LIMS secures QA/QC cosmetics, exit Excel

The cosmetics laboratory of Delarange Cosmetics in Zeewolde recently put a LIMS into use, where Excel previously was used. The quality assurance was thus raised to a higher level, according to QA/QC manager Hans Elzinga: “We notice that our customers’ confidence in our company has increased even more.”

Lip balms, cleansing lotions, masks, scrubs and wart pens. These are some examples of the products that pass by the laboratory of Delarange Cosmetics in Zeewolde every day. The company with, over one hundred employees, produces some six hundred different cosmetics and medical devices for brands such as Rituals, Zwitsal, Hema and Etos. All these products must, of course, be tested regularly in the lab. In order to better guarantee the quality of all these tests, the company recently started using iVention’s iLES LIMS.

Quality checks 
In all Delarange laboratories quality control is central, in relation to raw materials, intermediate products, end products and products in development. Elzinga explains: “In total we have four laboratories, where fourteen people are employed. At our warehouse we have an entrance control lab, where we check the quality of all incoming raw materials. We also have a QC laboratory for the necessary quality checks during and after production, a microbiological laboratory to check for microbiological contamination, and finally an R&D laboratory, where we develop new products.” Partly, the quality checks involve simple physical and chemical determinations, such as a pH measurement, a density measurement and a viscosity measurement. In addition, a number of organoleptic determinations are made. Elzinga explains: “With cosmetics, it is of course very important how something smells, what color it has and how it feels. Our employees are trained to recognize smell, color and feel and to describe them in a good way. We also have equipment to measure color, but the human eyes are always more sensitive than such a device. Our staff can also judge very well what to do if something is not quite the right color, for example.

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