Allure: Acaderma Interview Titled "Beautiful Minds"1

PhD, biological science, and founder of Acaderma

It was clear Hu was a rising star in the scientific community: By the third year of her doctoral studies at the University of Hong Kong, she'd won an award from the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists for her discovery of novel ingredients for treating hyperpigmentation. "The award encouraged me to do more, and not just keep all these discoveries in academia," Hu says. "There are thousands of [phytochemistry] publications [about cosmetic ingredients], and very few of them are applied to any beauty products."

So Hu decided, over the next few years, to skip an associate professorship she'd been offered and instead turn the unique ingredients she'd researched during her time in a lab into a series of serums and (new this month) cleansers and toners called Acaderma.

Her award-winning, spot-fading ingredient, an extract from the Morus root, is in the Star Light Spot Corrector. To soothe, calm redness, and repair the skin barrier, an extract from the Kinkeliba plant that she discovered in Senegal is in the Oasis Barrier Booster (she isolated a special group of polysaccharides from the plant that have water-binding properties on skin). And her skin-smoothing Chrono Warp Restoring Essence features another ingredient she worked with, a polyphenol from the Picea leaf, that can prevent the cross-linking process known as glycation that causes your collagen and elastin to harden and lose their bounce.

Though King points out that many ingredient suppliers work with universities to discover or create molecules, Nussbaum applauds Acaderma for applying lab research to a skin-care formula and then clinically testing that formula to make sure it's as effective as it is novel.