When you go through college and get a degree in science, you can rest assured that you are taking the hardest courses that the university offers. I suppose there are a few math majors who might disagree but there is so much overlap that I feel confident in my claim. You can’t be a good science student without also taking a lot of math.

Anyway, this means that the people who can get through these science courses are usually the smartest ones coming out of college. And if you were like me, you thought that the smartest people would get the best jobs and make the most money. Unfortunately, they don’t.

Want to make a lot of money?

If making a ton of money your primary concern, you will be disappointed with a job in cosmetic chemistry. Switch to Finance or Marketing or some other business major and get a job in those fields. That’s where the big money is. Of course, to someone with an interest in science, those jobs may also be incredibly dull and unfulfilling.

Realities of cosmetic R&D

Ok, now for the good news. Although it’s unlikely that you will quickly become a multimillionare as a cosmetic chemist, you can still make an excellent salary that gives you a comfortable life. The job is also a relatively low stress one and the demand is high enough that unemployment is pretty low.

Wonder what salary you might make?

Well, it will vary around the country (and the world) but this report from Happi magazine of the 2011 R&D Salary survey is a pretty good snapshot of what you can expect.

Some highlights…

Cosmetic chemist salaries

Here are the average annual salaries in the US for people who get jobs in the cosmetic R&D field.

Lab Technician = $43,000
Chemist / formulator = $58,000
Senior Chemist = $83,000
R&D Manager = $101,000
R&D Director = $110,000

Starting right out of college you can expect to get a job as a technician or chemist so that is your salary range.

Cosmetic chemist job frustrations

Another interesting aspect of the survey was the job frustrations. I remember feeling all of these in my cosmetic science career.

1. Lack of advancement
2. Internal office politics
3. Inadequate compensation
4. Inadequate project funding
5. Regulatory issues
6. Pressures from marketing department

Other tidbits

There were a few other things in the report which are interesting.

1. Salaries for chemists outside of the US are typically lower.
2. Women make only slightly less than men (but still less)
3. Most (48%) cosmetic chemists have Bachelor’s degrees. 27% have Master’s degrees, and 14% had PHDs. 6% did not have college degrees.

It’s an interesting survey and a pretty good reflection of what you can expect when entering the job market as an R&D worker in the cosmetic industry.

We just received word that the University of Toledo will be starting a new Pharmaceutics/Cosmetic Science Major in the fall of 2012.

This will be a four-year degreed program that will result in a BS. in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

For a list of the courses in the curriculum, see this list.

This is a new program but it promises to be a good one. I know they have been in contact with industry professionals to help develop the curriculum.

The first class is going to consist of between 30 and 40 students. If you are interested in more information you can contact Ken Alexander by email Kalexan@utnet.utoledo.edu or Ms Crystal Taylor at crystal.taylor@utoledo.edu for further information.

See this post for more information about other cosmetic science programs.

While this site is primarily about the science of cosmetics, it is also about helping future chemists get cosmetic science jobs. If fact, we have a whole section of articles about cosmetic chemist careers.

So, whenever we hear of opportunities we like to post them and give people a chance to land a cosmetic science job. Here are a couple that we have recently been alerted to.

Cosmetic Science Internship

There is an Intern skincare/cosmetic formulation position open at Amway Research and Development. They are located in Ada Michigan and are looking for someone who is an Undergrad or Graduate level student with training in a Cosmetic Science curriculum. Skincare or cosmetic laboratory experience is highly preferred. Candidate must
have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and one semester or more left of school to complete at the beginning of their internship. Candidates who have graduated are not eligible to intern.

For more information contact Dr. Paul Seehra (paul.seehra @ amway.com) or see the Amway website.

Cosmetic science jobs

If you’re looking for an opportunity in R&D at a large cosmetic manufacturing company, you’ll be interested to know that Kao USA is hiring.  They have several positions available in skin care product development including Senior Scientist, Scientist, and Technician.  For people just starting out in the cosmetic industry, the Technician position would be an excellent place to begin.  Incidentally, these jobs are located in Cincinnati, OH.

If you’re interested, send us a message here and we’ll forward to the appropriate people.

More cosmetic science jobs

For more cosmetic science opportunities, be sure to see the various Society of Cosmetic Chemist websites.  They often have job postings.  Click the following link to go to a complete list of the SCC Chapters.

This is a guest blog post written by cosmetic chemist Mica Oba. She is currently an undergraduate in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and spent some time working with a contract manufacturer in the Bay Area (California). You can read more from her on her blog Lily x Ren.

For this guest post on Chemists Corner, I decided to dedicate this to the future cosmetic chemists—to the high school students and undergraduates who read this blog.

