Function of Beauty

Origins

Function of Beauty was created by beauty outsiders: two MIT grads and a chemist who believed that everyone deserves a custom product and should be empowered to create their own beauty journey. Engineer and MIT grad Zahir Dossa was trained to see problems as equations to be solved. But when he looked at the beauty industry, what he saw didn’t add up—real people were more than broad categories like “curls” or “dry,” so cookie-cutter solutions could never deliver transformational results. No wonder consumers never saw the results they were after. But making effective, customized products at scale was thought to be impossible. Zahir teamed up with fellow MIT grad Josh Maciejewski and cosmetic chemist Hien Nguyen, combining their expertise in supply chain, sustainability, and data science to create something revolutionary in the beauty industry. They imagined enabling every consumer to create their own product based on a totally customized set of variables, made to order with bespoke craftsmanship and care. They imagined an algorithm-based approach that would let them constantly iterate and improve every formula. The most important variable at the center of their equation was the consumer, who—for the first time—could be honored with formulas as one-of-a-kind as they were.