Neither am I a dermatologist.
Okay, I really wanted the title of this post to be a little dramatic.
Hopefully, mission accomplished.
I am a Chemical Engineer who wandered off into the world of Cosmetic Science.
I would tell you how my love for cosmetics began, but, that’s a completely different blog post.
So who is a Cosmetic Scientist?
A Cosmetic Scientist or chemist or engineer is someone who develops and formulates skin care, color cosmetics (regular makeup) and other personal care products for manufacturers. This means that they’re the ones who come up with the formulas for your favorite product (hopefully you’re boycotting the home-made organic thing as I advised). They also carry out extensive research to come up with new products, test cosmetic prototypes for safety, fix production problems, evaluate competitive products and develop skills to better understand the difference between a good product and one that doesn’t work as well.
An Esthetician on the other hand is a beauty care professional who focuses on the appearance of the skin. An Esthetician gives facials, other skin care treatments and can help your skin look fabulous. They are your plug when you have acne, blackheads and any other skin blemish. They advise you on which products are the best for you and how to use them.
Estheticians are licensed only to work on the surface of the skin. That means they can give facials and light chemical peels that deal with the superficial layers of the skin. They can give exfoliating body treatments like scrubs and body wraps, which involve an application of a detoxifying mud or something really fancy that makes your skin glow up.
A dermatologist is a skin doctor, basically. They have to go to college, read medicine, and get a license to treat patients (Cosmetic Chemists and Estheticians go to college too). They work with patients who have actual diseases, they carry out surgeries, give treatment plans based on medical tests carried out.
Dermatologists, Estheticians and Cosmetic Chemists work together but their job roles are different as I mentioned, even though they would all have knowledge of skin biology and how the products you use or environment affect your skin.
So, in essence, if you have Acne, want to glow up or just need product recommendations, an Esthetician is your friend. If you have eczema, skin cancer or any other skin disease, you have no business visiting an Esthetician or cosmetic scientist/chemist, a dermatologist should be your plug. A Cosmetic Chemist formulates the products the Esthetician and/or dermatologist would recommend, so he/she would be in the best place to know the chemistry of the ingredients and how they react together on your skin.
So now that you know the difference, If you need an Esthetician, you can hit @asherstuta on twitter, remember to tell her you’re from Mae.
Love x Light
Your friendly neighborhood Cosmetic Chemist,
Mae
The Chemist. 