Becoming a cosmetic chemist

As an undergraduate, I understand how difficult it can be to get your foot into the industry. I have been struggling with that problem since my senior year in high school. I emailed cosmetic companies around my area (Northern California) for internships. At one point, during the beginning of my junior year in college, I was offered an internship, but a month later they told me that they could no longer offer me the position. As discouraging as that situation was, I picked myself up and continued inquiring about internships with other companies. Finally after years of persistence, I was lucky enough to be offered an internship position with a company in my area.

So what did I do in that span of four years before obtaining my internship? Acquiring a B.S. in chemistry and applying for positions in the industry or graduate schools are a given, but here are some other things I did to prepare myself for a job in cosmetic chemistry.

Network, Network, Network

I cannot emphasize networking enough. I think a big mistake a lot of undergraduates make is keeping to themselves and waiting to network until after graduation. I think it’s important for undergraduates to realize that not only can you network with people in the industry or from academia, but also with your classmates. It’s good to network with a variety of majors aside from chemists. Networking with biology, business, art, design and communications majors is a great idea. Remember that getting a product out onto the market is a collaborative effort and takes more than just chemists. Be sure to keep networking with a variety of people in other fields even after you graduate.

Power of the Internet

The internet also makes it easy to network with people around the globe! My blog and Twitter alone has put me in contact with a lot of cosmetic chemists that I never would have been able to network with had it not been for the internet (Perry for example!) Sometimes people will leave their e-mails in comments on other people’s blogs. I’ve made contacts this way as well. Networking doesn’t even need to lead to a collaboration. Contacts can share their experiences with you, give their opinions, and even inspire you. Even if a contact cannot have a job for you right away, keeping in touch with this person may present a new opportunity down the line. If you decide to utilize social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to network with people in the industry, be sure to present yourself as professionally as possible.

Sign up for a cosmetic seminar or class

In the second year of my undergraduate career, I was becoming more and more anxious to learn about cosmetic chemistry. I spent my freshman year talking to counselors about opportunities around my area, but to no avail. I decided to take matters into my own hands and searched online for any seminars or classes I could take. Finally, I found a skincare ingredients seminar taught at UCLA extension. I took both parts of the class, and the experience was both amazing and overwhelming.

I got to meet a lot of different people from the industry, including formulators, lab technicians, estheticians, raw material suppliers and even dermatologists. I also learned the basics, like reading ingredient decks, interpreting marketing ads and skin anatomy. Seminars and classes similar to this are great ways to expose yourself as to what the industry is like. Aside from doing online seminars and classes, I would recommend doing some of them in person. From experience, and what everyone else in this industry will tell you, I’d like to say again that networking is key. Live seminars and classes will give you this opportunity.

And trust me, I know that networking sounds scary the first time. It was definitely frightening for me to talk to anyone at the first UCLA meeting since almost everyone there was already a part of the industry. You can see that these classes not only taught me the basics, but also gave me my first opportunity to work on my networking skills!

Self-teaching

If you can’t afford to take a class or it’s difficult to travel, you can teach yourself a lot about cosmetics on the internet. Aside from this blog, I often frequent specialchem4cosmetics.com and The Beauty Brains. Specialchem has a really great INCI directory and has other great resources.

The UCLA teacher, Rebecca James Gadberry, really inspired me to self-study most of what I know. Even after coming home from the lab, I always looked up MSDS’s or articles about ingredients I used that day so I could understand their function in the product. I also enjoy reading a lot of scientific literature about skin biology. I remember Rebecca talked about educating herself using a variety of resources, such as chemistry and biology books as well as the internet like Youtube videos or even Wikipedia. I personally find Wikipedia a great resource for scientific information.

Seek cosmetic related opportunities

If you have time to get a part time job, one thing you can do is to work at a cosmetic counter in a department store, or get a position at a retail store. Not only will this experience help you to understand what customers these days are looking for, but you can also learn a lot about the latest trends and advancements. To make the most out of this experience, I would definitely recommend doing your own research about new innovations in the industry so you can educate yourself on the science behind it (or lack thereof).

Internships

In addition, if you are at a research university you could try to get an internship related to skin biology or polymer chemistry. Polymer chemistry research could be helpful for understanding the thermodynamic concept of emulsions, but such extensive knowledge is honestly not that necessary for formulations. If you think you wouldn’t mind working for a raw supplies company, however, research dealing with organic synthesis would be a great experience. As an aside, if you conduct research at your university I highly recommend participating in a scientific conference by giving a Powerpoint or poster presentation. Even presenting at your lab’s group meetings will be helpful in making you comfortable with public speaking, an invaluable skill for this industry.

