Meet Formula Botanica
We caught up with Lorraine Dallmeier who runs Formula Botanica, an online accredited Organic Cosmetic Science School. Lorraine and the team run online courses to teach organic cosmetic formulators and entrepreneurs to start or grow their own organic beauty range.
It’s certainly a growing business with over 2,000 students in 95 countries around the world! Many of the students have started successful beauty businesses, selling gorgeous natural and organic skincare products.
We love the concept of Formula Botanica, how did this all come about?
Formula Botanica started in 2012 as the brainchild of Star Khechara, author of the Holistic Beauty Book. There was so much demand for training in making organic beauty products that it was a natural progression to start teaching courses online. We started small with a handful of students who were taught by email and since then we’ve grown to a team of 8 to run our extensive eLearning platform and host our active global community. We are now also accredited by the UK’s Open & Distance Learning Quality Council who guarantee that when you enrol with Formula Botanica you will receive the materials, methods and support you need in order to achieve your educational goals.
What course is the most popular out of the programme?
Our flagship training programme is our International Organic Skincare Entrepreneur Programme, which contains eight courses. Our most popular course is our Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation, which has been taken by over 1000 people worldwide now. Formula Botanica teaches you everything you need to know to go from complete beginner to organic skincare expert formulator and teacher.
Great, why Organic?
We are of the opinion that organic ingredients are superior for the skincare properties they deliver. Nothing can beat an organic cold pressed plant oil, a freshly distilled flower water, an exotic botanical butter, a high performance plant extract, an exquisitely fragrant essential oil. Formula Botanica stands for the principles of health and sustainability in cosmetics and skincare. We are left cold by most mainstream cosmetics as they are generally pumped full of water, cheap fillers, animal by-products, synthetic skin irritants and artificial fragrances. We feel strongly that organic is the holy grail in formulating cosmetics.
Ultimately, nature has amazing properties to offer for our cosmetic products. Plants contain compounds which work in synergy with each other – for instance, a rose flower alone may contain over 500 different chemical compounds. It will be almost impossible for a combination of synthetic ingredients to mimic such a complex plant symphony of compounds. Formula Botanica holds a strong view when it comes to the use of organic ingredients, and aims to provide all its students with the knowledge and skills required to create the very best organic cosmetic products possible.
We love the sound of that! Can you tell our readers the plans for this years Organic Beauty week?
Yes! This year we’re running a huge competition to give away an organic skincare entrepreneur scholarship! We’ve partnered with the Soil Association, The Beauty Voice, the Peridot Magazine, Melinda Coss and the Organic Herb Trading Company to give away three big prize packages and help kick-start the organic beauty business for three deserving entrepreneurs.
On the 1st of September the competition opens and we will be inviting future budding organic skincare entrepreneurs to send us their pitch. They will then need to rally round the troops and ask friends, family, and followers to vote for their pitch by hitting the Facebook “like” button. Click here to enter
The 10 pitches with the most likes will be shortlisted and these entrants will be asked to submit a short video setting out their business plans and ideas. A panel of judges from all six participating organisations will choose the three winners based on passion, innovation and merit. The competition is open to applicants around the world.
Wahoo! We can’t wait!
For more information about Formula Botanica you can visit the School’s website here or follow Formula Botanica on Instagram
