Bespoke scalp care and hair serum manufacturing
British VitaTech develops and manufactures custom scalp care, hair serums and private label hair oil for brands worldwide, from formulation to finished product, and the brand owns the formula.
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Scalp serums, scrubs and private label hair oil, built to your brief
Premium wellness brands can brief us, a UK cosmetic manufacturer in Leicester, on scalp serums and tonics, scalp scrubs, shampoos and private label hair oil, which we develop and make for them. We design scalp products like facial skincare: measured actives such as niacinamide, panthenol and peptides, a pH the scalp tolerates, textures that leave hair clean, and droppers or nozzle applicators that reach the scalp through the hair. Each product comes with its specification, a certificate of analysis for every batch and its safety report, and its claims stay cosmetic, backed by tests and written for each market you sell in.
Some private label hair oil is a stock blend of carrier oils and fragrance with your logo on it. We build each product to your brief instead: the oils, actives, texture, scent and pack, with stability and safety data behind them. Your formula is yours. Our formula ownership commitment sets out what that covers.
- Hair and scalp oils. Pre-wash oils, scalp massage oils and light finishing oils, balanced for spread, absorption and shine.
- Scalp serums and tonics. Water-based or hydro-alcoholic leave-on serums with niacinamide, panthenol, peptides and botanical extracts, in dropper or nozzle packs that reach the scalp through the hair.
- Scalp scrubs and exfoliants. Sugar, salt or plant-based particles graded for size, or exfoliating acids within their limits. We never use plastic microbeads, which are banned from rinse-off products in England and restricted in the EU. Body scrubs sit in our body care range.
- Shampoos, conditioners and pre-wash treatments. Scalp-balancing cleansers and masks, including the rosemary, rice and onion formats shoppers ask for.
- Korean-style scalp routines. Scalp tonics, ampoules and pre-wash scalp exfoliators used in layers, with claims rewritten for the UK, the EU and the US.
Hair care works from both sides. We make scalp care beside hair supplements, so a serum and a supplement can share one routine and one development plan, and our skincare and cosmetic manufacturing hub covers the wider range. Our research and development team runs each project from brief to scale-up. Bench samples go to blind panels that compare spread, absorption, scent and how clean the hair feels after use; a pilot batch then proves the process at scale, and its samples start stability in your final pack before routine production. R&D is a paid stage that can be included with an order of the right size.
Scalp pH, oil chemistry and the thin evidence for rosemary
Scalp and fibre
A scalp serum is a skin product. It sits on skin dense with follicles and oil glands, and skin's surface is naturally acidic, on average below pH 5 (Lambers and colleagues, International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2006). We set leave-on scalp serums in a mildly acidic range and keep them light, so they don't weigh hair down or leave residue. A hair oil works mainly on the fibre, and oil chemistry decides what it can do. Coconut oil, rich in lauric acid with a small, straight-chain structure, penetrates the hair shaft and, in laboratory tests, reduced protein loss, while mineral oil and sunflower oil did not (Rele and Mohile, Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2003). Light esters and squalane add slip and shine without weight.
Penetration, preservation and compatibility
Molecules above about 500 daltons cross intact skin poorly (Bos and Meinardi, Experimental Dermatology, 2000), so peptides and large botanical molecules need a vehicle that keeps them in contact with the scalp. Water-based serums, tonics and shampoos need a preservative system chosen from the Cosmetics Regulation's preservatives annex, within its limits. Unsaturated plant oils oxidise and turn rancid, so we protect them with antioxidants such as tocopherol or rosemary extract, opaque packs and low headspace. Essential oils need particular care: they carry fragrance allergens such as limonene and linalool, they irritate at high levels, and some attack certain plastics.
What the evidence says about trending ingredients
Brands ask for the ingredients their customers see online. We use them where they suit the product and say plainly where the evidence stops. A dermatology review of hair trends on TikTok concludes that they "have little clinical evidence to support their claims" (Azhar, Cutis, 2023).