SCC Student membership

It’s pretty easy and cheap to get a student membership with the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Having a membership will give you full access to their published archives, which is helpful in keeping up with the latest topics. The SCC also gives the opportunity to do poster sessions if you conduct research. If you cannot afford a membership, you will still have access to the job postings on the website. That’s how I found my internship!

Conclusion

Before I conclude this article, I would just like to stress the importance of having a back-up plan. I was very, very fortunate to land an internship with a cosmetic company, and as I mentioned before it took me four years of applying. It is not easy to get into this industry as a fresh graduate. Keep your options open and don’t be afraid to take on positions not directly related to cosmetics. Before acquiring my internship, I was simultaneously researching at a genetics/ecology/evolution lab and inorganic chemistry lab on my campus. I can’t say that my work with Drosophila and fullerenes will have any direct correlation with being a cosmetic chemist, but it definitely taught me the work ethic of being in a laboratory. It also helped me to see that I was much happier working in industry than being involved in research.

I hope that this article was helpful to the future cosmetic chemists. If you have any questions about applying to graduate schools, looking for internships, or would just like to network, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to get back to you! Thank you and I hope to hear from some of you soon!

You can follow Mica on Twitter here.

It’s pretty common to hear people complain that they didn’t like Chemistry in school because it was too hard or too boring. And perhaps the way it was taught to them, this was true. But if you like cooking you really would like cosmetic formulating. There is no other job more similar to formulating than cooking. Here are ways in which they are alike.

Creating Recipes

One of the hallmarks of a good chef is that you have the ability to create a tastey dish from the available raw materials. You pick out the right ratios and mix the ingredients in the right way to create a masterpiece. This is exactly what cosmetic chemists do. But instead of working with ingredients like eggs, flour, and milk, you’re working with raw materials like Glyceryl Stearate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, and Dimethicone Copolyol. And like a chef, you even keep a recipe book. We call it a lab notebook.

Making Recipes

While cooks spend time coming up with recipes, they also spend a lot of time actually creating them. They measure out the ingredients, follow a procedure, mix things together at a certain time using blenders or mixers. They change the temperature by heating in an oven or microwave and cool batches down with ice. Cosmetic chemists do all of these same things. Making a skin lotion requires the same type of emulsification procedure as making a salad dressing. If you can make food, you can make cosmetics.

Evaluating Recipes

A primary skill that a cook has to develop is their sense of taste. They need to become familiar with which flavors go well together and the relative proportions of ingredients when combined with other ones. And while a cosmetic chemist almost never has to eat their products, they do have to use their sense of touch to get a feel for how the cosmetic is interacting with the skin. The skills that a cook develops for evaluating flavors are analogous to the ones you develop as a cosmetic chemist. And both the chemist and cook have to develop a sense of what smells good.

Aesthetics

Finally, a good cook does not just throw the food on the plate but rather they create a plate with some style. This requires them to develop an eye for what will appeal to their consumers. A cosmetic chemist also has to develop a sense of what will appeal to their consumers. They need to know what colors, odors, and feels that consumers want and expect.

If you didn’t think you liked Chemistry but you love Cooking, it’s time to reconsider. Chemistry, just like cooking, is all about putting ingredients together to create new things.

I just read an article which suggested that 2012 will be the year of the skin care formulator. They went on to list a number of different conferences around the world that are focused on formulating products for the skin. Indeed there is a lot of interesting work going on in skin care. But as far as the market goes, skin care products still only make up about 30% of the total market. If you have an interest in a career in cosmetic science, it’s helpful to know all the different types of areas you might focus.

Skin Care formulation

As a skin care formulator you will focus on creating products for the skin. These will include moisturizing lotions for the face, hands and body. Also, anti-aging products designed to get rid of wrinkles. Cleansing products such as facial washes and body washes are another group of products that skin care formulators create. Finally, sun screens are a category of product that skin care formulators work on.

To be a good skin care formulator you need to learn about the biology of skin and become well versed in techniques for creating emulsions since nearly all skin care formulations are emulsions. To become a great skin care formulator you’ll also need to learn a bit about skin biochemistry and all of the active ingredients that are supposed to improve skin condition by affecting chemical pathways in the skin’s natural growth system. It’s a challenging area of study.

Hair care formulations

As a hair care formulator you will focus on developing products that make hair look and feel great and make it easier to style. The majority of hair products sold are shampoos. But you will also need to formulate conditioners, putties, gels, and other hair styling products. Some hair chemists also work on hair colorants.

