COSMIC CoFormulator — Questions a Cosmetic Formulator Will Ask

No. COSMIC is built around the idea of Human in the Chain: the software proposes, checks, calculates, and documents, but the formulator decides. A good formula is not only an ingredient list. It is texture, touch, stability, manufacturing logic, sensory elegance, brand fit, cost, claims, and regulatory responsibility.

COSMIC helps with the heavy research and calculation work so the formulator can spend more time on judgement, refinement, and lab validation.

COSMIC creates a complete cosmetic formula draft with INCI names, percentages, phases, a manufacturing procedure, formulation rationale, warnings, and a professional PDF report. Depending on the product, the report can include regulatory screening, stability prediction, preservative assessment, virtual toxicology, microbiome analysis, compatibility warnings, HLB/HLD checks, antimicrobial protection, botanical intelligence, and patent scan context.

It is a strong technical starting point, not a substitute for pilot batches, stability testing, challenge testing, regulatory sign-off, or final safety assessment.

Yes. The best first test is a familiar product where you already know what a reasonable answer should look like. For example: an O/W moisturizing cream with glycerin, a basic gel serum with niacinamide, a cleansing gel, a balm, or a roll-on deodorant.

This lets you judge whether COSMIC understands phase structure, percentage ranges, preservative logic, pH, texture, and manufacturing sequence in a way that matches your own formulation experience.

Start with a precise but normal lab brief. For example:

"Create a lightweight O/W face cream for normal to dry skin, EU market, pH 5.2-5.8, include glycerin and panthenol, non-greasy texture, suitable for daily use."

You can add target markets, free-from claims, required actives, desired texture, preservative strategy, natural origin target, body area, and product format. The clearer your brief, the more useful the first draft will be.

Yes. COSMIC supports many cosmetic product families: creams, lotions, serums, gels, emulsions, balms, cleansers, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, masks, eye products, body products, color cosmetics, and more.

The system adapts the formulation logic to the product type. A soap-gel deodorant should not be judged like a classic O/W emulsion, a surfactant cleanser should not be treated like a leave-on cream, and an anhydrous balm needs different stability logic from a water-based serum.

Yes. You can use mandatory ingredients or imposed/locked INCI. COSMIC will try to include them and will audit the final formula to show whether the requested ingredients are present.

If a requested ingredient is dangerous, prohibited, poorly documented, or incompatible, COSMIC should warn you clearly. The purpose is to preserve the formulator's brief while surfacing the risk, not silently remove the ingredient without telling you.

COSMIC should not pretend the ingredient is safe. It can still show the requested ingredient as part of a test formulation workflow, but it should flag the regulatory and safety issue clearly.

For example, a true EU Annex II prohibited substance should remain a hard regulatory warning. A known data-quality false positive, such as some empty-note Annex II botanical rows, should be advisory rather than a false refusal.

Final manufacturing decisions must always be reviewed by a qualified safety and regulatory expert.

Yes. The Cloning Formulator lets you paste an INCI list or select a product from a market catalog. COSMIC parses the ingredient list, estimates likely percentage ranges, assigns phases, and builds a functional equivalent formula.

This is useful for benchmarking, competitive intelligence, texture matching, concept development, and understanding how a product may have been constructed.

No. A public INCI list does not reveal exact percentages, raw material grades, processing conditions, fragrance composition, supplier blends, or manufacturing know-how. COSMIC estimates a plausible, functional equivalent based on formulation science, market data, ingredient order, known usage ranges, and the product type.

You should treat the result as a technical reconstruction for R&D work, not as proof of the competitor's exact formula.

If the product INCI list is available, COSMIC can attempt a clone-style reconstruction. You can paste the INCI list manually or use the product catalog when the item is available there.

The more complete the INCI list and product context, the better the reconstruction. You should still review the clone for regulatory status, ingredient substitutions, sensorial target, preservative robustness, and manufacturing feasibility.

COSMIC uses INCI order, product type, ingredient function, historical formula data, regulatory caps, typical usage ranges, and internal percentage-prediction logic. For ingredients with little data, it uses wider confidence ranges and flags lower confidence. It is chemistry!

The estimate is meant to produce a credible formulation starting point. A formulator should still adjust the formula based on raw material grade, target viscosity, sensory profile, cost, and lab results.

