The Alquemis process

How we make a shampoo.

From formula to shelf, step by step.

The bulk

Before the bottle.

A shampoo is built in layers: first the base, which holds everything; then what cleans; then what cares and what you smell; and at the end, the body. Nothing goes in before its time.

It all starts in the laboratory.

The formula

A good shampoo begins long before anything is mixed in the tank: with a proven formula and first-rate ingredients the laboratory verifies one by one. All our brands follow the same protocol from formulation onwards; that is why they work just as well in any shower.

Before manufacturing Raw materials verified and weighed
The mother tank starts up.

Aqueous base

Ultra-purified water, heated slowly in the mother tank while the agitator starts up and never stops: everything that goes in from now on has to end up evenly spread, down to the last drop.

Agitation Constant, start to finish
The heart of our shampoos.

What cleans and foams

Into the hot water go the surfactants: the ingredients that clean and foam, the heart of our shampoos. The heat helps them dissolve and lets the emulsifiers that come with them melt and disperse properly. The agitator keeps going, unhurried: beaten too much, they foam before their time.

Surfactants They clean and foam
An ingredient with character.

The thickener, on its own

Meanwhile, in a small tank, we prepare what will give the shampoo its body. It is a temperamental ingredient: thrown into water carelessly, it clumps. So it is dispersed on its own, slowly and with a special kind of stirring, until it is perfectly smooth. It is the house signature: at Alquemis the body comes from this thickener, not from salt.

Thickener Carbomer, instead of sulfate and salt
Mixed at just the right moment.

All together

Cold water is added to the mother tank to bring the temperature down. When it is just right, the thickener moves from the small tank into the big one and, at last, everything is together. It is still a thin liquid: the body will come at the end.

Cold water Cools the bulk before going on
What sets us apart.

Actives

With the mix now cool, in go the actives: botanical extracts, oils and conditioners of the finest quality, the ingredients that deliver the benefit each brand promises. They are the layer that sets one shampoo apart from another made in the same tank.

Actives Extracts, oils and conditioners
When the mix is at the right temperature.

Fragrance and preservative

They are delicate and heat spoils them, so they go in at the end, once the mix is at the right temperature. The preservative keeps the product safe for its whole life; the fragrance is the first thing you notice when you open the bottle.

At the end Once the mix has cooled
The final touch.

Viscosity

Finally the neutraliser goes in and wakes up the thickener. The polymer chains, coiled up until now, unfold and tangle with one another, and the liquid gains body almost instantly: the texture that was missing. Nothing else is added.

Viscosity Appears at the end, on neutralising
The batch is not filled until it passes.

Quality control

Before the bulk goes anywhere near a bottle, the lab samples it: viscosity, density, colour, odour and appearance against the standard, plus microbiological testing. If a value is out of range, it is adjusted or rejected. And every batch keeps a retained sample for its entire shelf life: we keep checking the quality of every product that reaches the supermarket, long after it left the plant.

Per batch Physico-chemical and micro

From bulk to shelf

The bottle.

Approved bulk moves to the filling line. Every bottle travels the same road.

The approved bulk meets its container.

To the line

Empty bottles enter the filling line and the unscrambler lines them up, one by one, in the same position. From here on, each station does one thing and checks it before passing the bottle to the next.

Per station One task, one check
The filler, bottle by bottle.

Filling

The filler doses the exact volume into each container, without foam and without spills. Not a drop less than the label says.

Filler Exact volume, bottle by bottle
Closed to the exact torque.

Capping

The capper places the cap and tightens it to the specified torque: just enough not to leak in transit and to open without effort at home. A checkweigher verifies every unit before it moves on.

Checkweigher 100 % of units
The bottle introduces itself.

Labelling

The labeller applies the front and back labels in exact alignment. There goes everything the law requires and the consumer needs: name, contents, directions, the INCI ingredient list and the health registration.

Declared ingredients Full INCI list
Every bottle knows where it comes from.

Lot and expiry date

A coder prints the lot number and the expiry date on each unit. The lot traces everything, exactly: which raw materials were used, who manufactured it, which controls it passed. That is how we guarantee the quality of every bottle.

With the lot Everything is traceable
From the plant to the point of sale.

To the shelf

Bottles are packed into cases, palletised and moved to the warehouse, where they wait for final quality release. From there they go out to distribution: Costa Rica, the region and the United States. On the shelf, the shampoo competes for a few seconds of attention. Everything before this exists to win them.

Reach From Costa Rica to the region

The ingredients

What is in the mix.

Five families of ingredients, each with a job. How much of each goes in is every brand’s recipe, and that is not told.

Purified water

The base of everything. Deionised or reverse-osmosis.
Surfactants

They clean and foam. They go in with the hot water.
Thickener

Gives the body. Prepared on its own and activated at the end. No salt.
Actives

Botanical extracts, oils and conditioners: the benefit each brand promises.
Fragrance and preservatives

The first thing you notice when you open the bottle, and what keeps it safe for its whole shelf life.