Cosmetic chemists make the beauty products consumers know and love, but they’ve largely stayed hidden from public view, toiling behind the lab bench for beauty brands that aren’t theirs. That’s changing.
Adriana Zhamo is the latest cosmetic chemist to venture to the brand side. Also a chemical engineer, she’s launched Everyday Chemist with her daughter Flavia, founder of boutique cosmetic development firm EC Studios. Adriana joins fellow cosmetic chemists Ron Robinson (BeautyStat), Javon Ford (Javon Ford Beauty), Stephen Alain Ko (Poems From The Lab), Ginger King (FanLoveBeauty) and Alex Padgett (Educated Mess), among others, in becoming a brand founder.
“I love the idea of cosmetic chemists starting their own brands,” says Adriana. “They have the knowledge and expertise to understand what it takes to develop a great product. The cosmetic industry is highly competitive and presents numerous challenges, but having the technical knowledge allows chemists to navigate these challenges in ways other brand founders cannot. This enables them to create products that are rooted in science rather than marketing.”
As a teenager in Canada, Albanian-born Flavia, previously in the co-working industry as head of sales at East Room and community and business manager at WeWork, dealt with eczema due to harsh weather conditions and later she battled acne. Turning to Accutane to fight the acne, her lips became severely dry, a side effect of the powerful medication. To remedy the dryness, she purchased every product she could at every price imaginable, from Aquaphor to Chanel, but they didn’t fully do the trick.
Flavia turned to a resource most don’t have—her cosmetic chemist mom—to produce a product that could do the trick. “I created Lip Grease for her in 2012 while she was on Accutane, and it quickly became a hit with our friends and family,” says Adriana. “My goal has always been to heal and support my daughter in any ventures she wanted to pursue, and this was something I could contribute to with my background and experience.”
Lip Grease is a lightweight $15 balm with vitamin C, kukui seed oil, hyaluronic acid and L22, a mixture of macadamia, jojoba and squalene oils. “I called it that because it looked like grease to me. I thought it was a unique name, but many people told me not to name it that because it gave way to a dirty feeling,” says Flavia. “I’m glad I listened to my intuition because, when I hear customers speak about it, they always call it the ‘Grease’ and never a lip balm.”
For years after Adriana whipped up Lip Grease, she and Flavia didn’t manufacture it in significant numbers or pound the pavement to get it into retailers. Instead, Flavia packed free samples into pots to hand out to friends and family. “I always gave it away because I just wanted to help people while making something that felt nice,” she says.
“Everyday Chemist was a blank canvas for my creativity and expertise, and this freedom enabled me to innovate without compromise.”
A decade went by, and Flavia concluded she should get serious about Lip Grease’s business. She recalls, “So many friends and family were asking to purchase it, so I thought it was the perfect time to package it nicely and finally start Everyday Chemist.”
Flavia invested 6,500 Canadian dollars or roughly $4,700 based on the current exchange rate for photography, packaging and ingredients to bring Everyday Chemist to life. She admits launching a skincare brand without substantial capital was challenging.
“It’s such a small amount of money to invest in a beauty startup, and I realize it is impossible for most people to pull off,” she says. “My mom, the chief scientific officer at our company, EC Studios, helped a lot, and because we formulated and manufactured everything ourselves, that saved a huge chunk of money. I called in a lot of favors. Relationships really are everything.”
Adriana’s approach to formulating for Everyday Chemist isn’t that different from her approach to formulating for clients. “But since it’s our brand, I have fewer limitations and more autonomy,” she says. “Everyday Chemist was a blank canvas for my creativity and expertise, and this freedom enabled me to innovate without compromise.”
Rather than pouring thousands upon thousands of dollars into branding, Flavia keeps everything in-house with a graphic designer and learns what she can handle before hiring outside assistance. “I usually have a vision for how I want something to look,” she says. “For example, I knew I wanted the logo to be a wave that represents the constant movement of life because life is up and down, and your skin can be, too. I took several courses around design thinking and building for sustainability.”
At the moment, Flavia estimates she dedicates 70% of her time to EC Studios and 30% to Everyday Chemist. The two businesses run as separate entities, but the plan is to combine them.
“All our products are purposeful with a double meaning and named for a literal sense.”
“Everyday Chemist is going to be the only company we have, and under that name, we will sell products that we make and access our formulation services through the same site,” says Flavia. “It works because both companies are rooted in science-based formulations with craftsmanship and are inspired by nature.”
Everyday Chemist has extended its assortment from Lip Grease to $52 Eye Concentrate and $36 Silky Water, a bi-phase body serum infused with seawater from France. As a kid in Albania, being close to the ocean was healing for her eczema, and Flavia was intent on making a product that moisturizes the skin with the fresh feeling of seawater. Silky Water’s blue and yellow formula, housed in clear glass, represents where the sea and sky meet.
Flavia says, “All our products are purposeful with a double meaning and named for a literal sense.” Adriana lauds her daughter’s artistic nature and creativity as being key to making the products unique and innovative.
So far, Everyday Chemist’s marketing efforts have been minimal. “I’ve been pretty reliant on word of mouth with it,” says Flavia. “The first two years have been a learning process, and now going into our third year in business, we will push hard on marketing and retail relationships.”
Last year, Everyday Chemist rebranded to the tune of 20,000 Canadian dollars or around $14,500, which boosted sales. However, Flavia acknowledges that sales have been up and down throughout the brand’s tenure. To date, Everyday Chemist has been sold exclusively on its website.
“Originally, we launched with a few face serums and still sell them to our core clients, but I realized I should’ve listened to my mother because they didn’t have a value-add,” recounts Flavia. “Instead, we should have debuted the brand with one hero product like the Lip Grease and add on. There were also some packaging compatibility issues, so we had to pull one of the serums.”
Everyday Chemist has stuck to direct-to-consumer distribution so far because Flavia understands it’s difficult to draw attention to a brand at retail unless the brand has a meaningful amount of money for marketing. “Retailers are where our clients see success, and that’s the path we plan to take,” she says. “It’s more about creating a universe where we can showcase our craftsmanship and, of course, our skill set.”