The intended behavior is yes: clone mode should preserve the user's locked INCI list and audit the result. If the system has to surface a safety or regulatory issue, it should warn rather than silently drop the ingredient from the locked list.

This matters because a clone is often a reconstruction exercise. The formulator needs to see the consequences of the original INCI list, including problematic ingredients.

It means you do not hand over responsibility to a black box. You define the brief, review the proposed architecture, inspect ingredients, read warnings, adjust concentrations, and decide whether the result is worth taking to the bench.

COSMIC accelerates the reasoning loop. The formulator remains accountable for technical choices and final approval.

Yes. COSMIC is designed as a co-formulation workflow. You can use the generated formula as a draft, then revise ingredients, concentrations, phases, claims, preservative strategy, texture, pH, and target markets.

The most productive workflow is to use COSMIC for rapid hypothesis generation, then apply your own lab experience before batching.

COSMIC includes many formulation checks: phase assignment, emulsifier presence, HLB/HLD logic, surfactant-to-oil ratio, preservative fit, pH compatibility, incompatible pairs, water activity risk, oxidation risk, photostability, physical stability, and more.

It is still software. It can catch many issues quickly, but it should be used alongside professional formulation judgement and experimental validation.

Yes. Formula reports include a manufacturing procedure with phase preparation, heating/cooling logic, mixing order, temperature windows, pH adjustment, and final quality-control checks.

A formulator should still adapt the procedure to actual equipment: vessel size, impeller type, shear capability, batch scale, raw material grade, and plant SOPs.

Yes. COSMIC can help design O/W, W/O, W/O/W, O/W/O, W/Si, gel, solution, and anhydrous systems. It checks whether the emulsifier system is plausible, whether HLB is aligned, and whether the oil phase and surfactant levels make sense.

For non-emulsion systems, such as sodium stearate glycol deodorant gels, the system should not force irrelevant emulsion rules.

Yes. The Preservative Advisory module considers pH, water activity, formula type, target markets, ingredient compatibility, antimicrobial spectrum, and claim constraints.

It can suggest preservative systems and preservation boosters, but it does not replace ISO 11930 or USP challenge testing. Use it to reduce bad candidates before lab testing.

Yes, if you state that strategy clearly in the brief. COSMIC can reason about multi-hurdle preservation: pH, chelators, glycols, low water activity, packaging, antioxidants, and microbial risk.

It will still warn you if the strategy looks weak. A preservative-free claim is not a shortcut; it usually requires stricter design and stronger validation.

Yes. COSMIC screens against multiple markets, including EU, US, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and other configured market rules depending on the module. Please have a double check on this; cosmic is made to make formulas, it is not a PLC or different software!

The output is an automated screening, not final legal approval. A regulatory expert must still review the final formula, claims, label, product category, intended use, and local submission requirements.

COSMIC screens EU Annex data and flags prohibited or restricted ingredients. True Annex II prohibitions should remain blocked or clearly flagged. Annex III fragrance allergens and restricted substances should produce concentration or labelling notes when available.

If a source data row is incomplete or known to be a false positive, COSMIC should downgrade it to an advisory and tell you to verify the primary source.

Yes. COSMIC can flag allergens such as limonene, linalool, citral, geraniol, citronellol, coumarin, eugenol, and similar fragrance components when they appear in the formula or source INCI list.

It can help identify labelling obligations, but final allergen declaration depends on concentration, product type, market, and current regulatory thresholds.

COSMIC includes virtual toxicology screening. It can flag hazards, sensitization concerns, restricted ingredients, missing data, and concentration-dependent risks. Cosmic use a proprietary Neural Network based on million of data (pure chemistry-bacteriology).

This is useful early in R&D because it catches obvious problems before batching. It does not replace the formal cosmetic product safety report or a qualified safety assessor.

Yes. COSMIC evaluates Vistual stability risks such as emulsion mismatch, insufficient preservation, oxidation-prone oils, photostability issues, pH incompatibility, and physical instability.

It helps decide whether a draft is worth batching. Real-time and accelerated stability tests remain mandatory for product launch.

Yes. COSMIC can analyze how ingredients may affect skin-relevant microorganisms and identify potential microbiome-supportive or microbiome-disruptive choices.

This is especially useful for brands working on barrier support, sensitive skin, acne-prone skin, deodorants, scalp care, and microbiome-positioned claims.