| Ingredient | What the evidence shows | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Rosemary oil | More research than the others, and still thin. The trial the dermatology reviews cite ran for six months in 100 adults with a hair condition, with no placebo group (Panahi and colleagues, SKINmed, 2015), and reviewers note small samples and non-standard measures (Paiewonsky and colleagues, 2023). A trial in a hair condition can't support a cosmetic claim, and growth is not a cosmetic claim. | For scent, scalp feel and, as an extract, antioxidant protection, with its allergens declared on the label. |
| Castor oil | Little to no clinical support for hair growth, and reports of acute hair felting, where hair mats into a tangle (Paiewonsky and colleagues, 2023). | For gloss and slip, blended with lighter oils to tame its thick, sticky feel. |
| Batana oil | Evidence is limited: we found no published clinical studies of batana oil on hair. | As a rich conditioning oil, with its botanical source, traceable supply and specification confirmed for each supplier. |
| Rice water | Limited clinical data for hair growth (Azhar, 2023). | As rice extracts or hydrolysed rice protein for softness and body, in a preserved, challenge-tested formula, never as raw fermented water. |
| Onion | One small study of crude onion juice in 38 people with a hair condition, and crude onion juice can irritate skin or trigger allergic reactions (Azhar, 2023). | As a standardised extract, with its sulphur odour masked and patch-test data in the safety file. |
The medicines boundary
Some actives can't go into a cosmetic at all. Minoxidil is a licensed medicine and is prohibited in cosmetic products in the EU and Great Britain. We develop cosmetic scalp care only, and screen every formula against the prohibited and restricted lists for each market when the specification is agreed.
Blending hair oils and building scalp serums phase by phase
- Specify. We agree the specification with you: ingredients and grades, claims, pack, markets and shelf life, with every ingredient screened against each market's annexes.
- Approve suppliers. Every material comes from a supplier approved before use and reviewed every year.
- Weigh and blend. Oils are blended with their antioxidant. Serums are built phase by phase, with heat-sensitive actives added as the batch cools. Scrubs have their particles dispersed into the base last.
- Check in process. Appearance, odour, viscosity, fill weight and, for water-based products, pH are checked against the specification.
- Fill and label. Products are filled into droppers, nozzles, pumps or jars and labelled, and labels are verified on every batch.
- Test, retain and release. Every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025) as part of every order, three retained samples per batch are kept for shelf life plus one year, and every batch is released by quality control against its specification.
Packs for scalp and hair
The pack decides how a scalp product reaches the skin. Serums and tonics go into droppers or nozzle applicators that part the hair, oils into amber glass or barrier plastics filled with low headspace, scrubs into jars or tubes, and shampoos into bottles with pumps or flip caps. Every pack passes compatibility testing with your formula before we approve it, and every unit carries its batch code and either a best before date or a period-after-opening symbol, set by the stability results.
CPSR, stability and claims tests for scalp products
Before launch, every product has a cosmetic product safety report (CPSR), signed by a qualified safety assessor who weighs each ingredient's expected exposure against its safety data. Scalp products are often left on and massaged in, and essential oils and exfoliating acids raise the risk of irritation, so the assessor reviews their levels and sets any label warnings. We run the test programme with accredited partner laboratories:
- Stability in the final pack, accelerated and real-time, tracking separation, colour, odour, pH, viscosity and, for oils, oxidation.
- Compatibility between formula and pack, because oils and essential oils can swell, stress or pass through some plastics and dropper bulbs.
- Challenge testing to ISO 11930 for every product that contains water, such as serums, tonics and shampoos. Anhydrous oils can qualify as low microbiological risk under ISO 29621.
- Microbiology on finished product, against the limits your specification sets.
- Claims tests, arranged with specialist partners: patch tests under dermatological supervision, consumer perception tests, and instrumental tests of shine, combing and breakage.
We make every product in our Leicester facility, which is ISO 9001 certified by BSI, and the certificate's scope includes cosmetics. Our quality and accreditations page sets out the detail.
Your scalp care product file
Each product comes with its documents: the agreed specification, a certificate of analysis for every batch, the stability, compatibility and challenge test reports, the CPSR, and the product information file built with you for your Responsible Person. Claims test reports join the file when you commission them, and we check label and claims copy for each market you sell in.
Why scalp care can't promise hair growth in the UK, EU or US
A cosmetic cleans, perfumes, protects, changes the appearance of or keeps the hair and scalp in good condition. A claim to grow hair points to a medicine in every market below, so we build scalp care and its claims as cosmetics from the first brief. As of October 2026:
- Great Britain. A UK Responsible Person, a CPSR and notification through the SCPN service before sale. UK advertising rules class promises to end hair loss as likely medicinal claims, so UK copy stays with scalp comfort, hair condition and the look of fuller hair.
