David Chang is behind some of the most vibrant ideas in beauty, but he prefers to fly under the radar.
The man behind countless beauty businesses commands every inch of his beauty business out of a nondescript office building in Mahwah, New Jersey, but none of them bear his name. .
But don’t be fooled by appearances. Inside is a wonderland of beauty.
At Chung’s ILabs, cosmetic chemists, packaging manufacturers, and marketing experts all work together. ILabs is a contract manufacturer and beauty incubator that can support you from ideation to creation, product development, packaging and marketing. The Rootist is also based there, and Chong announced a Sephora-exclusive hair care brand earlier this year after selling his skincare brand Pharmacy to Procter & Gamble in 2021.
“We want to be an innovation company,” Chung said in a conference room lined with products he creates for both his own brands and manufacturers. This room is like an archive of beauty world hits, from Supergoop sunscreen to Pharmacy’s Cleansing His Balm.
It’s no wonder that when he bought the building, he overhauled the executive-level offices and turned them into a cosmetic chemistry playground. He also set up his own in-house IT company and locally headquartered his packaging manufacturer, allowing him to mass-produce full-fledged brands without ever leaving his premises.
Chung’s differentiator is that he still thinks as a merchant, brand founder, and product creator. “All of these things happened along the way because I couldn’t find anyone who was doing it the way I wanted,” Chong said. “I’m a perfectionist. There’s a saying: ‘If you want your car to be really clean, you have to clean it yourself.’
David Chang and Cosmetic Chemists
Masato Onoda/WWD
How did your upbringing and early career influence your entrepreneurial spirit?
David Chang: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. My mother is a very aspiring entrepreneur and I grew up in that environment all my life. After school, I never worked for anyone else. I started a small retail store called DC Enterprise, and that’s where I entered the world of fashion. I started researching fashion and skin care brands and launched a retail store called “Cosmetic World.” From there, I moved to his Englewood Lab, doing contract manufacturing and research and development before returning to the brand side of Farmacy.
Now we have ILabs and several more brands to come. We also just acquired a mental wellness company called Amare.
Your career has been in retail and brand building. Was manufacturing always part of the larger vision?
DC: When I started 3Labs Skincare, we used third-party contract manufacturers, which always caused shipping delays. Quality has always been an issue. I moved to another manufacturer, but had the same problem, so I ended up working in manufacturing.
I started an in-house IT company and acquired a packaging company called Mortar Packaging. We are vertically integrated and can now do everything in-house as a complete turnkey service. Currently, I work with different brands to support their innovations, concepts and ideas so that they too can be successful.
Last year, you acquired Amare Global, a direct-to-consumer wellness brand. How do you think about the intersection of beauty and health?
Amare Global is a mental wellness company founded long before the pandemic. I was passionate about this job because I wanted to share my 30+ years of experience with him. This is an opportunity for me to partner and help them succeed and help people with the product. These products are natural and aim to work on the gut-brain axis to make you as healthy as you are mentally as well as physically. It’s very different from any business I’ve ever run.
Looks, mood, and mental health cover it all. All of them are directly connected in our bodies. We will start looking at more innovative ways to tackle mental health. It’s important to take care of your brain just as you take care of your body’s muscles.
We’ve built a business that allows you to build your brand without ever leaving your building. How do you keep pace with culture and the market?
I have people around me who know what’s going on and are always involved. And I’m not your typical contract manufacturer. I worked in retail so working at Sephora was different because I was a retailer. I know what it’s like to do branding because I’ve done it before. For all of this, I can advise, guide you and make sure everything is streamlined. Most other contract manufacturers can make the product, but they don’t have the full picture.
What is your philosophy regarding team building? Also, how would you describe your leadership style? How has it evolved during your career?
My philosophy is that everything we do is about humans. People are what make you successful or make you fail. If you have talented people around you, it’s important to make sure they are valued.
As a businessman, I challenge myself every time I fail and try to come back and do better. We all have issues and issues, employee headaches and people who talk behind our backs. When something bothered me, I would go crazy. I get upset. Now, if something like that happens, I just make sure it doesn’t happen again. We have introduced a system to prevent mistakes. The more changes you experience in your business, the wiser you become.
You recently launched The Rootist, which is billed as kombucha for hair. What technologies are most exciting to you from an ingredient perspective?
While we appreciate innovation when it comes to clean beauty and natural products, we’re also eyeing science-driven brands that include more stem cells and peptides, which is totally different. In between all of that, what I’m finding now is the idea of the microbiome, fermentation, probiotics, and postbiotics. This whole field is growing and there are even more opportunities out there.
After your successful exit from Pharmacy, why did you want to build your brand again? How has your approach to brand building changed??
I will work until I die. I just enjoy my job. For me, starting a company is no different than being a hiker climbing Mount Everest. It’s not about how much money I make. I really enjoy participating in coming up with ideas and organizing a team.
I learned a lot from Farmacy. And at Rootist, we wanted to start by putting a lot of money behind innovation. The products we plan to launch next year are unlike anything the market has ever seen before, and we want to be the first to do it.
How have you seen the consumer evolve?
The pandemic turned everything upside down, and now it’s coming back. Previously, color cosmetics were a complete disaster because no one went out, but now they are coming back very quickly, even faster than before the pandemic. But there are so many beautiful things out there that people are confused about. So what we need to do is simplify – simple packaging, simple brand story, and it needs to work. Consumers are very smart and know what is a good product and what is not. The future requires a greater emphasis on simplicity, and consumers are aiming for it.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in business?
In business and anything in life, the secret recipe starts with your reputation. Under-promise and over-deliver. Make sure your reputation is good. All I did was make sure my clients were taken care of.
What is your favorite skin care product you have ever created?
I have a new product that I developed for personal use. As we age, we become concerned about age spots and sun damage. A Korean pharmacist made me a vitamin C serum that really worked. When he asked if he could put it on the market, he was told that each piece would cost him $2,000 due to raw material costs. I just started using it and it’s amazing. I told them that if they tried it for six months and the spots disappeared, I would sell them this serum for $10,000 a bottle.