Profile: Demystifying the Skincare Industry with Sound Science

Skincare is one of those areas that tends to overwhelm consumers when they are actively searching for new products to incorporate into their routine. It is especially difficult when you’re uncertain as to which ingredients are right for your skin and whether the (often expensive) products will be worth the investment. With their brand Chemist Confessions, two chemical engineers — Victoria Fu and Gloria Lu — are clarifying the mysteries of skincare and educating audiences about the often overly complex beauty industry.

Victoria grew up in Spring, TX, and majored in chemical engineering at the Univ. of California, San Diego. Gloria, on the other hand, grew up in Atlanta, GA, and received her education in the same field from Cornell Univ. Not wanting to go down the traditional route of process engineering, they entered the beauty industry and worked as skincare chemists. Victoria worked for Kiehl’s, where she eventually began specializing in anti-aging products. Gloria worked on actives — i.e., ingredients that are intended to target and address a specific skin concern — with brands such as SkinCeuticals. While working for these brands in a lab at L’Oréal, the two met and quickly became friends when they realized that they shared the same passion for user-friendly, transparent skincare.

After four years of working in corporate positions, they left their jobs and began educating individuals through their Chemist Confessions Instagram account, which snowballed and grew into a blog, podcast, skincare line, and book, Skincare Decoded. Their blogposts cover a variety of topics, with catchy titles like “The Chemist’s Guide to Fighting Wrinkles,” and “Decoding Moisturizer Ingredients.” Their skincare line consists of a variety of products, from moisturizers to treatments. Their work and unique perspective have been featured in the media, in such outlets as NPR, Vogue, and The New York Times.

According to the Chemist Confessions website (chemistconfessions.com), good skincare is rooted in sound science. They believe that their platform should serve as a means to skincare education, and they lean on their chemical engineering background to help create meaningful formulas with safe and effective ingredients...