1. Technical and administrative assistance

Please contact us by email at hello@schoolofnaturalskincare.com about any of the issues listed below. This is the fastest way to get these issues resolved. A member of our team checks emails each business day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).

• Your account.
• The credit system.
• Accessing classes and resources within the Club.
• Technical issues with accessing materials or with logging into the Club.
• Your assignments (if applicable).
• Joining the community or Formulators’ Forum.
• The emails you receive.
• Any feedback you wish to share with us.

Please note that tutor support by email is not included in your membership. Tutor support is provided via our monthly tutor Q&As and you can find further details of this below.

2. Tutor support

Membership of the Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club is designed to enhance your formulating knowledge through a series of self-study resources, classes and courses, building your theoretical and practical learning. 

From our many years of experience teaching online, independent, self-study courses, we know how important it is to have support when you are learning and we really want our members to have somewhere where they can get reliable responses to their questions. 

As such, our expert team of Cosmetic Scientists provide an exclusive monthly Q&A for members of the Club.

We want the Club to be a place where members can broaden their knowledge and increase their understanding of natural cosmetic formulation, and we will do that by providing relevant, up-to-date information, from industry professionals.  

We provide the monthly Tutor Q&A to answer questions on the topics covered within the Club so please ensure that your questions relate to a course, class, formulation or resource from within the Club.

If you want a greater level of tutor support then we suggest enrolling on one of the courses we run at the School of Natural Skincare. These courses include a weekly Tutor Q&A where students can have two questions answered each week.

Tutor Q&A schedule

At any time throughout the month, you can submit a question to our Cosmetic Scientists.

The cut off to submit your question will be the last Thursday of each month. Any question submitted after this time will be considered the following month. The selected questions will be answered on the first Friday of each month. The answers will be posted anonymously within the Club, so that all members can benefit from the shared knowledge.

Each Club member is invited to submit one or two questions each month and our Cosmetic Scientists will choose a selection of questions to answer. They will do their best to select fairly and answer the questions they feel will be of most use and interest, to the greatest number of members. We will aim to answer between 15 and 20 questions each month, on average.

If your question is not selected, we suggest taking a look at the Q&A Vault found within each class or course in the Club. It is possible that this question has been asked before and is stored in the Vault. 

Occasionally there may be a slight delay in our response time due to staff leave, public holidays, etc. Where possible, we will do our best to communicate this to our members in advance. 

Scope of support

Our tutors are professional Cosmetic Scientists who will answer members’ questions relating to a course, class, formulation or resource from within the Club. 

This means that they will not provide support for topics which fall outside the scope of Club content. 

Tutors may provide troubleshooting advice for specific formulae if they deem that the information will be useful to the Club community in general. 

Topics that are outside the scope of the tutor Q&A and therefore will not be answered include (but are not limited to):

• Creating or rewriting formulations on your behalf.
• Advice on legal matters such as regulations and legislation.
• Detailed feedback on, or an assessment of, your formulations.

Remember that if your question is not selected, you can consult the Q&A Vault found within each class or course in the Club. Frequently asked questions are stored within the Vaults and it is always worth checking here for information. 

Extent of support

We strive to provide fair access to support to all of our members.

Extensive, personalized or one-to-one tutor support is not included with your membership and should not be expected. 

Tutors will select which questions to answer at their discretion. They will aim to ensure that the questions selected each month are of most use and interest to the greatest number of members possible, and that questions are selected from a range of members. 

The amount of support we offer is entirely at our discretion. We may limit the number of questions we answer each month or change the frequency of support. 

Resources available to you

Many questions can be answered using these resources:

• The Club materials.​ The content is extensive and you will be able to find the answers to many questions within the Club itself. You can always ask your fellow members in the Club's Facebook group if you are not sure where to look.
• Q&A Vaults. Located within each class and/or course in the Club. Here, you will find a range of previously asked questions which may help you.
• The search function and tags function within Facebook.​ You can search in the members-only Facebook group for key words to bring up previous discussions. The tags function allows you to bring up all posts on a particular topic.
• Your suppliers.​ Specific questions about ingredients or equipment are often most appropriate to direct towards the suppliers themselves.
• Yourself! There will be many times that you will need to do your own research or experimentation.​ In order to become a confident and knowledgeable skincare formulator you’ll need to try formulations out for yourself. We know it can feel daunting sometimes, but in formulating it really is often a case of ‘practice makes perfect’.

