The Founding Members

I grew up with my feet in two places: between a small town outside of Bordeaux, France and in classic Americana New England. With the values of both locales planting root in me, pragmatism and clarity are two qualities I’ve learned to appreciate. My grandmother, who raised me most summers, would always tell me whenever I ran into a roadblock, that miracles wouldn’t happen without work which has essentially become the ethos of Dieux.

I spent years building brands and audiences at various media companies and social media platforms. I have always taken the importance of storytelling seriously and have been consistently finding ways to communicate effectively in order to retain users and consumers. Because of this, I also saw first hand how quickly misinformation can become gospel. 

What does this all have to do with beauty? Well, when I turned 30 and started to explore how to level up my skincare routine, I immediately felt overwhelmed. Over the top promises, fear-tactics tied to purchasing, claims around “safety” without any evidence—ultimately it was a lot of clever marketing that didn’t match up products with results. Over and over again I saw pledges of transparency without any transparency. I saw biblical level pledges completely divorced from science and most importantly, I saw a dedicated audience willing to keep spending on it all. Personally, I was left more confused than when I started, and not to mention, a couple of thousand dollars out of pocket. Then I developed an advanced case of dermatitis.  

Beside the physical symptoms of my condition, one clear frustration emerged; why did I have to become an investigative journalist to understand skincare? The more I dug, the more I realized I was hardly alone in the skincare struggle. Layer-in experimental new age ingredients like CBD and cannabis and the result was even more confusion.

But, I never want to be greedy about what I know. So here’s a quick summary of what I’ve learned. Ingredients are nuanced. Your skin is unique. Everything on Earth is made of chemicals. There are no miracles when it comes to skincare, only rituals. And that’s how we’ve gotten to Dieux. 

Dieux is co-founded with Joyce de Lemos, a clinical cosmetic chemist, and Marta Freedman, a brand and community expert, and it’s our mission to do better for the beauty industry. We’re joined by a team of advisors including a board-certified dermatologist and various experts in the space. Dieux’s vocation is to build products that are transparent in every way. That includes honesty on how we arrive at our claims, pricing, sourcing and ingredient lists. 

Ultimately, we want to stop people from having to take a leap of faith with beauty. Dieux wants everyone to be able to build simple rituals that work with products that raise our standards for what skincare can do.

You could almost say that becoming a cosmetic scientist was my destiny.  

I was born and raised in San Francisco, where I spent a lot of time in front of PBS programming. I became addicted to science centered shows like Bill Nye: The Science Guy and 3-2-1 Contact. Invested in becoming more like my television heroes, I would perform experiments with my dolls and toys making potions from the products I would find under the sink. Much to my dismay and probably benefit, nothing ever exploded.

Not deterred by my lack of ability to make a chemical reaction shake my home, I pressed on. I studied biochemistry in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Though I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet, I trusted that my abilities and love of science would land me in the right place. 

After college, I spent five years working in the pharmaceutical industry which ultimately didn’t fit with my identity and beliefs. I found myself disconnected and unmotivated, so I searched for something more fulfilling by googling “fun careers in biochemistry”. That’s when I discovered cosmetic chemistry. I enrolled in a cosmetic science program in New Jersey and moved to the East Coast, where I’ve been ever since. 

While pursuing my Masters in cosmetic science, I began working at L’Oreal in their suncare division. I was little more than a glorified intern, but I crawled my way into full time employment. After that, I found myself working for a Korean cosmetic contract manufacturer and after that a small startup. I’ve been dedicated to innovating and improving beauty products ever since. 

Though as a scientist, I am someone who is committed to facts and figures, I know there are some things that just cannot be explained. My road to Dieux is proof of that. After a traumatic departure from my last job, I reevaluated what I wanted to do with my life and had a serendipitous meeting with Charlotte, and voila, the rest is history. 

I am excited to bring my knowledge and expertise to a team that is dedicated to doing better for consumers and the planet. After 10 years in the beauty industry, I’ve become leery of overzealous, unsubstantiated marketing claims that certain companies make. Dieux is not about that. We’ll never submit a product to market without rigorous clinical vetting and research.

I’m incredibly lucky and proud to build this brand with Marta and Charlotte who both have a desire to improve the world we live in. We are going to try our best to increase transparency in this industry and explain to you how and why things work. I’m in my laboratory in Brooklyn working hard to make sure that Dieux products are safe and effective for all.

True story: I was sent to therapy in high school for crying too much. It didn’t work. I believe that expressing and releasing emotions is a critical aspect of the human experience. Later, of course, I discovered crying is actually good for you both physically and spiritually, so I kept doing it. I have always been a sensitive soul and acutely attuned to energy and vibrations and while that sounds a bit woo-woo to lay people, it has guided me my entire life and now, here to Dieux. 

I grew up in suburban New Jersey and was drawn to what most people would consider to be the cornerstones of bad taste: the boardwalk at the Shore, Ugg boots, malls and junk food. Ironically enough, all of these things began to register as cult-like unifiers on social media and eventually became part of how I used my natural instincts and interests to successfully build brands. 

I studied textiles at FIT and ended up working in fabric development. This did nothing for my creative ambitions and after my mother passed away in my early 20s, I channeled my grief into building a community of like-minded women through an Instagram account I founded called “Hot Girls Eating Pizza”. The account organically transformed into an opportunity to host IRL events and parties and became a way for me to connect with women that I admired and it is how I came to meet Charlotte. I always say, “there are no coincidences”. 

Most people can immediately identify the qualities and characteristics of things that are Marta. I’ve heard more people declare, “the brand is strong” in reference to me as a compliment than anything else. My heart sings for concepts like softness, angel energy and tender openness. You might also notice that a lot of these things have translated into the foundation of what has become Dieux. I bring an intentional vulnerability to how I live my life and I have infused that into this baby that Charlotte, Joyce and I have built. 

If I could bottle up a feeling and turn it into a brand, it would be Dieux. I have been told that my superpower is bringing people together through shared experiences, good company, and positivity. Through working as a consultant for various brand launches, I have been responsible for building up dedicated followings for brands by collaborating with influencers, hosting and planning experiential events, and content direction.

I am hoping that Dieux is able to earn a position in the hierarchy of revered beauty brands and deserve it. We are building this brand on pillars of honesty, integrity and transparency. Our belief system is rooted in rituals for self-care with a healthy dose of kindness and attention to sustainability.