Yes. Botanical Intelligence builds profiles for plant-derived ingredients: taxonomy, plant part, bioactive compounds, possible pathways, inferred skin benefits, solubility hints, and confidence level.

This helps formulators and marketing teams understand what a botanical may contribute and where the evidence is strong or weak.

Yes. You can specify natural-origin targets, free-from claims, vegan constraints, silicone-free, PEG-free, fragrance-free, preservative-free, or other positioning requirements.

COSMIC will try to satisfy the brief and will warn when a claim conflicts with the ingredient list, formula architecture, preservation strategy, or target market.

Yes. COSMIC includes ingredient substitution workflows. It can suggest alternatives based on function, safety, regulatory status, HLB compatibility, allergen profile, availability, and formula role.

This is useful when a raw material is discontinued, unavailable, too expensive, non-compliant in a market, or inconsistent with a claim.

Yes, the platform is designed to work with company ingredient libraries and saved formulas. Using your own raw materials makes the output more actionable because suggestions can align with what your lab already stocks and knows.

For best results, enrich your internal catalog with INCI name, trade name, supplier, function, usage range, phase, pH range, natural-origin data, and any safety or regulatory notes.

A typical report includes formula table, phases, percentages, manufacturing procedure, formulation notes, warnings, regulatory screening, stability assessment, toxicology overview, compatibility notes, preservative advisory, antimicrobial analysis, botanical profiles when relevant, patent scan context, and supporting calculations.

The PDF is meant to support internal R&D review, lab handoff, management discussion, and early regulatory screening.

Yes. Generated formulas are saved to your company library. You can reopen them, review the data, regenerate PDFs, compare versions, and use previous work as a starting point for new development.

This is useful for building an internal knowledge base of concepts, trials, rejected ideas, and approved directions.

Yes, but the value is different from a beginner workflow. A senior formulator may use COSMIC to accelerate research, benchmark products, stress-test assumptions, catch regulatory issues, produce documentation, explore substitutions, and quickly generate alternative formulation routes.

The expert still decides what is chemically elegant and commercially realistic.

Yes. COSMIC can teach by example: phases, percentage ranges, preservative logic, pH constraints, emulsion structure, incompatibilities, and regulatory warnings become visible inside each generated report.

A junior formulator should still work under supervision, but COSMIC can make the learning curve much faster.

Yes, as long as you understand the limits. COSMIC can help you prepare better briefs, understand product architecture, compare competitor products, explore ingredients, and speak more concretely with a contract manufacturer.

You should not manufacture directly from any AI-generated formula without professional formulation, safety, regulatory, and stability review.

Yes. Contract manufacturers can use COSMIC to speed up concept development, respond faster to brand briefs, evaluate ingredient conflicts, prepare first formulation routes, produce reports, and compare alternative architectures before lab work.

It is especially useful when clients send vague briefs or competitor INCI lists and expect a fast technical answer.

Many formulas complete in a few minutes. More complex workflows, such as full clone generation with many locked ingredients, multiple target markets, or repeated quality-gate refinement, may take longer.

The time is still usually much shorter than manual research, first-pass architecture, documentation, and multi-market screening.

Longer runs usually mean the system is trying to resolve conflicts: missing mandatory ingredients, regulatory problems, incompatible ingredients, failed preservation, HLB mismatch, unstable emulsion structure, or locked clone ingredients that constrain the solution.

If a run is slow, inspect the warnings and quality-gate report. They often explain what the system was trying to repair.

A formulator should first check:

1. Does the architecture match the product type?
2. Do the percentages look realistic?
3. Are mandatory ingredients present?
4. Are phases chemically sensible?
5. Is the preservative system appropriate for pH and water activity?
6. Are regulatory warnings acceptable for the target market?
7. Does the procedure match actual lab equipment?
8. Would the texture and sensory profile match the brief?

COSMIC gives you the draft and the checks. Your expertise decides whether it is worth batching.

Tokens are COSMIC's usage unit. Instead of a rigid per-seat license, companies buy a shared token pool and spend tokens on formulation actions such as generating formulas or clone reports.

This makes COSMIC practical for teams with irregular R&D demand: you pay for actual work performed, not for unused seats.

The intended token model is simple and flexible: companies can buy a shared token pool and allocate it to users. Check the current subscription and billing page for the latest commercial terms before purchase.

If you are evaluating COSMIC for a company, ask for a token package that matches your expected monthly formula volume.