3. Peer support provided in our private Facebook community and live monthly Formulators’ Forum

By joining our online communities (the Facebook group and/or the live online Formulators’ Forum) you can receive encouragement and advice from other members, in a friendly and supportive environment. We really hope that you will love being part of our communities and that you find the contributions there valuable. These guidelines will help to make the communities a great environment for all of us. We reserve the right to remove members who fail to follow the guidelines from the communities.

The purpose of the communities:

• A place for peer-to-peer support. Ask questions and reply to other members’ questions related to the topics covered within the Club.
• To get to know other members.
• To share your formulating experience with other members. 
• To provide a source of inspiration and encouragement.
• To share achievements and wins.

The communities are not for:

• Promotion of your products or brand, or any other businesses.
• Tutor support. A monthly Tutor Q&A is provided within the Club classroom (more details about how to access this can be found above).
• Customer service support. If you wish to share feedback with us or have questions about your account, accessing the Club, technical issues, assignments, etc these should be sent by email to hello@schoolofnaturalskincare.com so we can help you most efficiently. 

Code of conduct

Respect and tolerance are at the heart of everything we do at the School of Natural Skincare. We have written this code of conduct for members of our Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club, to help everyone understand the values and behaviors we expect from our members within our communities, as well as those that are not accepted.

Be kind and courteous

It’s our aim for our communities to be welcoming environments. We expect members to treat others with respect, kindness and courtesy.

Racism, bullying and hate speech will not be tolerated

It is important to us that our School, Club and communities are inclusive, diverse and anti-racist and a place where everyone feels safe and valued. Racism, bullying or hate speech of any kind will not be tolerated. 

Be open-minded

We are all here to learn. Be open-minded in your treatment of others, embrace and celebrate our differences and be willing to learn new information and/or ways of doing things.

Help each other

We know that our members have a lot of knowledge to share. If you can see another member is struggling or is unsure – reach out to them. A kind and encouraging comment on someone’s post can really boost their mood and confidence. 

Respect everyone’s privacy

Posts, comments and discussions that take place within our communities must not be shared outside the community. Respect the confidentiality of other members’ formulations and products.

Please note that opinions and information shared by community members are the opinion of that individual. We moderate the Facebook group to the best of our ability but we do not vet all responses and answers provided by others or links to third parties. We may delete posts or delete comments at our discretion, included but not limited to those that are about topics outside of the scope of the Club, other businesses, or anything we deem unsuitable.

Joining and posting in the Facebook group 

When you join the Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club, we will invite you to join the Club's private Facebook community, exclusively for our members. You will need to answer all the questions before we can approve your request to join. Our team checks requests from Monday to Friday and will usually accept your request within two working days.

To keep the community a safe, enjoyable and useful space which supports you during your membership, an admin from the Club approves/disapproves all posts from members. 

When joining our Facebook community, you will be asked to agree to our Facebook membership rules and will need to agree to the rules in order to be admitted. If you ever need to revisit the rules, you will find them in the ‘About’ section of the community. 

We will only approve posts that fall within the criteria provided. We may delete comments that we deem break these guidelines and we reserve the right to remove members from the community who repeatedly fail to follow the guidelines.

Posting guidelines:

• For peer-to-peer support you can post a question in the community and ask your fellow members for help. Please do not tag the School of Natural Skincare or Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club team in these posts. The purpose of the Facebook community is to reach out and discuss topics with other members, rather than communicating with the Club team. 
• We encourage members to help each other – there is a wealth of knowledge to be found in the group! If you have experience or knowledge to contribute and can help another member, please do so. 

Formulators’ Forum

On the last Thursday of each month, you will have the opportunity to meet fellow members at our Formulators’ Forum. 

These live, online sessions will be hosted by the School of Natural Skincare and offer an opportunity to come together to discuss topics that are important to your formulating studies. You will be able to connect with each other, ask questions and learn from one another’s experiences. 

We hope that you love being a member of the Natural Cosmetic Formulation Club. It is true that in order to provide our members with a fair service, we are required to set boundaries and guidelines around support. However, if you are really struggling or need to clarify something to do with your membership, we would always much rather you got in touch. Our customer service team and student experience team can be reached at hello@schoolofnaturalskincare.com and they are always happy to help.