This client is a US-based indie skincare brand built around ingredient transparency, with a large customer base managing Malassezia (fungal acne) sensitivity. Enrich Lab has partnered with the brand across a full product development cycle — from formulation to compliance documentation — supporting a growing line of 12+ SKUs, including a Malassezia-safe broad-spectrum mineral sunscreen.
The brief called for a broad-spectrum, high-SPF mineral sunscreen that is fully Malassezia-safe, light enough to wear alone without a moisturizer underneath, and works well on both fair and deep skin tones.
Checking ingredients at the molecular level. Enrich Lab checked each ingredient by its molecular structure, not just its name, to judge Malassezia-feeding risk. Some silicone or PEG-ether ingredients contain a C12 (lauryl) segment but are still low-risk, because the ether and silicone bonds make it hard for the yeast to break them down into free fatty acids. Titanium dioxide's stearic acid coating, on the other hand, was flagged and replaced with a different surface coating that keeps the same optical performance without the fatty acid risk.
Fixing the tint and white cast. Early samples left a visible white cast, especially on deeper skin tones. Instead of using standard iron oxide pigments by default, Enrich Lab tested several coloring options — including a food-grade caramel colorant and different iron oxide shades — to find which one gave a golden/yellow tone that blended more evenly across different skin tones than a brown/ashy one. Each pigment was also checked for safety and for how it behaves in the formula's W/O (water-in-oil) system.
Adding moisture without hurting SPF stability. Instead of just adding more humectant, Enrich Lab found the specific ingredient that was limiting the moisturizing feel — glycerin was doing less than expected — and suggested switching to a different emollient, squalane, while removing an ingredient that was not Malassezia-safe. This kept the change inside the water phase only, so the UV filter system and SPF/PA rating were not affected.
Solving packaging and formula together. A shaking-solution format was tried first, which needs a mixing bead inside the bottle. But the client's preferred aluminum bottle can't be squeezed like plastic, so a dropper-and-bead combination wasn't possible. Enrich Lab moved to a thicker W/O emulsion that could be dispensed reliably through an aluminum pump bottle instead — solving the consistency problem and the packaging problem at the same time.
Many of this client's customers deal with Malassezia (fungal acne) sensitivity. For them, common cosmetic ingredients — including many standard sunscreen emulsifiers, UV filter coatings, and moisturizers — can cause breakouts. Sunscreen was the most requested product from the brand's customers, but also the hardest to make right.
Most of the usual tricks to improve sunscreen texture or tint go against Malassezia-safety:
This meant every decision had to pass a Malassezia-safety check first, then get optimized for performance — not the usual way of starting from a standard sunscreen base and adjusting later.
After several rounds of sample testing on different skin tones, the updated formula showed much less white cast, a moisturizing feel close to the client's original benchmark product, and a texture that works well with the aluminum pump bottle the brand uses. The client's testing team said the product felt close to ready for launch, with only small adjustments left for tint depth on the deepest skin tones.
The client has since launched 12+ SKUs developed through this partnership. The case illustrates that overseas manufacturing itself isn't the concern for US and EU brands — the real question is formulation and compliance capability, which a development partner can directly address.
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