Start with enough tokens to test several real cases:

1. One simple CoFormulator formula you know well.
2. One difficult formula with constraints.
3. One clone from a competitor INCI list.
4. One formula with a regulatory or preservative challenge.

That gives you a much better evaluation than a single lucky or unlucky prompt.

Click Register, create your account, and follow the onboarding flow. If you are testing as a company, set up the company admin account so you can manage users and token allocation.

Once you have access, start with a small, familiar brief and generate your first report. The value is easiest to judge when you compare COSMIC's output against a formula type you already understand.

Wait for activaction, and... Run three tests:

1. A normal formula with a common ingredient such as glycerin or panthenol.
2. A clone from a competitor INCI list.
3. A constrained formula with a claim, target market, or required active.

Then review the reports like a formulator: phase structure, percentages, preservation, warnings, regulatory notes, and manufacturing procedure.

No responsible formulator should launch directly from a generated draft. Use COSMIC as a high-quality R&D starting point.

Before production, you still need lab batching, sensory evaluation, compatibility checks, stability testing, challenge testing when required, packaging compatibility, safety assessment, regulatory review, and manufacturing scale-up validation.

No. COSMIC is primarily a formulation intelligence and R&D acceleration platform. PLM systems manage product lifecycle data, documentation workflows, approvals, specifications, and enterprise records.

COSMIC can complement a PLM by creating better technical starting points and richer formulation reports earlier in the process.

Generic AI can write plausible text. COSMIC is built around cosmetic formulation workflows: INCI parsing, phase design, percentage prediction, regulatory checks, preservative logic, compatibility screening, saved formula records, PDF reports, clone workflows, and company libraries.

The difference is not just language generation. It is the formulation-specific data and checks around the answer.

Ingredient discovery tools help you find ingredients. COSMIC goes further by building complete formulas, estimating concentrations, checking phases, assessing stability, screening regulatory issues, generating manufacturing procedures, and producing a report your team can review.

Ingredient discovery is part of the workflow. Formulation architecture is the bigger job.

COSMIC can run patent scans and surface relevant patent families or prior-art context. This is useful for early awareness and internal discussion.

It is not legal advice. For freedom-to-operate, patentability, or launch decisions, involve a qualified IP professional.

Yes. Reports can provide technical rationale, botanical intelligence, ingredient functions, target pathways, market positioning context, and warnings around claims.

Marketing teams should use the information to ask better questions and prepare better claim substantiation, not to bypass regulatory review.

That is normal. Formulation has trade-offs, and different formulators solve the same brief differently. Use the output as a draft to critique.

If you disagree, check why: wrong texture target, wrong emulsion type, poor ingredient choice, regulatory conflict, excessive active load, weak preservation, or a brief that was too vague. Then refine the brief or adjust the formula.

Be specific. Include product type, skin type or use case, target market, pH range, desired texture, must-have ingredients, ingredients to avoid, natural-origin target, preservative preference, packaging format, and any benchmark product.

Also test with real briefs, not only abstract examples. COSMIC is most valuable when it works on the same problems your team actually faces.

Register, run a familiar formula, run a competitor clone, and read the PDFs carefully. Ask yourself:

1. Did COSMIC save research time?
2. Did it catch warnings I would have checked manually?
3. Did it produce a usable first architecture?
4. Did the report help explain the formula to colleagues?
5. Did it make iteration faster?

If the answer is yes on several of these, COSMIC is likely worth testing in your real R&D workflow.

COSMIC CoFormulator is developed by TheProphetAI s.r.l. in Milan, Italy. TheProphetAi works in LifeScience Ai and helped many researcher in finding the right information for they pharmacologic research. The amount of data you can find in Coformulator is also a fruit of this experience; many datas regarding an INCI or a Botanical extract or agin related to a peptide seems to be even too much for a cosmetic formula, but think there are different level of cosmetic research, and also active producers are using Cosmic. We also have a private platform inside (activated by separate license) to emulate a cell and all it's pathways, so the interaction with your formula or your active; it is a development getting very deep knowledge of a cell (Keratuinocytes, fibroblasts..) behaviours when a ingredient is interacting with. The platform is built for cosmetic R&D teams and shaped around real formulation workflows, not generic software demos.

The goal is practical: help formulators move from idea to technically reviewed draft faster, while keeping expert judgement at the center.