formula Botanica intends to increase the course fees over time.
Enrol now for a life-changing education that will make you a certified organic skincare formulator. We can’t wait to meet you in our student community. 🙂
