Toner contract manufacturing

A cosmetics plant develops and produces a water-based toner for your brand: formula, preservation and stability testing, filling, and the BPOM notification. The toner carries your name and your positioning, hydrating, soothing, oil control, or exfoliating; the plant carries the chemistry and the paperwork.

A toner is the thinnest step, mostly water with humectants, applied right after cleansing to rehydrate and prepare the skin. An essence is a step richer: slightly viscous, with a higher load of actives or a fermented filtrate, applied after toner and before serum. A toner can be poured onto cotton; an essence is pressed in with the hands.

The classic face tonic or astringent is alcohol-based, made to degrease oily skin after a milk cleanser, and it stings. A modern toner is usually alcohol-free, water-based, and built to hydrate or calm. Brands aimed at oily skin now get the oil control effect from niacinamide, zinc PCA, or witch hazel instead of ethanol.

Hydrating, with glycerin, hyaluronic acid, and panthenol, for dry and normal skin; soothing, with centella asiatica, allantoin, or oat, for sensitive skin; oil control, with niacinamide, zinc PCA, or witch hazel; brightening, with a vitamin C derivative or licorice extract; exfoliating, with a low level of AHA, BHA, or PHA; and a mist toner in a spray bottle.

Glycerin and butylene glycol hold water in the skin and give slip. Sodium hyaluronate adds a hydrated feel and a touch of viscosity. Panthenol and allantoin soothe. Niacinamide works on oil and tone. Centella asiatica or green tea extract calms. A solubilizer such as polysorbate 20 keeps any fragrance clear. The preservative system keeps the water safe.

Yes, and most toners we make are. Ethanol gives a cooling, fast-drying feel and helps dissolve fragrance, but it dries the skin and is the first thing a sensitive-skin buyer looks for on the label. An alcohol-free toner uses glycols and a solubilizer instead. "Alcohol-free" refers to ethanol; fatty alcohols like cetyl alcohol are not what the label means.

Clarity is the test a toner passes or fails in public. Cloudiness comes from a fragrance or oil-soluble extract that has not been fully solubilized, from a pH shift that drops an ingredient out of solution, or from microbial growth. Color change usually comes from a plant extract or vitamin reacting with light or air. We check both at 45 °C and under light before approval.

With a preservative system from the permitted list in BPOM Regulation No. 23 of 2019 as amended, typically phenoxyethanol with ethylhexylglycerin, or sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate at a lower pH, sometimes helped by 1,2-hexanediol. The system is then challenged with bacteria, yeast, and mold in a preservative efficacy test before the formula is approved.

For a hydrating or soothing toner, around 5 to 6, close to the skin's own surface. An oil control toner may sit slightly lower. An exfoliating toner is set by its acid and the allowed range, down to a pH of 3.5 for AHA. The pH also decides which preservatives work, so it is fixed early and checked on every batch.

Yes. A toner with a low level of glycolic, lactic, salicylic, or gluconolactone is an exfoliating toner, within the limits that apply to leave-on products: AHA up to 10 percent at a pH not below 3.5, salicylic acid up to 2 percent. Most brands keep the level well below those limits for a daily-use toner and leave stronger acids to a dedicated exfoliator.

"Hydrates" needs a corneometer reading before and after use. "Soothes" or "calms redness" needs a clinical evaluation. "Helps minimize the look of pores" and "controls oil" need instrumental or clinical data. "Suitable for sensitive skin" needs a patch test. All wording stays within BPOM Regulation No. 3 of 2022.

Toner is a cosmetic, and cosmetics sold in Indonesia must be halal certified or labelled non-halal now that the phase-in under Government Regulation No. 42 of 2024 ended on 17 October 2026. For a toner the ingredient to watch is glycerin, which must come from a plant or other halal-certified source; an alcohol-free formula also keeps the file simpler. We prepare it with the BPOM notification.

A flip-top bottle is the standard, poured onto a cotton pad, usually 100 to 200 ml. A pump bottle gives a controlled dose for hands-on application. A mist pump or fine spray turns the same formula into a toner mist for use over makeup. Clear bottles show off a clear formula; amber or opaque protects extracts that fade.

ODM: our R&D team writes the toner from your brief, choosing humectants, the active, the scent, and the preservation. OEM, or private label: you start from a toner base we already make and change the extract, the fragrance, or the bottle, with the preservation already proven, so sampling is shorter.

The skin type you sell to, the one thing the toner should do (hydrate, soothe, control oil, exfoliate), whether it must be alcohol-free and fragrance-free, the feel you want (watery or slightly thick), a reference product, a selling price range, a rough quantity, and the claims you hope to print. From this we propose a formula and make samples.