Cosmetic chemist Javon Ford on his unorthodox career path

Ford’s background in chemistry, working on making new formulations for cosmetics companies, has given him an in-depth knowledge of what goes into beauty and skin-care products. His videos involve him busting some of the most widespread myths in beauty and skin care and pointing out which ingredients are harmful and, more commonly, useless. In a recent video, he helped diagnose what ingredient in a lip product was making Olympian athlete Simone Biles’s lips swell.

According to Ford, his newfound popularity has led to multiple brand collaboration offers, but he’s steadfast about refusing to do work with companies whose products he doesn’t trust or who don’t provide the scientific data to back up their claims.

Ford joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss his career development and where he’s going next. Below are highlights from the episode, which have been lightly edited for clarity. 

On his career path

“I knew since sophomore year [of college] I wanted to do cosmetics, because there’s this career portal on the American Chemical Society website that broke down different careers you can do with chemistry. I knew at that time I did not want an advanced degree. I did not want a PhD. I decided against the med school track, and the PharmD track length just wasn’t for me. And so I was like, ‘What can I do?’ I have a very creative mind. My minor was music. I would go back and forth between chemistry classes and music classes. So I stumbled upon formulation chemistry, which seemed very creative because you’re making everything from makeup to the detergent used in laundry. I’m like, ‘That’s so cool.’ I applied to L’Oréal internships, and I see a lot of internships, and they both were like, ‘No, you don’t have the experience we’re looking for.’ And eventually, the only job offer I got out of college was as a nuclear engineer. It’s so weird. Apparently, I didn’t need much experience to work with nuclear reactors on the government nuclear side, but I need experience to work with lipstick.”

On refusing collabs

“I was never shy about doing what I wanted to do in my full-time job, like asking to be put on something else. And if I can do that in my full-time job, I can definitely do that as an independent contractor. I’ve turned down a lot of offers — good money offers from well-known brands that I do respect. But the product they wanted to promote was some story I couldn’t get behind because they didn’t have the science to back it up. One was this peptide neck cream, decolletage cream, which was $80, and they were promoting it as anti-aging. Clearly, I can’t use that from an experience point of view, because I don’t have wrinkles on my neck. And I’m already on the fence about peptides because most of them are not absorbed. And they said, ‘We can’t show the data to you.’ Then I’m like, ‘OK, then I don’t feel comfortable with this campaign.’ I can present it as a good moisturizer, but I can’t say it’s great for anti-aging if you don’t have the data to support that claim.”

On the difficulty of making and selling product

“The main reason I went back into the product side of the business isn’t even because I’m passionate about making product. It’s hard as hell to make any type of product. Even now, trying to do the restock, I’m dealing with supply chain issues that inevitably happen when you deal with color cosmetics. It’s a pain to deal with. So it’s not a passion thing. I’m passionate about chemistry, but the main thing is I wanted to give something to my audience so they actually can try my product because they’ve been following me.”