Of all the courses we offer, our most popular courses and quite possibly the ones we get the most questions about are the Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products and the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation. Both are excellent courses (if we can brag a little!) and both will set you on the path to creating amazing, effective, and safe natural skincare products. Both will help you understand the process of creating products, cover a range of ingredients, and are presented as interactive, multimedia online courses for easy access, anywhere in the world.
But depending on your experience level, immediate goals, and future plans, you may not know which course is the right choice for you—or if both might be. So where do you start first?
We’re here to help you decide!
Start With The End Goal
Much like the process of developing an effective and personalized formulation, beginning with the desired end result in mind can help you narrow down whether the Certificate or Diploma is the best choice. You are, in a sense, formulating your own perfect results as you embark on your studies!
What is it you wish to accomplish by taking a course from us?
Make a range of natural skincare products for yourself, family and friends by following tried-and-tested recipes
If you want to make a range of natural skincare products for yourself, family and friends so you can ditch shop-bought brands and undesirable ingredients, then you’ll love our Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products. If you’re just getting started with making natural skincare products, the Certificate course is a wonderful introduction for a beginner who has little or no experience, and maybe-one-day goals of one day having a business.
Formulate your own products, or develop a brand
If you know that you want to go beyond following recipes and actually formulate your own products, or you’re serious about developing a brand and a business, then the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation course is for you.
Many of our students have dreams of selling their products and developing a skincare business. We love seeing our students go on to accomplish this! We’ve been asked by some of our business-focused students, ‘Can I get away with just the certificate course?’ And the answer is no—not if you want to cover all of the things that the Diploma course offers.
In the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation, we cover:
- How to create your unique brand based on your identified values and goals
- Inspiration for nailing your brand’s specific niche
- Exploring the key elements that create a winning brand identity
- How to identify and target your ideal customers
- Which products to develop to meet your target customers’ desires
- How to use a product development brief
- Perfecting your formulations so they’re consistent every time at any batch size
- How to evaluate and test your products
- The legalities of selling in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand
- And more!
Our first piece of advice
If you’re a beginner, you’re most interested in making simple yet effective products for yourself and you’d like a comprehensive but shorter course to help you we think the Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products is the best choice. You can always build off of what you learn in the Certificate if you choose to come back and take the Diploma!
If your goal is to formulate products from scratch, understand in more detail the science of cosmetic formulation, use more advanced ingredients and/or sell your products then we recommend the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation.
Both courses can be taken as a beginner, so which one is right for you is more about where you want to end up than where you are starting from.
Match your Interests with your Skill Level
While many of our students intend to develop natural skincare businesses at some point, all of our students are interested in learning how to create the very best natural skincare!
Whether you have a general interest in natural and organic skincare, or have been struggling to find solutions for a specific skin challenge or concern, both the Certificate and the Diploma will get you on your way to making amazing, effective, hand-crafted products.
The difference is that the Certificate is a much more introductory overview, while the Diploma takes you quite a bit further, and goes deeper into each topic.
Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products
Work from recipes (we provide over 120 to get you started!) to create oils, serums, body butters, lotions, and more.
Learn about different ingredients, and how to swap them to customize your first products.
Learn the principles behind each product.
Get a solid foundation on process and techniques, so even your first products turn out great.
Learn what basic equipment you’ll need.
Get important information about preservatives, manufacturing safety and storage to prevent your products from spoiling.
Approximately 30 hours of study.
Join our fun and friendly Certificate course student community.
Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation
Learn how to formulate your own products to create a wider array of more advanced formulas and professional-quality products. Use our templates and example formulations to help you.
Cover a greater array of ingredients and learn about them in more depth, including high-performance botanical extracts, vitamins, humectants, active ingredients and cosmeceuticals.
Delve deeper into the theory and science.
Refine your techniques and learn how to make more advanced products.
Learn more advanced lab skills and how to adjust your batch sizes, scaling them up or down.
Thoroughly cover strategies to prolong the shelf life of your products, including using antioxidants, preservatives, chelators, GMP and more.
Approximately 100 hours of study and practice.
Join our Diploma course student community where more advanced discussions take place.
How in-depth do you want to go?
Our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation is a more in-depth course that will take your skills to a deeper level. It teaches you how to develop an idea from a blank sheet of paper to a formulation and finally, to a finished product that is totally unique and customized. It is designed specifically for those of you who wish to design a range of professional products using your own recipes, and gain a solid foundation in the business skills you need: creating a brand, meeting the needs of your ideal customers, the legalities of selling, and more.
How big a range of ingredients do you want to work with?
Compared to the Certificate course, the Diploma course covers a much wider range of ingredients and in greater detail: More carrier oils, esters, butters, waxes, humectants, essential oils, emulsifiers and preservatives, vitamins, botanical extracts and cosmeceuticals (high-performance actives.) You’ll discover the art of creating your own professional formulations designed to suit your skin type or that of your customers. The end result is a range of beautiful, unique high-performance products designed specifically for your customers or yourself.
Which learning style do you prefer?
Additionally, there’s a slight difference in approach to learning between the two courses. The Certificate course covers the principles, starts with following recipes, and provides a foundation to make substitutions if you wish. The Diploma course has a more detailed, deeper approach to understanding theory, using our customizable formulation templates and formulation examples in order to create your own.
Depending on what kinds of products you’re interested in making, and whether you’re more comfortable working from recipes or learning how to develop formulations from scratch with our support, you can begin to determine which course might be the best fit. Do you want to work from our provided recipes and build your confidence with the basics, or do you want to go deeper and learn to formulate a range of professional-quality skincare products for yourself or your business? The choice is yours!
Investing in Your Future
In addition to your level of experience and immediate goals for study, your long-term plans also will help you choose the right course for you.
Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products
“I want to learn to make great products for myself, my friends, or my family! I’m not sure about starting a business, or not ready for that right now.”
Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation
“I’ve been trying a few recipes, and I’m ready to get serious about formulating my own products.”
Or “I want to realize my dream of building my own brand and business!”
Bundle Up and Save with our Beginner to Formulator Program
If you find that you’re still uncertain about your long-term plans, or you can’t choose between the two courses we’ve got you covered!
Our Beginner to Formulator Program contains both the Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products, as well as the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation—and, you get a discount of $217 when you pair them together!
This choice would be best for you if you want to build your confidence by first following more simple recipes created by us and then from there move on to create your own more advanced formulations.
- Start with the Certificate, and gain a comprehensive introduction to some amazing natural skincare ingredients: carrier oils, butters, waxes, emulsifiers, preservatives, essential oils and more.
- Learn both the practice and the theory of making a wide range of luxurious products, and build from the 120+ recipes we provide, adapting to suit your own needs
- Then, move onto the Diploma, and take your skills to the next level. You’ll learn about a much wider range of ingredients and in greater detail, including an introduction to high-performance skincare ingredients, cosmeceuticals, and active botanicals.
- Using what you’ve learned, you’ll discover the art of creating your own professional formulations designed to suit your skin type or that of your customers.
- And, you’ll gain access to two supportive online communities, filled with students and skincare professionals who can help you as you develop your dream skincare business.
Still have questions?
We invite you to take a look around our Certificate in Making Natural Skincare Products curriculum, as well as the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation curriculum, to make your best and most informed choice.
Or, get in touch with us! We’d be happy to set you up with a free trial of each course, to see what the best choice for you might be. (But you need to get in touch for that, so don’t be shy!)
