Her Story
About Dr. Tracey
I've been in the beauty industry for 23 years, working as a cosmetic chemist and process engineer. I have a chemical engineering degree, which I pursued after watching soap operas with my grandmother as a young girl and seeing a fragrance chemist - I just knew that's what I wanted to do. Now I run two businesses: Ready to Launch, which is a niche boutique consultancy that helps people with product development and brand development to bring skincare, haircare, and any type of CPG product through to launch. I started this because I found that some people were being misled in terms of development and wound up losing out on money trying to make large quantities happen, so I wanted to guide them in the right direction with smaller quantities and more efficient products without really breaking their pockets, allowing them to test the market first and then move forward from there. My other business is A Care, a scalp and skincare brand all about rebalancing the microbiome for those that live life on the go and can utilize multi-use products for healthy scalp and skin. I started A Care because people were actually asking me to make products for them - I started off making customized oils. The idea came from looking into what is essentially the root cause of one's condition, whether it's redness, dry skin, or even psoriasis of the scalp. Aside from the gut microbiome, there is the skin microbiome that actually hits the environment first, and that's what gets infected with these conditions, which a lot of people aren't aware of. That's why I created multi-use products that target the barrier we don't see in order to bring skin and scalp back into balance.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dr. Tracey
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say, you know, one, definitely do the research, and also try to find a mentor that's within that field, that you can actually go to and speak with to guide you in the right direction, because the key is definitely networking or having someone in that space to be able to give you more insight, rather than going at it blind. Because it definitely is difficult, and I saw that when I first started. Now I'm actually in the process of being able to give back to those women who are in school for chemical engineering and want to get into the beauty industry. Being able to guide them in that direction is helpful, and really coming full circle to be able to give back.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
People are paying attention more to what they're putting on their scalp and skin. The pandemic helped people start to pay attention more to those types of things, which is why things are becoming much more popular. Plus, what's coming in from other markets, like the Asian market - people are more intrigued by products and textures and the interesting types of ingredients that are out there and the results that they're able to achieve.
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