Supplement formulation, designed to be made and sold
In short
- Formulation turns the brief into three things you can act on: the formulation, its specification and a quote for making it.
- Every ingredient, form and dose is chosen for the claim the product needs to make, inside the rules of its pathway, and the price it has to sell at.
- One round of reformulation and requoting is included, and the physical sample is approved before anything goes into production.
- From our records, design to production order has taken 32 days to 12 weeks.
What formulation covers
Formulation is the second of the five steps of the Friday Launch Engine™, after the brief. It ends with three things you can act on:
- A formulation: every ingredient, its form and its dose, chosen for the claim you want to make and the price the product has to sell at.
- A specification: what the finished product must be, so any batch can be checked against it.
- A quote: what it costs to make, so the cost of goods is known before anything is ordered.
You set the brief: the customer, the claim, the format and the target cost of goods. We design the formulation to meet it, with evidence-based formulation, early access to new ingredients and emerging research, and our global ingredient network to source them. You approve it before anything is made.
How a formula is designed
- Start from the brief. The customer, the claim, the format and the retail price come first. EverLeanBody's brief was a premium daily capsule for women 35 and over, at a set retail price, with the evidence and listing to sell it with confidence.
- Settle the pathway. Whether the product will be a listed medicine, a food or a cosmetic decides which ingredients, doses and claims are open to it. We settle it at the brief, never after the formula. See medicine, food or cosmetic?.
- Build on the evidence. Where the brief calls for it, we build on ingredients backed by double-blind, published clinical trials, often branded extracts such as affron®, KSM-66®, EnXtra® or Wellmune® (branded ingredients). Every claim arrives with the studies behind it and the indication it maps to: the claims evidence is built alongside the formula, not after it.
- Prove the format. A formula that reads well can still fail in production: too wet to encapsulate, too bitter to swallow, unstable in liquid. Samples and trials find that out before a production order does.
- Write the specification and quote it. Then a stability program is designed to support the shelf life the label will carry.
Formats we formulate
Capsules, tablets and chewables, softgels, powders and sachets, liquids and oils, and creams and serums, across the TGA, FSANZ and cosmetics pathways. See capsules, tablets and softgels, gummies, powders and sachets and liquids.
When the first formula isn't the right one
Getting a formula right sometimes takes more than one version, and a product already on the market sometimes needs a new one (reformulating a supplement). From our records:
- Six versions of a postnatal formula for Mother Daily, with an evidence package covering eight key ingredients, until it was right.
- Three versions of a prenatal built as much as possible on plant powders, with a replacement supply of its lead plant ingredient.
- A prenatal moved from a liquid to a chewable for Arxi: the liquid wasn't stable and its taste couldn't be masked, so we traced the main odour to one selenium form and removed it, then used coated B vitamins to tame the taste.
- An eye-health formula updated before build to the AREDS2 vitamin E levels.
- A capsule moved to a tablet when the blend was too wet to encapsulate, mid-project.
How formulation is priced
Fixed fees for a defined outcome at each stage, from discovery to launch, and manufacturing priced per unit. You know the investment before each stage begins.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
We design the formula, the evidence behind its claims and its specification, then manage its manufacture, as one team. Take Friday Off isn't a contract manufacturer: cGMP partners matched to the format, the volume and the margin make the product, and we manage it through to your warehouse or 3PL. See how we manage manufacturing.
It depends on the formula and the pathway. From our records: design to production order in 32 days for a complex herbal capsule, under seven weeks for an eye-health formula, and 12 weeks for a two-a-day skin supplement. EverLeanBody's first capsule took 5.8 months from signed brief to dispatch. More in how long it takes to develop a supplement.
Yes. Our formulas are built on ingredients including affron®, KSM-66®, EnXtra®, Wellmune®, Testofen®, life's®OMEGA, Eriomin® and Quatrefolic®.
Yes. We rebuilt four of a sports brand's best-known capsules from scratch, upgraded a hair care brand's formula with a full new listing package, and redeveloped a skin program supplement as the second version of its formula.
Yes. We developed nine products for BWellness, a practitioner-channel brand serving naturopaths and nutritionists, and the founder's own brand, Ora, is a practitioner-grade range.
A product idea, the customer it is for and the price it has to sell at. The brief workshop turns that into the brief everything else is built on. The readiness check takes four questions.
Yes. You approve the formula on paper at the formulation presentation, with every ingredient and dose and the quote. The R&D sample is then made and sent to you, and nothing goes into production until you approve it. If it isn't right, one round of sample rework is included. Optional prototypes are available for brands that want product in hand earlier.
One round of reformulation and requoting at the formulation stage, and one round of sample rework at the sample stage. Each round takes two to three weeks.
About six months at best, and we have done it: EverLeanBody's first capsule took 5.8 months from signed brief to dispatch to its 3PL. That best case is a Design phase of 8 to 10 weeks (the brief, the formulation, the quote and your order) and a Build phase of 20 to 24 weeks (the sample, the specification, the listing and label, then 12 to 14 weeks in manufacture), with every approval made promptly and no rework. Extra rounds of changes, and time waiting on decisions, add to it. More in how long it takes to develop a supplement.
We're a product development partner based in Brookvale, Sydney, working with brands across Australia and the Asia-Pacific. Formulation is one stage of that work: we design the formula and the evidence behind its claims, then take it through the listing and managed manufacturing.
Case studies
Case studies
Signed brief to dispatch in under six months
5.8 months from signed brief to dispatch
Read the story →Six versions to get a postnatal formula right
A first production run of 4,935 units, one of our largest, shipped in 2024
Read the story →
Making a prenatal people will actually take
In production, due for dispatch in late October 2026
Read the story →Rescuing a product that wouldn't encapsulate
The eye-health tablet shipped in 2024
Read the story →A prenatal built on plant powders
The brand launched in 2025
Read the story →An eye-health formula, from design to reorder
From design to production order in under seven weeks
Read the story →Keep reading
Keep reading
Product packaging and labelling, from format to print-ready artwork
Product packaging for supplements, foods and skincare: pack format, compliant labels, TGO 95 child-resistant packs, barcodes and artwork, by one team.
Capsule, tablet and softgel supplements, from formula to delivery
Capsules, tablets, chewables and softgels developed and made for your brand: formula, evidence, TGA listing, stability and managed cGMP manufacturing.
How long does it take to develop a supplement?
How long it takes to develop a supplement, from our records: 32 days from design to production order at the fastest, the stages, and what holds a launch up.
Stability testing and shelf life for supplements: what the TGA expects
Shelf life testing for listed medicines: the stability evidence the TGA expects, real-time and accelerated studies, ongoing testing and failed results.
