Services
Ask The Chemist
From The INCI Lab · Auckland
Expert cosmetic chemistry, sized to what you need.
Not every founder needs a full R&D contract. Sometimes you need a 30-minute call. Sometimes you need lab-grade stability testing on a formula you have already developed. Ask The Chemist is our way in for exactly these moments — led by Merve Samur, President of the New Zealand Society of Cosmetic Chemists, and the team at The INCI Lab.
The Process
What happens next.
For a Consultation: Choose a time, fill in a short pre-call questionnaire, and join the 30-minute video call. You receive a recording plus a written summary within 2 business days.
For Formula Supplied: This one is not a checkout. Send us a brief or book a free 15-minute discovery call. We confirm scope, materials and timeline, then send our Services Agreement. Once signed, lab work begins. The full programme runs 12–16 weeks with timepoint reports at Weeks 0, 4, 8, 12, and a final report in Week 13.
Why work with us
Expertise without the agency overhead.
Award-winning chemistry. The INCI Lab won two categories at the 2026 C&T Allē Awards, plus multiple wins at the 2025 ceremony.
Real lab, real chemists. Every project touches our Auckland studio — not outsourced overseas.
Regulatory fluency. Working knowledge of NZ, AU (AICIS), US (FDA), UK, and EU (CPNP) compliance baked into every project.
Indie-first pricing. Our service ladder starts at NZ$150.
Frequently Asked Questions
Consultation (NZ$150) is a 30-minute video call — good for one specific technical question, ingredient selection, or working out which pathway suits your project. Conversational, with a written summary afterwards.
Formula Supplied is lab work: sampling plus 12-week accelerated stability testing of your existing formula in our Auckland studio. It is enquiry-only, scoped and priced to your formula, and we confirm everything on a free discovery call before you commit to anything.
If you have a single technical question, or you want to talk through which pathway is right for your brand — book a Consultation.
If you already have a working formula and need it validated in a lab before you scale — enquire about Formula Supplied.
If you are not sure, send us a brief and we will tell you honestly which one you need, or whether you need us at all yet.
Most Formula Supplied projects land between NZ$1,000 and NZ$3,000. Where yours sits depends on the complexity of the formula, how many variants you need, your packaging, and how much reformulation is involved. We price to what the formula actually needs rather than to a fixed package, and we do not quote before we have seen it.
We treat all conversations as confidential by default. For Formula Supplied, we send our Services Agreement (which includes confidentiality terms) before any sensitive work begins. If your business requires a separate NDA, we are happy to sign one before you share your formula — email us at hello@theincilab.com.
No. Stability testing is a critical pre-launch step but it is one of several. Final product launch also requires regulatory compliance documentation specific to your target market, packaging compatibility testing (available as an add-on), microbiological safety challenge testing (available as an add-on), and your own market liability and insurance coverage. We will flag every regulatory and safety concern we identify during testing, but final responsibility for product compliance, safety, labelling, and commercialisation remains with you.
12–16 weeks, driven by the stability test duration. You receive timepoint reports at Weeks 0, 4, 8, and 12, with the final written report delivered in Week 13.
Yes. If you book a Consultation and then decide to move forward with Formula Supplied lab work, the consultation fee credits toward your engagement. The same applies if you step up from Formula Supplied to The Accelerator or The Visionary. Just mention it when you book the next step.