Twin Cities-based cosmetic house has potential to make over the cosmetics industry at large.

by Kaylen Ralph

photo illustration by Grace Molteni

The Elixery is a small-batch, non-toxic artisan cosmetics house located in Minneapolis. Their signature lipsticks, essential oils and scrubs are all produced in a vintage laboratory in the warehouse district of Minneapolis.

Formulation chemist Karoline Wells officially launched The Elixery in 2011 at Voltage, a rock ‘n’ roll fashion show that took place in Minneapolis that year. Since then, she’s collaborated with some of Minneapolis’s coolest homegrown women—Lizz Winstead, Dessa, the Minnesota Roller Girls and, this fall, Lizzo. We talked about what it’s been like to work with the aforementioned women and what her scientist peers’ reactions were like when she made the jump from “corporate science” to a “pink collar” industry.

Kaylen Ralph: Gender equality is an integral part of Elixery’s (business model). Why did you feel this was a necessary aspect of your brand to publicize? Even though makeup companies [on the surface] are about empowering women through their appearance, that’s not always the end result as far as their advertising and marketing goes.

Karoline Wells: Color cosmetics have a surprising feminist history, actually. In some places like the French court, only men had complete freedom to paint their faces and lips. Color cosmetics were demonized as an excess of the court after the Revolution, and a puritanical idea of women’s sexuality and makeup persisted into the 20th century. That’s not to say women stopped wearing makeup, but they hid it! Cosmetic houses were secret places, back rooms with paper-wrapped, natural-looking tints that you took home in private.

In America, lipstick in particular was used as a form of protest in the early part of the 20th century. For instance, in 1909 at a suffragette march in New York, all of the women wore pure white dresses and red lipstick. It was a strong symbolic statement. Basically, they were saying that they were tired of being defined as ‘wanton women’ for wearing color cosmetics—they wanted to wear lipstick strictly because they liked lipstick!

We emphasize our belief in all-gender equality because we want to publicly recognize that gender isn’t binary. With makeup in particular, it’s also a rather arbitrary and recent idea to apply a gender label to painting your face. There is absolutely nothing shameful about wanting to enhance your appearance—it’s a basic human desire, one that nobody should be excluded from.

KR:  What was the reaction in your field and amongst your colleagues when you first put forth your idea for Elixery?

KW: I still get mixed reactions when I tell other scientists what I do. Some are dismissive; some think it’s pretty cool.

Surprisingly, some of the most positive reactions I get are from men, who have never given lipstick any thought. Showing a stick of lipstick to a male physicist can spark a certain childlike wonder. They have so many questions, especially when I explain the rather complex rheology of the mixture. That’s kind of magic to watch. It’s something mysterious and interesting to them that they’d never given any thought to.

KR: Could you tell us a little bit about your inspiration for starting Elixery, and why you chose to launch this brand (and movement) in the Twin Cities?

KW: I used to be a corporate scientist, mainly in the field of microbiology.

That career path was strictly a practical decision, because I was good at micro and there were jobs available.  In reality, my interests have always been in phytochemistry, botanical pharmacology—basically curing disease using the chemistry of plants. My grandmother started me on that path early in life by teaching me [about] herbs.

During my time in microbiology, I visited animal testing facilities and it broke my heart in ways I cannot even begin to describe. That drove me back to my roots, and I had initially intended to work with botanical chemistry in my laboratory. Again, Grandma had taught me to make soaps and various skin preparations, so skincare and skin biology seemed to be a natural place to start with a company.

That idea was completely derailed by a chance order I made of some lipstick pigments. I thought I’d try making some for myself, since I liked lipstick. But lipstick was actually much more difficult than that—and rather fascinating from a physics perspective! I spent a year locked up in the laboratory figuring out how lipstick worked and formulating it to my specifications.

Then, after all of that, I had no idea what to do with it. So I hooked up with a fashion show called Voltage that used to be at First Ave[nue in Minneapolis], and developed custom lipstick, eyeshadow and face highlighter for the makeup team.

Otherwise, we decided to just be honest about who we were, and to support causes we genuinely believed in. Everyone we partner with aligns with our values—whether it be medicine, feminism/gender, animals, or art. Honestly, it’s been an organic process. There’s a reason we live in the Twin Cities, because we share a lot of values with the general vibe here.

