UPDATE
Seven tubes.
Before the samples, there were the calls. Then seven tubes with no names, and three rounds of testing to find the one.
JOURNAL · BUILD IN PUBLIC
Everything, while we make it.
Formulation rounds, lab reports, packaging decisions — posted as they happen.
UPDATE
Nobody reads the certificate.
Early on, a manufacturer gave us kind advice: print the higher number, because nobody reads the certificate. Here's why we won't.
UPDATE
Starting over.
We went quiet for eight weeks. Our first partner couldn't take it further, so we went looking for one who could — and found a team that changed how we think about sunscreen.
UPDATE
Back to the formula.
The first results are in and the formula isn't where we need it. What came back well, what didn't, and why we're not putting a number in this post.
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 took weeks choosing one. Today the testing officially starts.
UPDATE
Costs went up. The promise doesn't.
Raw material prices went up between our first samples and the final quotes. There are two quiet ways out — raise the price, or cut the quality. We're taking the third.
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 our old favourite, the imported sunscreen we've used for years. Here's where they matched and where they didn't.
UPDATE
Where it started.
Every trip home, half our suitcase was sunscreen for family. One evening in November, we decided to stop carrying it and start making it.