The Who What Wear Podcast: Rhode Cosmetic Chemist and BeautyStat Founder Ron Robinson on Crafting Cult Favorite Products and the Buzzy Ingredient That’s Not Worth the Hype

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Who What Wear

Business, Careers, Society & Culture, Arts, Fashion & Beauty, Personal Journals

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ron Robinson is the founder of BeautyStat and the cosmetic chemist behind Hailey Bieber’s skincare line, Rhode. Robinson began his career at Clinique in the ’90s and, over the past two decades, has worked on products for industry giants like Revlon, Avon, L’Oréal, and Lancôme. He launched BeautyStat as an educational platform for beauty enthusiasts in 2009 but ultimately moved into developing his own product line in 2019 with the launch of his groundbreaking, ultra-potent vitamin C formulation. Celebs took notice, and Hailey Bieber quickly reached out to bring him on as a partner in what would become Rhode. In this episode, Robinson chats with Who What Wear Beauty Director Erin Jahns about the science behind successful products and which ingredients are worth the hype.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Who What Weir Podcast, your direct line for the designers, stylists, beauty experts,
0:17.2	and tastemakers who are shaping the ever-evolving world of fashion.
0:22.2	I'm Who What Wear Beauty Director, Aaron Johns, and today I'm so excited to be sitting down
0:26.7	with renowned cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson. Ron's first foray into the beauty industry was
0:32.5	at Clinic in the 90s, and he's since worked on products for beauty giants like Revlon, Avon, L'Oreal, and
0:39.0	Lancombe. He's also the founder of Beauty Stat, a brand he originally began as a blog,
0:44.5	and later transformed into a line of impeccable skincare products like his groundbreaking vitamin
0:49.8	C formula. On top of all of that, he also became the chemist in residence of Haley Bieber's Road in
0:56.0	2022, which, as I'm sure you know, was just acquired by Elf in an enormous $1 billion deal.
1:03.2	I was thrilled to chat with Ron about formulating products for various brand needs,
1:07.9	how social media impacts his work, and his favorite ingredients. It's all coming up
1:12.9	on Who What Wear? Thank you so much for joining me, Ron. Aaron, I'm super excited to be here
1:25.1	today. It's been a while. I know. We've talked before, and I always learned so much from you. So I'm really excited.
1:31.3	Our audience is pretty well-versed in the beauty space. But for anyone who might not know, can you kind of explain what a cosmetic chemist does and how you got started in your career?
1:42.1	Sure. So a cosmetic chemist is someone who researches, develops,
1:47.0	and or formulates beauty products. So I've done all of that and have been doing so for the past 35
1:54.3	years. I started as a cosmetic chemist back in 1990. But what's interesting is that was not my initial goal. So I had ambitions
2:03.2	of becoming a medical doctor. I had some pressure for my parents to go to med school. And after
2:08.8	studying biology and chemistry in college, I actually applied and got into med school and realized
2:14.7	it was not for me. And I dropped out, really disappointed my parents,
2:19.4	and I had to get a job, and I was sending out resumes. And back in late 89, early 1990,
2:28.0	clinic, division of the S.A. Water Companies called me in for an interview. And they loved my
	...

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