Our Story
We are two cosmetic chemists with over 40 years combined in formulating hair care products. In all that time we noticed that there were no cosmetic brands formulated from a purely scientific standpoint. We have created Phique to change that. Any ingredient added to our formulas must improve the performance or it isn’t included. We take a science-first approach in all our formulas, and you’ll notice that in the results.
What We Believe
Quite simply, we believe in evidence. We have a depth of experience in beauty products and we’ve seen the data. Vitamins are a popular ingredient, but they have no effect on your hair. We won’t use them. “Green” ingredients are much less efficacious than classic ingredients, and we’ll show you why classic ingredients aren’t more harmful to your hair and body than their “green” alternatives. Our focus is on providing you the most effective cosmetic products possible without resorting to “feature” ingredients that sell a story but don’t do anything for your hair and skin.
We also believe in Transparency. If you want to know the ingredients in our formulas, we’ll tell you. We’ll even tell you why we add the ingredients we add. This is different than nearly every other brand in the cosmetic industry.
Mission
Our mission is to provide science-based formulas in which every ingredient works to improve the product performance. We will avoid anything extra that doesn’t make the product noticeably better. As a secondary mission we hope to educate our consumers about how beauty products work making them smarter about future purchase and less-prone to fear based marketing that is so prevalent in the cosmetic industry today.
Ingredients
Efficacious ingredients are the backbone of our brand. The ingredients we use have data to back up their benefits and their safety. We also know how ingredients work together to create even better results, and use those together where we can. Natural ingredients are great but we won’t use something just because it’s natural. When we do use natural ingredients, they are in there because they improve the product’s performance. We will also strive to use ingredients from sustainable sources since we love the planet and environment too.
Our Team
The Scientists:
Perry Romanowski
Perry holds a degree in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry from DePaul University. He has over 25 years of experience formulating hair care and skin care products. For the last several years Perry has been a consultant and educator in the personal care scientific community. He runs multiple websites about beauty products including The Beauty Brains and Chemists Corner who have audiences ranging from consumers to formulation chemists. He also conducts both live and online training courses about the formulation of cosmetic products.
Chris Boone
Chris holds a B.S in Chemistry and has over 20 years of experience formulating hair and skin care products. He started his career making the ingredients that go into most beauty care products (the stuff that’s hard to pronounce on the back of the label). From there, he started formulating finished products and worked on some of the largest brands in the industry. He has given multiple lectures in the cosmetics industry on formulation and regulatory compliance, and has helped several cosmetics companies formulate new products in his roles as technical service specialist.
Our Manufacturing Story
Our products are made right here in the USA, so they haven’t sat on a ship from China like a lot of other producers. Phique will always be manufactured in the USA.