Nordlinger’s characterization of the formulation process is the behind-the-scenes flip side of a story often told by indie beauty brand founders of their products going through umpteen iterations in development because they’re just so picky about them. The difference between the two got us thinking about what the process should look like under the best-case scenario and what should be done by brands and manufacturers to accomplish that best-case scenario.

So, for this edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 12 manufacturers the following questions: Ideally, how many iterations should it take for a brand to approve a product? If there are additional iterations, what are common problems leading to them, and how can they be addressed? Do you believe the efficiency of the formulation process could be improved?