Laboratoire Formula Flawless
Laboratoire Formula Flawless
Everything you buy from us was made a few days ago.
Made in our own lab in Las Vegas, in small batches, within the week. Not last quarter, and not in a factory we've never set foot in.
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How the week runs
A batch is a week, not a purchase order.
Most skincare is made in runs of tens of thousands of units and then waits in a warehouse until it sells. That's a sensible way to run a business. We chose a different one, because the longer a formula waits, the less it has left to give you.
So we work the other way. Small batches, made weekly, against what's actually being ordered. A serum blended on Tuesday can be on its way to you by Thursday.
It costs us more and it's harder to plan, and we think it's worth it, because the actives are still at full strength when they reach your skin.
Whatever's left at the end of the week doesn't go into storage. It becomes the sample vials that travel out with every order.
What fresh means
Nothing here spoils. What fades is potency.
Our products don't go off. Oil-based serums stay stable for years, and a water-based formula holds for roughly four to eight months at room temperature. Both keep better in the fridge, and the water-based ones considerably better, because actives suspended in water are less stable by nature than actives held in lipids.
Though if a bottle is still going strong after four months, you're being too sparing with it. The benefit was never in the bottle lasting. It's in your skin.
What fades over time is potency, and in a water-based formula that's the easiest thing to hide. Every water formula needs preserving, ours included. But holding one looking and feeling identical for two or three years takes a great deal more than that: stabilizers and petrochemical thickeners, fixing the color and the consistency exactly where they started. The actives stopped working long before. The bottle simply doesn't show it.
We'd rather make something that behaves like what it's made of. That's why the batches are weekly, and why we suggest using a product within three to four months, while everything in it is still doing its job.
A thing worth knowing
Our toners aren't the same color every time.
The color of a batch shifts through the year, and the toners most of all.
A rose harvested in May isn't the same as one harvested in September, and we don't correct the difference out with dye. So if a bottle turns up a shade deeper than your last one, that's the harvest showing through.
A product that looks identical every time is easier to sell, and most of the industry does exactly that. We'd rather you got to see the season in it.
The way we formulate
A few decisions we've made, and why.
Bakuchiol rather than retinol
We don't formulate with retinol in any form, including the versions sold as natural. It has never been tested for long-term safety on human skin, and the long-term animal data doesn't reassure us. It also works by irritating skin into repairing itself, which brings side effects and leaves you sun-sensitive for a few days afterwards.
Bakuchiol does the same structural work far more gently. It's the active in F108.
Concentrated, not padded out
Water and glycerine are inexpensive and they make a bottle go further, which is why they turn up so often. We use them where they do a real job in a formula and leave them out where they don't. It's why our textures are as rich as they are, and why a small bottle lasts longer than you'd expect.
A preservative we're happy to name
Most of our water-based formulas are preserved with Geoguard ECT, a real, eco-certified preservative. Anything with water in it needs preserving, and we'd rather do that properly and tell you what we use than market ourselves as preservative-free.
What we don't do is build for a three-year shelf life. Small weekly batches mean we never have to.
Numbers rather than names
F8. F21. F108. They're formulation numbers, grouped into loose families rather than run in date order. The serums sit from F1 to F20, and each of the other families has its own range, so the number tells you roughly what you're holding before you've read a word.
We've never gone back and given them evocative names. The number is honest, and we'd rather let the formula introduce itself.
A note from Rae
I'm exact about the chemistry and happily splashy about everything else. The formulas are measured to the milligram. My apron is not.
Rae
At the bench
Rae Indigo, biochemist and formulator
I started this in 2020, for myself.
Years of travel, lecturing and study had changed my skin, and nothing I could buy was doing anything about it. So I went back to what I actually know, which is organic chemistry, and made something. Then I posted a photo promoting a breathwork course I was running, and every single reply was about my skin instead of the course.
Eighty-odd formulations later, I still make the batches, here in Las Vegas, NV.
Questions
How it's made
How fresh is fresh, exactly?
Made within the week. Batches are blended against real orders rather than forecast demand, so what arrives with you was made days ago rather than months ago.
Whatever isn't used that week doesn't go into storage. It becomes the free samples that travel out with every order, which is how you end up trying things you didn't buy.
How long will a product stay at full strength?
Oil-based serums stay stable for years. Water-based formulas hold for roughly four to eight months at room temperature. Refrigeration extends both. Nothing spoils.
What softens, slowly, is the strength of the actives, so we suggest using a product within three to four months. And if a bottle is still going after that, please use more of it. The benefit is in your skin, not in the bottle lasting.
Should I keep my serums in the fridge?
Everything benefits from it, and water-based formulas most of all.
Actives suspended in water are less stable by nature than actives held in lipids, so a water serum has more to gain from the cold. Oil-based serums are stable to begin with, and the fridge looks after them too.
The preservative we use, and why
Most of our water-based formulas are preserved with Geoguard ECT, a real, eco-certified preservative. Anything with water in it needs preserving, and we'd rather do that properly and name what we use than market ourselves as preservative-free.
What we don't do is build for a three-year shelf life. Holding a water formula looking and feeling identical for years takes a great deal more than keeping it safe: stabilizers and petrochemical thickeners fixing the color and the consistency in place, long after the actives have stopped working. Small weekly batches mean we never need any of that.
Why does my toner look different from last time?
Because the plants were different. Botanical color shifts with the harvest and the season, and we don't correct it with dye.
A deeper or lighter batch is completely normal, and it isn't a sign that anything is wrong with your bottle.
Why we don't use retinol
It has never been tested for long-term safety on human skin, and the long-term animal data doesn't give us the confidence we'd want before putting it in your hands.
Retinol also works by irritating skin into repairing itself, which brings a list of side effects and leaves skin sun-sensitive for several days. Bakuchiol does the same structural work far more gently, and it's the active in F108.
Why the products are numbered instead of named
The numbers are formulation numbers, grouped into loose families rather than assigned by date. The serums run from F1 to F20, and the other families each sit in their own range.
So the number is doing real work: it tells you roughly what a product is before you've read anything else.
Are the formulas ever changed?
Yes, deliberately. When a better version of an ingredient becomes available, we upgrade the formula rather than freeze it to protect a production run.
Small weekly batches are what make that possible, since there's no warehouse full of the old version waiting to be sold through first.
Why there are so many products
Because skin isn't one problem. Over the years, formulas were built in response to the specific things people kept writing in about, and the range grew from five serums to more than eighty.
You certainly don't need all of them. If it feels like a lot, start from your concern or your skin stage and we'll narrow it down to two or three.
Formula Flawless
Made this week. Ready when you are.
Tell us what your skin is doing, and we'll point you to the two or three formulas that matter.
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