I come home to my mom and on one of the kitchen shelves I find jars with various labels about the contents: spruce ointment (2020), calendula ointment (2019), propolis (2018)... I commend her for writing down the year of manufacture in addition to the label of the contents. Very clever.
And if we look at the jars of cosmetic products in the store, they have much more information written on them than just what is in the jar and the year of manufacture. The same happens with other homemade products, such as compotes, jams... So what separates a homemade product from a product that we can buy in a store? Just the labels on the packaging? Why can't my mom take her product to the store and sell it?
For the official sale of a cosmetic product on the market, each product must be notified to the EU Cosmetics Portal; this is done only after the product has received its safety report. And for the safety report to be created, it is necessary to carefully examine the ingredients of the product in relation to the amount used on the skin (both the individual ingredient and possible interactions with other ingredients used are studied). The safety report also describes the results of tests that prove the safety of the product for the user (the risk of microorganisms in the product, the stability of the product, the possibility of the product reacting with the packaging, etc.). This report is prepared by a specially trained person who has the appropriate education or knowledge to issue safety reports.
And you have read an extremely brief summary of the rules for the official sale of a cosmetic product.
It reads easily, doesn't it? To meet the conditions in the paragraph above, we need 2 to 3 months just for laboratory analysis of the product. How much time do we need to develop the final product formula, how much time for packaging design, how much time for product production? The more complex the product (read: contains more ingredients), the more time we need.
With this, I quickly answered the question of why not every one of our "homemade" products can be on the store shelf. Because it requires knowledge, time, money (well, I didn't mention that each step described above costs money, of course!) and a great deal of patience and consistency.
Someone would quickly add: yes, my grandmother always made jam, which she had for 2 years, and it never went bad? Was the ointment made 2 years ago (because it was a great harvest for picking marigolds) and didn't mold in the pantry at home? The answer is that at home we know exactly what storage and use conditions we have. Do we all have the same conditions at home? Does someone's pantry maybe have a warmer one? Or more humid? Does a light shine on the shelf in the pantry? Do we have a small child at home who will stick wet fingers into the ointment? What we can say about our conditions at home, we cannot say about a neighbor, friend, or stranger on the next street or in another city. Everyone has their own conditions at home, in which they live. Therefore, a product in a store must be suitable for all our different living conditions. It must become universal in order to be safe for use.
CONCLUSION
Universality is a necessity in the store, absolutely NOT at home; at home we can make products designed exactly according to our criteria and wishes. And today's trends? Even in stores, customers are increasingly looking for personalized products made to our measurements. In the field of cosmetics (the same applies to medicines and food), where the requirements and legislation are very strict, this is very difficult, or it is very difficult to find such products in stores. When buying cosmetics, we therefore turn to domestic cosmetics manufacturers who can make a product according to our requirements. However, I would like to point out a great deal of caution here, as domestic production can quickly lead to cosmetic products that are too perishable and ineffective.