Experiment co-founder and CEO on making science-backed beauty less scary

Gen Z seems to love a lot of things, but “science-backed” may not be as high on their list as buzzwords like “plant-based,” “natural,” or “vegan.”

That’s where Lisa Guerrera, co-founder and CEO of Experiment, comes in. With her science-based beauty brand, she is trying to re-educate consumers that chemicals and science are not all bad.

And Gen Z is listening, as evidenced by the brand’s TikTok-famous products like Buffer Gel and Super Saturated barrier formulations. But how does the entrepreneur make these products less scary for her audience? She told Retail Brew all about it at the recent Porte Conference.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

On plant-based vs. science-backed

There’s a lot of misunderstanding around the supply chain, around plant-based ingredients. That is something that people need to look a little bit deeper into. The word “plant-based” sounds great, sounds sustainable, but in fact, in the same way that vertical farming is actually a much more efficient process, that is also something that people need to look at.

The way to think through your supply chain is…I might have this particular ingredient, a soothing ingredient that could either be derived from a plant or synthesized in a lab, or it could be produced by bacteria, which is…bioengineering stuff. But that’s actually a new hot area of ingredient production. Sometimes, the ingredients that are synthesized in a lab or bioengineered bacteria-produced ingredients—those two categories oftentimes are actually a more sustainable process from an energy and waste output to create ingredients, rather than the plant-based alternatives.

On making products that customers will actually purchase

If you’re making a consumer product that people don’t want to buy, that’s the least sustainable thing you could do. You literally spend all these resources making a product that fundamentally isn’t something that people wouldn’t use regularly. I think the cardboard straws are a great example; Yes, on paper, fundamentally, those are more sustainable than a plastic straw. But if nobody uses it, it doesn’t matter. That’s the biggest piece. We’re always thinking about that. If you’re not making a product that people use, that’s the line for us. It has to be good enough. It has to be better than what’s out there.

On educating customers on science-backed beauty

Consumer education is the No. 1 thing, and inspiring people through your products is the best way to do it. So the way we do it is really kind of this activist approach, using that kind of inspirational look at science. I think in the past, maybe five years ago, people would view science as something negative. I actually did my thesis on this in college, on chemophobia in beauty, which is the fear of chemicals. And chemistry was actually the most negatively viewed science out of all major sciences. And it’s not a mystery.

When you think of chemicals, what are you guys all thinking of? Pollution. Literally toxic waste. It seriously is what comes up for people. That’s actually a big problem in the advancement of food science and the advancement of cosmetic science. All medicine, like Big Pharma, that’s what people are thinking of. You have to run this almost like a reeducation campaign around: What is the chemical? Why shouldn’t we be afraid of lab-grown meat? Or why is that actually sometimes a better thing? Why should we not be afraid of preservatives in our products? What are the cost-benefit analysis that you have to make as a consumer? It’s a lot of education. And it’s going to be on a spectrum of how many people listen. But the overarching arc of that is toward a more educated society that cares more about the advancement of technology. Especially around climate change, younger consumers are really concerned about that. Seeing that people are adopting not-real solutions to help with the climate is a huge source of anxiety, fundamentally, so when you can connect it to that, it helps people listen.