Fiona Chan, Founder of Youthforia Interview

The brainchild of Fiona Chan, Youthforia is all about empowering young women to feel confident and beautiful in their own skin.

Jeanel Alvarado

Hi, I'm Jeanel Alvarado. I has over 15 years of…

The brainchild of Fiona Chan, Youthforia is all about empowering young women to feel confident and beautiful in their own skin. Youthforia is best known for creating makeup you can sleep in and creating the world’s first color changing blush oil that went viral on TikTok.

Launched in 2021, Fiona started Youthforia during the pandemic while stuck living in Asia. All of Youthforia products are tested by sleeping in it. She’s passionate about creating innovative and fun products, while using clean and sustainable ingredients.

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“My goal is to make the best products chemically possible, using as many plant-sourced ingredients as we can, with as many skin benefits as possible. ⁠We don’t talk about it a lot in our marketing, but some of our formulas are what I call a chemical work of art. It’s the balance of actives, of textures, of how it’ll interact with your other products and how it’ll sit on skin.⁠We’ve seen dupes substituting with lower quality ingredients and it doesn’t sit on the skin the same," said Fiona Chan, Founder of Youthforia.
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In addition to selling DTC, Youthforia is exclusively sold in Ulta Beauty, with an initial launch of seven products. The collection includes lip gloss, makeup primer, deep cleanser, brush oil, and blush brush. All of the products are made bio based, meaning using plant based ingredients with luxurious textures and active skincare. Most recently, Fiona made an appearance on Shark Tank and landed the largest beauty deal the show has seen to date.

We sat down with Fiona Chan at Beauty Tech and Innovation Summit 2023 for an exclusive interview to learn more about Youthforia, the future of beauty and her thoughts on being a speaker at this years conference.

What was the inspiration behind starting your brand?

I started the brand right when the pandemic hit. It was the first week that I didn't put on make up that I realized that the best part of wearing makeup is going out and having fun with your friends. And I really wanted makeup, where if wore it and accidentally slept in it, it would be okay. So really creating makeup skincare hybrids - makeup that acts like skincare.

When did you first come up with the idea to merge science and beauty?

I honestly just love the science of product development and I thought it would be so fun to share - because we do use really different ingredients from most makeup products in the same category. I just love nerding out on the details.

Does your education or professional experience play a role in creating products?

Not really - prior to starting Youthforia, I worked in tech startups - where I sold complex software to datacenters. Through that job, I saw how fast technology could change industries and so I thought it was possible to bring a lot of innovation into makeup!

What did you learn from attending the Beauty Tech & Innovation Summit?

I had a really fun time on my panel on Holistic Beauty - it's so great to see how entrepreneurs incorporate things they've grown up with into their brand!

Would you recommend other beauty brands to attend? and what stage in their business should they be in?

Yes - any stage, I think it was so nice to meet so many different people!

Where do you see the future of beauty in the next five years?

I think it's so hard to predict with the current trend cycles happening so quickly - but I think in 5 years time, we'll look back and be proud of all of the innovation coming to beauty.

Share with us one of your best selling products, and why is it a hit?

BYO Blush - it's the world's first color changing blush oil. I think it's been a hit because its a really fun innovative product that's easy to use and works on everyone!