KR: Cosmetics might not be the first thing most people think of when they consider what chemists and scientists do. Why do you think that is?

KW: Industries thought of as female-specific are often dubbed “pink collar” jobs. Historically, I don’t think people associate women with science in general, especially when the job involves glitter.

However, I’m also not sure that most people realize how much of their daily lives and rituals are dependent on formulation chemistry. That paper cup you’re drinking your coffee in? Somebody formulated that special coating. That bandage you put on your arm? There’s a whole field in developing skin-adhesion technology. Shoes are put together with special formulated glues, and aspirin coatings, laundry detergents and even candy flavors went through formulation. The work of formulation chemists is everywhere we look—but it’s something we don’t think about.

KR: Another integral part of the Elixery brand is that your products are not tested on animals. How did this become such common practice and what do you think needs to happen before it’s an officially banned practice in the cosmetics industry?

KW: Animal testing has always been used to demonstrate safety. The problem is that animals don’t always have the same biochemistry, so even if a chemical is demonstrated to do something in rats, it doesn’t always behave the same way in a human. It’s a known problem, but other than some in-vitro testing methods, computer models and time-tested ingredients, it can be difficult to maneuver around it.

A good amount of the animal testing that occurs is due to legal reasons more than actual safety concerns. If you’re a large company, you’ve got a lot of money at stake and any possible angle can be taken in a lawsuit. For example, I’ve seen unnecessary tests performed on packaging components that aren’t even in contact with the product, simply because the company’s legal department wanted to make sure there weren’t any odd loose ends in case of a lawsuit. It’s a very complex issue.

Unfortunately, I don’t see animal testing becoming a completely banned practice anytime soon, but numerous efforts are underway to eliminate it. The crux of the issue is developing alternatives that work more efficiently than animal tests.

Here’s a career tip to all of the girls I talk to every day that want to go into cosmetic science: Tailor your studies toward biochemistry, and help the industry develop new and better alternatives to animal testing. It’s a huge, growing field, and animal testing will not stop until we figure out enough reliable in-vitro ways to eliminate it completely.

KR: Elixery has worked on some amazing collaborative projects with influential women [by creating signature shades of lipstick and other cosmetics]. Do you have a favorite? Who would your dream collaboration be with?

KW: Everyone we’ve worked with has been amazing and brought a totally different perspective to what we do.

Dessa [a rapper, singer, spoken word artist and writer from Minneapolis] is highly intelligent with a deep sense of thoughtfulness and philosophy toward everything she does. She’s also got a wickedly dark, existential sense of humor! She is truly a beautiful person inside and out, and really aligns everything she does with her inner values.

Lizz Winstead [writer, television personality and co-creator of “The Daily Show”] is brilliant and witty—she’s bursting with energy and ideas and wholeheartedly embraces beauty and hilarity as a way toward changing the world. She’s tireless in promoting what she believes in, and has given a voice to women that has been sorely needed for so long.

The Minnesota RollerGirls are truly some of the coolest people I’ve ever met. We seriously aren’t sure if they’ve joined our cult or if we’ve joined theirs! I have nothing but admiration for them—they’re strong, courageous and inspiring to women all over the world.

We’ve recently started working with Lizzo [alternative hip-hop artist currently on tour with rock group Sleater Kinney] on a new project, and she is delightfully weird, wonderful, and intensely intelligent and creative.

She manages to balance being both a serious, Paris-Conservatory-type classical musician and doing wacky videos that include buttering a grown man. Everyone that knows her sees something uncanny and special about her—like she’s got that “star” spark. It’s impossible to describe, but she’s got it.

All of these women are genius in their own right, and we feel incredibly blessed to work with them.

As far as others, I do wonder what it would be like to do a project with St. Vincent—mostly because she’s a brilliant musician, but also because she strikes me as a female version of David Bowie. When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a female David Bowie. That alone is awesome.

[hr style=”striped”]

Kaylen is The Riveter’s co-founder and editor-in-chief. She moved to Minneapolis, MN after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism in August 2013. In addition to her editorial duties at The Riveter, Kaylen also works as a freelance researcher for The Sager Group. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @kaylenralph.

Grace Molteni is a Midwest born and raised designer, illustrator, and self-proclaimed bibliophile, currently calling Chicago home. For more musings, work, or just to say hey check her out on Instagram or at her personal website.