To be a good hair care formulator you’ll have to develop a good knowledge of hair biology and specifically the composition of the fibers. You’ll also need to learn about the variety of surfactants that work best for cleansing. Hair products do not rely on emulsions as much as skin products because oils are used much less. For hair products of the future you’ll want to keep posted on the developments of active ingredients that can restart hair color or hair growth.

Color cosmetics

Color cosmetics is a specialized area of cosmetic formulation and requires you to have a good appreciation for the properties of the skin surface. Also, you need to know about pigments and the way that they are incorporated into formulations. Color matching tends to be a frequent activity for color cosmetic chemists.

Aerosol formulators

While some cosmetic chemists focus on hair, skin, or color cosmetics, other chemists focus on a packaging type. Specifically, aerosol formulations. These include a variety of products such as hair sprays, sunscreens, antiperspirants, and other aerosol products. If you have an interest in physics this type of formulating might be a good one for you.

It’s difficult to know where the most exciting areas of cosmetic science will be in the coming years but there is still interesting science going on in all areas. To find out what to focus on, dabble in all the areas and find out what is most interesting to you.

We get asked this question a fair amount by people who are in college, high school or are even just interested in starting a new career in cosmetics. Here are some suggestions.

Figure out your objective

The background you need really depends on your objectives and goals. For example, do you want to start your own cosmetic line? Do you want a job working in the lab? Do you want to make a lot of money?

Answers to questions like these are the first thing to figure out because it will help guide your decisions in the future.

Getting a job

If your primary goal is to get a job in the cosmetic field, then you will want to get an undergraduate degree in chemistry. You can study biology if you find it more interesting but it reduces the number of jobs you will be qualified for. You can also study chemical engineering, though your job options may be geared more towards process engineering than cosmetic formulating. In almost all cases, you’ll need at least a 4 year degree in some science to get an R&D job in the cosmetic industry.

In addition to your science degree, it will be good to take electives in marketing and market research. People in these subjects will be the ones who you will be working with closely (and be making decisions that affect you) so it will be helpful to know what they know.

To advance in your career and improve your chances of getting a job, it will help to get an advanced degree in cosmetic science. See our post about cosmetic science programs.

Starting your own line

While a degree in chemistry is the best thing for getting a cosmetic science job, it may not be the best thing to do if you want to start your own line. If you want to start you own cosmetic line, you do not need any degree in particular. In this case you could get a degree in any subject you want. You should take some chemistry and business courses, but you may want to just learn how to start a business. See our free report on how to start a cosmetic line.

To start your own business you need to come up with a business plan, financing, marketing strategy, and figure out how to get the product made and sold. The best way to learn how to do this is to just do it. A college degree will not be terribly useful for being an entrepreneur, and for some people it is a hinderance.

But not everyone can tolerate the lifestyle of an entrepreneur. If you are unsure or worry about your level of passion, you should get a degree, then a job to learn the business, then start your own line once you figure everything out.

There are a number of ways you can start a career in cosmetic chemistry. Getting a degree is the most straightforward route, but if you want to start your own just going out and starting might be the best way to go.

We get lots of career questions about cosmetic chemistry related to salary, how much education you need and how easy it will be to advance in a cosmetic chemist career. So, I thought you might find my experience interesting.

Becoming a cosmetic chemist

When I first started in the cosmetic field (1992) I didn’t have an advanced degree. I came in as a formulating chemist. I had no plans to become a cosmetic chemist while in school rather, I was just looking for a job…any job.

I even remember thinking as I left the interview that working for a “shampoo” company didn’t seem very important. I was a “scientist” after all and i should be using my brain to work on more pressing problems. I figured I’d work there for a couple years then go back and get a PHD. That never happened. Mostly, because I liked the job and had no burning desire to study anything in particular. Also because I got over my arrogance.

My starting salary was low. $26,000 per year. I actually created a bit of a scandal because the offer was for $25,000 a year and I countered them with $28,000. They never had a beginning chemist do anything like that and that story stuck to me for a half dozen years after I was on the job. The R&D VP frequently referred to it whenever he would see me.

But I digress.

Chemists Salary

The truth is if you wanted to make a lot of money, cosmetic chemistry is the wrong field. Jobs in Finance or Stockbrokers or Hedge fund managers make the big bucks. Chemists…not so much. If money is your driver, go get an advanced degree in Finance or something like that. (This is actually a problem in the US as people who would have traditionally gone into science & engineering are chasing the big bucks on Wall Street.)

However, you can still make an excellent salary as a cosmetic chemist. When I left my job after 16 years I was making over $120,000 annually.

And I wasn’t particularly ambitious in my career nor did I have all the right skill set for moving up the ranks of corporate America.

