UPDATE
Ten labs later.
We thought we'd take our manufacturer's reference lab and move on. Instead we talked to more than ten labs, dug into what each one would quietly leave out, and spent months choosing one. Today the testing officially starts.
JOURNAL · BUILD IN PUBLIC
Everything, while we make it.
Formulation rounds, lab reports, packaging decisions — posted as they happen.
UPDATE
Costs went up. The promise doesn't.
Raw material prices went up between our first samples and the final quotes. Two levers every brand pulls quietly — raise the price, cut the quality. We're pulling the third one.
UPDATE
Round two.
The revised samples landed. Both gaps from round one — the shine and the scent — are closed. Here's what "passed" means, and why our opinion is the least important one from here.
UPDATE
The night we almost stopped.
The product was going fine. The paperwork around it nearly ended the whole thing. Why we sat down together and didn't fold.
UPDATE
Samples arrived.
First tubes landed this morning. We tested them against the import we've been using for years. Here's where they matched and where they didn't.
UPDATE
Where it started.
The whole thing started with a sunscreen you can't buy in India — and one evening annoyed enough to do something about it.