How to Find the Right Ingredients: 5 Ways to get the Most out of Covalo

Now that you’ve discovered Covalo, the most comprehensive search platform for personal and home care ingredients, you’re probably wondering — how do I quickly filter through thousands of ingredients to find the right ones for my formulation? Fortunately, we’ve made this guide to help you successfully navigate your way around Covalo. With the following tips, you’ll be able to save yourself a lot of time and hassle when looking for the right ingredients for your personal care or consumer care products.

1. Exploratory search

• Search by INCI, characteristic, trademark name, or even phrase.
• Bookmark your favorite ingredients.
• View a list of your most recent searches.

First, the most straightforward way to hunt for the perfect ingredient — the search box. There are actually a lot of very neat features hidden in this narrow bar! You might start off by searching for the trademark name, INCI or even the common name of whatever you’re looking for. But if you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for, you could also try typing in a characteristic or a phrase. Covalo's search box helps you along the way with common keyword suggestions as soon as you start typing something in. As you play around with this feature, you’ll soon begin to see that it’s just as user-friendly as searching with Google.

Once you’ve found an ingredient that seems like a potential match, you can also bookmark it by clicking on the star. Covalo's bookmark function allows you to create your own personal database of all your favorite, go-to ingredients for future searches. Use it as a home base for ingredients you’ve already considered in the past or ingredients that are in your upcoming a formulation concept. There’s also a rewind feature that allows you to view a list of your most recent searches. You can find it by clicking on the clock next to the search box.

2. Industry-relevant filters

• Filter by company, function, performance claim, application, chemical group and more.
• Sort filters A-Z or by prevalence.

Let’s say you’re a formulator for a beauty brand and you’re looking for specialized ingredients for a new skincare product. If you already have a concept in mind — for example, an anti-aging skin cream — the filter function allows you to zoom in on only the ingredients that fit your specific needs. You can focus on industry segment, company, function, performance claim, application, chemical group, and regulatory certification.

3. Sustainability filters

• Filter by sustainability certification such as COSMOS, NATRUE and RSPO.
• Search by sustainability keywords, like “organic”.
• Filter by sustainability claims such as “natural” and “vegan”. 

Ingredient sustainability is an attribute we aim to prioritize here at Covalo, so we’ve created a special sustainability filter for products that need to comply with certification regulations for natural and organic labeling. We currently offer the filters  COSMOS, NATRUE,  RSPO, Leaping Bunny, ISO 16128 and Vegan Society, but more certifications are in development. You can also search with sustainability filters, such as “vegan”, “natural” or “palm oil free”, to find the ingredients you desire, or alternatively by a specific keyword — “organic”, for example — if a sustainability filter is not yet available. At Covalo, we only label products as sustainable or natural when a supplier of chemicals uses those words to market their products.

4. Compare different products

• Compare ingredients from different suppliers or different ingredients from the same supplier.
• Add ingredients to your compare list as you search.

We know how essential it is to be able to compare products when deciding between several options. That’s why we’ve also built a compare function on our platform, which conveniently compares ingredients side-by-side, allowing you to make the best choice for your needs.

Click on the compare button on the right hand side, and add up to four ingredients to your compare list. And it doesn’t stop there! You can continue searching for more ingredients by typing in different keywords or using filters, and Covalo will save the ingredients you’ve selected to compare.

Once you have your list, just click on the compare button to see the ingredients side-by-side. If you’d like to differentiate between several similar ingredients, check the ‘show only differences’ radio button under ‘Compare products’. This feature displays only the product attributes that set the ingredients apart.

5. Trends dashboard

• Discover the most searched terms on Covalo from the last 30 days.
• View the top five most popular products on Covalo from the last 30 days.

The Trends dashboard gives an overview of real-time trends, directly aggregated from Covalo. Here we update you on what people most frequently search for on Covalo with our simple overview of the “most searched terms on Covalo”. Furthermore, you can view exclusive insights about what the most popular products on Covalo are.

As the most the most innovative chemical ingredients search platform for formulators, product developers, and marketeers in the personal care and consumer care industry, Covalo is built to meet your needs and desires. We strive to make your life easier and that’s why we love to receive feedback from our customers. If you have any other questions that aren’t answered in our FAQ, please get in touch with us or share your ideas with us so that we can make Covalo the greatest personal and consumer care industry tool out there.

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Disclaimer: The information provided (on our blog) is accurate to the best of our knowledge, however, there may be errors. As a neutral organization, we at Covalo do not advocate or promote certain products or ingredients on our platform as better than others. The Site may contain (or you may be sent through the Site) links to other websites or content belonging to or originating from third parties or links to websites and features in banners or other advertising. Such external links are not investigated, monitored, or checked for accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness by us. For more information on our blog, contact social@covalo.com