Shunga Marketing Director Ron Vaillancourt told XBIZ that his chemist team has years of experience in the cosmetic field, and their work was the result of one of the only flavored lubricants on the market that doesn’t feature an aftertaste, called Aroma, as part of the TOKO line released in 2005.
“At that time, there were not so many flavoured lubricants on the market,” Vaillancourt said. “Everything that was available at that time had bad taste and bad aftertaste. It took many months to create the perfect mix. Our chemist team worked with the best flavours suppliers worldwide to develop its recipe. Over 50 flavored lubricants were developed but only few reached the market after many customer tests.”
Vaillancourt said the chemist team runs quality control and other product testing based on the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines accepted by the FDA, European Costmetic Regulation and Health Canada.
After determining whether there is consumer demand for each new concept, each of which Vaillancourt said often is developed by Shunga President Sylvain Seguin, the team determines the best ingredients to use to create the desired effect — whether it be slickness, sweetness, longevity, etc. — and then the testing phase begins.
“Once the beta product is ready, we run tests in terms of design and liability, making sure the product works,” Vaillancourt said. “Our tests [for TOKO] were run over the course of 15 months to evaluate the product during the many steps of design and development. Shunga continues to distinguish itself from the rest, by being made exclusively from food-grade ingredients, which ensures quality and protects the consumers in the event of consumption and from allergies.”
Shunga products are created in the company’s own factory, he said, which allows it to have complete control over the production process, from design to creation to shipping. The company had distribution facilities in Montreal, New York and Paris.