Silk Formulas is a natural skincare company founded in 2020 by 📝Joshua Pellicer, 📝John Zdanowski, and David Jaeger. It makes small-batch, handcrafted skincare products from plant-based ingredients and markets them as vegan, cruelty-free, and free of parabens and GMOs. Its products have included Chia Serum and a Rejuvenating Skin Cream, both built on organic chia seed oil combined with somavalli oil. It has sold them through its own website and on Amazon.
Pellicer develops the formulas and presents the brand through the lens of alchemy, pairing traditional botanical knowledge with modern cosmetic chemistry. The flagship Chia Serum joins two traditions: chia, a Mesoamerican seed and one of the richest plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and somavalli (Psoralea corylifolia), an herb long used in Ayurvedic practice and a natural source of bakuchiol, which is marketed as a gentler alternative to retinol. The product packaging carries a personal note signed "The Alchemist" that frames skincare as self-acceptance rather than correction. As of September 2026, the brand's website, silkformulas.com, no longer loads.
📝Seth Blaustein introduced me to Joshua, and I got to know him by investing in his earlier company, Alchemy Unlimited. In 2020 Joshua, David, and I co-founded Silk Formulas, and I served as its CFO.