I should note that my experience is probably not typical because I was able to increase my salary without moving jobs. Most people need to move jobs to increase their salary like I did.

Realities of being a scientist

If your focus is being a cosmetic chemist and doing a good job at that…you won’t advance much in a corporation. Corporations value things like pleasing your boss, being bold and decisive in meetings, and making good presentations. They don’t particularly value being a good scientist. To advance in a corporation you need to become a manager & you need to be a good “people person”. Sucking up to your boss and your boss’s boss helps too.

Many scientists have a hard time doing this.

Should you get an advanced degree?

I’d direct you to Kelly’s thoughts here since she has actually gone through the experience.

There is certainly value in getting an advanced degree. But I’m not certain it will improve your prospects for starting a career in cosmetic chemistry. My advice would be to get a job first then start school after you’ve started your job. This way you can get your company to pay for your schooling. Many / most will.

That’s what I ended up doing (as did Kelly).

In the cosmetic industry, a bachelors degree is crucial. Then getting an entry level job and impressing your bosses is next in line in importance. Just find that first formulating job, learn everything you can, then change jobs to improve your salary prospects. And If you can get an advanced degree, do it.

At the start of every year I put together a goal list which articulates all I want to accomplish for the year. I’ve been doing this since 2003 accomplishing many of the things I list but not accomplishing many more.

So, I thought it would be helpful to do monthly updates to keep me honest and on track. Here is how I did in January 2012.

Chemists Corner goal progress

I’ve actually made decent progress on almost all my goals thus far. Here is the 7 goals I listed at the start of the year and the progress I’ve made.

1. Write a blog post every day – I’ve written 31 posts in 31 days. On track

2. Launch the “How to Start Your Own Cosmetic Line” program. I’ve actually written the report and anticipate this training program to be ready sometime in mid-March. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this in this coming month.

3. Record 26 podcast episodes – I’ve recorded 2 and have a third one half way done. So, I’m no pace here.

4. Create a series of basic chemistry videos (30) – I’ve brainstormed these and read a refresher book on chemistry so I’m just about ready to start. But I should have 3 videos completed and I don’t. A little behind here.

5. Begin an open source formulation site – Haven’t done much on this yet because I don’t know how it will work. Need to come up with a plan.

6. Run for SCC VP elect – Can’t do anything on this until late March or April.

7. Grow the website traffic & social networking followers – January had the second highest traffic month in the history of this website. And we had 16,000 more visitors to Chemists Corner than in January 2011. Our Facebook page is up to 803 likes and Twitter has 825 followers. We’re making progress on all of these.

Making goals at the beginning of the year is an excellent way to help you get things done. But if you aren’t regularly reviewing your progress it’s easy to let things slip. Hopefully, by doing reviews like this I’ll ensure that I keep gorwing this website and spreading information about cosmetic science.

How are you doing on your 2012 goals? Leave a comment below.

A little while back we received the following questions about being a cosmetic chemist consultant.  Since there are a number of you who may end up becoming consultants at some point in your formulating career, it will be useful to have these questions answered.  If you have other questions about cosmetic chemist consulting or other cosmetic science questions, leave a comment below.

How do cosmetic consultants work?

“When cosmetic chemistry consultants work independently, where do they do the formulating?”

Many consultants have their own lab space. Some can be in their houses or they rent space. Other cosmetic chemists will make a deal with a contract manufacturer and use the manufacturer’s lab space. In exchange they generate business for the manufacturer. Typically, consultants will outsource the manufacturing but some have enough space to create batches that are 5 gallons or less.

Start-up costs

“What should be factored into startup costs?”

When stating a consultant business you have to figure in costs of…

• Business startup costs – filing paper work, accountant, setting up bank accounts, incorporating, getting business stationary, website, logo, etc.
• Getting lab equipment. If you are going to create your own lab this will cost money.
• Getting lab space. If you create your own or if you rent from an outside lab it will cost money upfront.
• Chemical inventory. You may have to buy chemicals to start formulating. This might be covered by some upfront money you receive from your client but it probably won’t be sufficient.

Getting paid

“How are consultants paid?”

Consultants are paid in different ways. Typically, they quote a price on a project and get paid 50% up front and 50% upon completion. Also, their expenses will be negotiated into the price. Some formulators are paid a royalty on the formulas they develop or they are paid based on % of sales.

Cosmetic chemist consultants

If you have anything to add, please feel free to comment below.  Also, if you are already working as a consultant be sure to sign up on our cosmetic chemist consultant page.  We often get contacted here at Chemists Corner by people looking for cosmetic chemists to help them formulate products.