Who you buy from

An industry supply chain rather than a craft one, and getting served at small volume is the first problem.

Four supply chains

Chemical distributors, for surfactants, solvents, builders and preservatives. An industrial world that deals in drums and is not set up for small buyers.

Specialist formulation suppliers, who repack into small quantities for makers and charge for it. Where people often start.

Fragrance houses, which is a different relationship again.

Packaging suppliers, for bottles, closures, triggers and labels, with the largest minimums of the four.

What to judge a chemical supplier on

Documentation first: a safety data sheet for everything, a technical data sheet, a specification, and a certificate of analysis for the lot.

The SDS is not optional and it is what your own labeling and workplace safety rest on.

Consistency between lots, since materials are sold as solutions at nominal concentrations and a lot at the other end of tolerance moves your finished concentration, which matters where a threshold is involved.

And whether they will tell you about a reformulation. Most will not unless asked.

Packaging suppliers

The question to ask is the resin, and then whether the closure and liner are suitable for your chemistry.

Where a child-resistant closure is required, ask for documentation that it meets the standard, and keep it.

And ask about the trigger's internals, because the spring and the seals are what fail rather than the bottle.

Minimums are the constraint

A drum of surfactant is more than a small maker will use in a year, and a pallet of bottles is a cash commitment before the first sale.

Pay the repacker's premium while the range settles, and take volume pricing only on what you are certain about.

And second-source the bottle and the closure before you need to, because a substitution changes fill weight, compatibility and sometimes the label.

References