Considering her lifelong love for cosmetics, Muriel Pujos couldn't have asked for a better job. Based in New York and working for Philosophy, Pujos's latest responsibility has been going on a global tour to unveil the skincare brand's latest serum, which promises to resist, renew and repair the skin for women of all age groups. Aptly named Time In A Bottle, the serum part even lets you have a bit of mad-scientist fun. With a bright-red vial of activator, rich in Himalayan red-rice extract and red-grape-ferment extract to resist tomorrow's signs of ageing, you'll have to pour this liquid into the main serum and shake for 20 seconds before first use. This latest 3D technology ensures the freshness of the product and works even better with their lotion of the same name, when used twice daily. Recently in Bangkok for the launch of Time In A Bottle, the scientific communication director tells us how she runs the world of beauty and science.
What is your job?
I'm the director of scientific communication for Philosophy, so I'm in charge of searching for new technologies and new active ingredients. Then there's discussing with marketing the new concepts and making sure these concepts have a scientific validity and integrating these new technologies that I have found into new products. It's also communicating for the brand on the scientific part.
What's your day-to-day routine like?
It's both research and communication. For Time In A Bottle, it has taken nearly 10 years of research, and the development itself has taken 18 months. During all these years of research, I make sure we're in line with the latest scientific discovery and work with consultants and specialists on skincare. What I look at is how we can significantly improve the age-resisting mechanisms and how to get the best results from anti-ageing, when putting different complexes together. In parallel, I work with marketing, where we always start with asking consumers what their priorities, needs and feelings are. Many say that they're more and more in control of their life but one thing they weren't was skin-ageing, and they wanted more control over that. I work on integrating and translating those concepts into scientific technology.
A lot of science is involved. How do you face challenges to translate that into something people can understand?
Having the chance to visit markets and see different consumers are the best parts of my job. The PR launch events and locations are super-important for us because it's our direct contact with the market, and I really want to make sure that what we have put our heart and soul in for years will be well-received and accepted by consumers.
What's your own personal beauty regimen?
I use the typical beauty regimen of Philosophy, which is to cleanse, peel, treat. We have a cleanser called Purity, and I love it because it removes impurities and even harsh make-up. But it's super-soft. It hydrates and tones the skin. I follow up with my serum, Time In A Bottle, then use the moisturiser Hope In A Jar morning and evening. I like it because it's very light and good for this weather. I also peel my skin at least once a week with vitamin C, because it gives immediate radiance, or I use the Overnight Anti-Aging Peel for seasonal transitions.
How does a brand choose what sort of product it wants to work on next or what it wants to invest its time in?
The brand works on what women want, and we follow their needs. For sure, if they want light textures, we'll try to create lighter textures. We have our daily basis, skincare research, and we work on what is the biology of skin ageing and how we can slow that down. We then translate those skin needs from the consumers into these brand-new technologies. It's not just us, though; globally, the scientific community has made huge progress, and it's helped us to learn better what's best for the skin. With the latest advancements in science, there's better instrumentation and analysis tools, so even though some technologies we already knew about 10 years ago, a lot of products have come through only in recent years.
With newer technologies at your disposal today, is research mostly about technology or is it about finding new ingredients?
For us, it's combined: new ingredients meet new technologies. Technology can also be used to reinvent already-known ingredients like vitamin C. With Time in A Bottle, vitamin C8 is a more stable type of vitamin C, thanks to an even better technology. With a separate vitamin activator that you pour into the serum at the last minute prior to first use, you keep the potency up to the last minute. There are new ways to reinvent very well-known ingredients in order to get the maximum benefits out of them.
Time In A Bottle serum (3,390 baht) and lotion (1,490 baht) are available at all Philosophy counters in major department stores and Sephora.