- European Union and Northern Ireland. A Responsible Person in the EU, or in Northern Ireland for that market, a CPSR and notification through the CPNP. EU labels now list each of around 80 fragrance allergens present above set levels, which matters for hair oils rich in essential oils, so we write labels to the longer list from the start.
- United States. A product sold to grow hair or stop hair loss is a drug that needs FDA approval, so US scalp care stays cosmetic on the label and in its marketing. Cosmetics need facility registration and product listing under MoCRA. Our FDA registration covers dietary supplements, so we register our Leicester facility under MoCRA as US scalp care programmes start.
Cosmetic claims stay strong when they are specific and tested: "nourishes the scalp", "reduces breakage from brushing", "hair looks thicker" backed by fibre measurements, "soothes a dry, tight-feeling scalp". We write each claim into the specification and the test plan before the first sample. Start your project with your product, claims and markets.
References: Panahi and colleagues, SKINmed (2015); Azhar, Cutis (2023); Paiewonsky and colleagues, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology (2023); Rele and Mohile, Journal of Cosmetic Science (2003); Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products (2009); Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 on fragrance allergen labelling (2023); US Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 310.527 (current text, 2026); ASA and CAP, advice on hair and hair loss (2026).
Where this is going
To 2030
Up: scalp-first hair care and hair-density topicals keep growing, helped by hair concerns among people using GLP-1 medicines
To 2036
Up: new prescription options such as clascoterone widen the hair-density market
What to watch
Prescription entrants and minoxidil compete with cosmetic topicals; regrowth claims are medicines territory
Questions brands ask
Can a cosmetic scalp serum claim to grow hair?
No. As of October 2026, a claim to grow hair points to a medicine in the UK, the EU and the US: in the US, a product sold to grow hair is a drug that needs FDA approval, and UK advertising rules class promises to end hair loss as likely medicinal claims. Cosmetic scalp serums can claim scalp comfort, hair condition and fuller-looking hair. We write each claim into the specification and back it with tests, such as fibre measurements for thicker-looking hair.
Can you make a private label hair oil?
Yes. We develop and make custom hair oils, from pre-wash and scalp massage oils to light finishing oils, built to your brief rather than a stock blend. We choose the oils for how they act on the fibre, add antioxidants against rancidity, and test stability in your final pack. Your formula is yours, with its specification and data, and R&D is a paid stage that can be included with an order of the right size.
What can we claim for a rosemary hair oil?
Cosmetic claims only, such as scent, scalp feel and hair condition, each backed by tests. Rosemary is the most studied of the trending hair oils, and the evidence is still thin: the trial the dermatology reviews cite ran for six months in 100 adults with a hair condition, with no placebo group, and reviewers note small samples and non-standard measures. A trial like that can't support a cosmetic claim. We also declare rosemary's fragrance allergens on the label.
Can you put minoxidil or other medicines in a scalp serum?
No. Minoxidil is a licensed medicine and is prohibited in cosmetic products in the EU and Great Britain. We develop cosmetic scalp care only, built on actives such as niacinamide, panthenol, peptides and botanical extracts. Every formula is screened against the prohibited and restricted ingredient lists for each market when the specification is agreed, the safety assessor reviews the levels, and every claim is checked against the line between cosmetics and medicines before launch.
How do you test scalp serums and hair oils?
With accredited partner laboratories, we test stability in the final pack, compatibility between formula and pack, and preservation. Products that contain water, such as serums, tonics and shampoos, are challenge tested to ISO 11930, while anhydrous oils can qualify as low microbiological risk under ISO 29621. Every product has a safety report signed by a qualified assessor, and claims tests such as patch tests and combing or shine measurements are arranged with specialist partners.
Can you make Korean-style scalp care?
Yes. We develop scalp tonics, ampoules, pre-wash scalp exfoliators and gentle shampoos in the layered Korean style, made in Leicester. We keep the routine, the light textures and the sensory feel, and match each pack to how the step is used: droppers and nozzles for tonics and ampoules, tubes for exfoliators and pumps for shampoos. A claim approved in Korea doesn't carry over to other markets, so we rewrite the claims for the UK, the EU and the US.
Can you make scalp care for the US market?
Yes. As of October 2026, US cosmetics need facility registration and product listing under MoCRA, with safety records held by the responsible person named on the label. Our FDA registration is a food facility registration for dietary supplements, so we register our Leicester facility under MoCRA as US scalp care programmes start. US claims stay cosmetic, because growth claims make a product a drug.
Start your project
Tell us what you want to make. Every project starts with a conversation about your product, your customers and your markets.