Founder Story: Elaine Sterling Reveals Favorite Ingredients Coming Out Of Her Living Laboratory

Elaine Sterling calls it her living laboratory. Others know it as her eponymous school, The Elaine Sterling Institute in Atlanta, Ga., the foundation on which her reputation and the Elaine Sterling Skincare line was built. An accomplished aesthetician—she has earned the prestigious CIDESCO Diploma and ITEC (both are international certifications)—she took the entrepreneurial plunge back in 2008 when she established her school against all odds.

Prior to hanging out her shingle, she served as a director of education at another skincare school and as the training director at the Spa Sydell day spa group. “I am relentless in the pursuit of more beautiful skin,” she explains in her bio. The Elaine Sterling Skincare line, launched after the successful founding of her institute, is a natural extension for her. As she puts it, it’s a combination of her knowledge, science and art.

Sterling feels the feedback and testing she’s conducted over the years with students and clients—her laboratory—has allowed her to develop tools, formulations, processes and educational programs that progressively (not aggressively) treat skin. Her line now has upward of 30 stockkeeping units distributed directly to the consumer, her base in Atlanta, and through the spa channel. Her work as a spa business coach provided a ready-made opening to partner with spas.

Sterling is particularly proud of her work within the larger community of her adopted hometown (she originally hails from South Africa). She’s worked with the Georgia Department of Education by serving on its curriculum advisory board, and volunteered time to offer advice and direction on career opportunities in underprivileged communities.

Sterling’s enthusiasm for finding new solutions through formulations and proper ingredients was palpable when we interviewed her at Indie Beauty Expo New York 2018. In the resulting video, produced for Elaine Sterling Skincare by the Indie Beauty Media Lab, she discusses how she pursued her dream despite the naysayers and how she derived her signature formulations. To wit:

On Getting Started

In 2008, I was a cancer survivor, and I decided that life is too short not to live your dream. I was an aesthetician from South Africa, and I have such a passion for skincare. I decided, “You know what? I never want to get older and say, ‘Oh my God, I never got to open my school, I didn’t build my skincare line.'” Because I had trained and taught and partnered with so many other skincare lines and with schools, it was really time to put myself out there. I did it in 2008 when the economy was fantastic, and everybody said, “Elaine you’ve lost your mind? What do you know about business? You don’t have a business degree, what happens if it doesn’t work out?”

On Pressing Forward

I had two children, I was a single mom and I was like I don’t care, this is who I am this is my dream. And so I opened my school with my credit card, and I went from six students in 2008 to 280 as of today. Then, as I worked, I began to develop home peels and home serums. Every time a client would say to me I have this issue or I have that issue, I would really think about it—OK, what is actually triggering this and how can we deal with this? So, that’s kind of my thought process, and I grew it out to about 30 SKUs now. I have a glamorous line that’s absolutely beautiful.

On Her Living Laboratory

I have [had] a living laboratory in my school for over ten years. We have been able to cultivate these incredible ingredients and products that really make a difference to the skin that you can see and feel…. [So] if your skin doesn’t have enough moisture, what is wrong? Is it because you’re alipidic, lacking oil, or is it because you’re dehydrated, lacking moisture? We need to get to the bottom of this and, then, we can mimic that and support that, and perhaps ignite some of that to be able to correct that acid mantal.

On Fancy Words And Favorite Ingredients

I have a lot of interesting ingredients in my products. A lot of vitamin C because vitamin C is a counter-irritant and an anti-inflammatory and has some really good clinical results. But I use forms of vitamin C that are very stabilized because certain vitamin Cs aren’t stable. I also use a lot of berries that are skin brighteners as well as tyrosinase inhibitors, which are fancy words for basically suppressing that melanocyte to stop the formation of excess pigment on the skin so you don’t get brown spots. I have a lot of peptides, different types of peptides that are going to talk to the cells, and what they’re going to do is stimulate the cells to basically build your own stem cells or ignite your own stem cells or ignite your own growth factors in the skin. Because, if you put collagen on the skin, the molecule is too large, so I’ve got to basically stimulate the skin’s own collagen to make the skin’s own stem cells. That’s very very important because a lot of the molecules in skincare are too large. So, we have very small molecules.

On Problem-Free Solutions

My products are non-comedogenic, that means they won’t block the pore. [I use] retinol, which is a stable, live form of vitamin A, and that’s really important for anti-aging and renewing or exfoliating the skin. I have a lot of chemical peels. Mandelic is one of my main ingredients, which I absolutely love, which is very powerful in healing acne and hyperpigmentation. I work with a lot of acids. Lactic acid has been my favorite because it’s non-irritating and able to bring moisture to the skin.

Really good skin care begins with Elaine Sterling Skincare from elainesterlingskincare.com.