Meet Evereden's obsessive Senior Director of Product Development. He's the father of two daughters, an avid golfer, and he uses the same skincare products as his girls.

You won’t find James Han, Evereden’s Senior Director of Product Development, on social media — except for LinkedIn. In January 2020, he finally succumbed to peer pressure and made a LinkedIn profile. He didn’t realize that he had opened his profile to messages from recruiters. (It's confusing!) A year later, he was contacted by a headhunter and found himself at Evereden three weeks later, where he immediately dove headfirst into the deep waters of developing science-backed formulations with meticulous approach.

The Bob Marley fan is a father of two daughters (his eldest daughter’s name is Marley; his second daughter is named Bella) and one dog named Salanghee (which means One Love — aw! — in Korean). “I believe that time with your children is something you can’t get back,” he says. “Therefore, any free time I have, I try to spend it with my two girls and wife to create as many lasting memories as possible.” He refers to his wife as Superwoman, while he is her Lois Lane!  

Every morning, James takes Salanghee on her walk before coming home to meditate for 15 minutes. This is usually the only peaceful moment he gets all day! “Throughout the day, I usually have meetings set up with contract manufacturers, our internal team, and the lab-slash-chemist," he says. “Project management takes up a lot of my time, which makes sense since product development is where the project starts.”

There is plenty of playing with formulations involved — but it’s not just product sampling. The process starts with data analysis and team feedback on products to explore and create. When research is finished, the best part of James’ job begins! Formulation creation takes 2-to-3 months and usually 10-to-15 iterations before landing on the best product. (Two of the projects that James has worked on went through over 22 iterations!) Then, he tests the yet-to-launch product against the best competitor currently on the market with 75-to-120 of Evereden’s trusted consumers — including James’ family. “I am a father and husband who is highly involved and interested in helping the women in my life have better skin,” he says. “I have both my girls, ages 11 and 8, and my wife test all of our products.” If the feedback from consumers is excellent, James approves the final product for production.

But even data- and science-driven product formulation requires creativity and ingenuity at Evereden. “I really think that finding the perfect combination of ingredients to get the texture, absorption, playtime on skin, and efficacy of the product is the most challenging aspect of product development,” he explains. “There are a lot of product development ‘experts’ that just try to throw in the most trendy ingredients or a plethora of great actives — but to get the perfect formula, one must use their intuition.” He likens it to the work of an artist: “The technical colors and synergy between different textures of paint is important, but it’s this innate ability of the artist that makes the painting come to life.”

As a father, James believes in learning how to take care of your skin at an early age. In fact, he uses the same products as his girls! (Talk about practicing what you preach.) “I use our Kids Face Wash as my face cleanser and use our Ultra-Light Baby Face Cream for my morning and night moisturizer,” he explains. “ In the wintertime, when my skin is a little more dry, I use the Nourishing Baby Face Cream.  I also use the Kids Body Wash Melon Fragrance, which I love!” The Baby Face Cream is his favorite product at the company, in fact, because it is nourishing and filled with a high percentage of potent ingredients that make it one of the most moisturizing face creams on the market. “Plus, it is non-comedogenic and won’t clog the pores!,” he adds.

After all these launches in his first year at Evereden, where would you find James decompressing? “Playing golf with my wife and two daughters at Pebble Beach,” he says. “That would be heaven to me!”