Dr. Michelle Wong
Dr. Michelle Wong is the Sydney-based chemist behind Lab Muffin Beauty Science, explaining skincare, haircare and cosmetic ingredients through videos, articles and books.
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Michelle’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus their backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
DK
Ebook
Lab Muffin Beauty ScienceOverview
- Based in
- Sydney, Australia
- Work
- Chemist, science communicator, educator and author
- Started
- Lab Muffin blog, December 2011
- Turning point
- YouTube in 2017; full-time creator by mid-2019
Mini bio
How it started.
Michelle started Lab Muffin in December 2011 because researching beauty products kept leading to confusing advice and misinformation. They wanted to make the underlying science easier for anyone to understand. Their chemistry PhD explored cyclic peptides, including how to make them and investigate their potential uses.
From blog to full-time work.
YouTube became a turning point in late 2017, bringing more sponsorship opportunities and a growing workload alongside a teaching job. By mid-2019, Michelle could support themself through content creation and left the day job. A 100,000-subscriber Q&A followed in April 2020.
Books for the bathroom shelf.
The first ebook, The Lab Muffin Guide to Basic Skincare, arrived in May 2018 and focused on cleanser, moisturiser and sunscreen. The Science of Beauty followed in 2024 with more than 100 questions about beauty products and routines, illustrated with graphics and grounded in research.
Beyond the product review.
Michelle also cofounded BeautySciComm and cohosted two seasons of Adore Beauty’s Skincare School. In 2026, they joined the American Chemical Society’s Tiny Matters podcast to discuss clean beauty marketing, fear of chemicals and misinformation.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books
- 2024The Science of BeautyAuthor
- 2018The Lab Muffin Guide to Basic SkincareAuthor
Talks and podcasts
- 2026Tiny Matters: Clean beauty, cosmetics, chemophobia and the anti-vax pipelineGuest
- 2024Social Media: The New Frontier of Sunscreen (Mis)informationPlenary speaker, 6th International Conference on Ultraviolet Radiation and Skin Cancer Prevention
Awards
Quotes
I think empathy is really underrated when it comes to trying to promote science, trying to promote people making more rational decisions.Michelle Wong, Tiny Matters, American Chemical Society
Discussing how personal connections help science communication, May 13, 2026. Source linked below.
Trivia
- The name Lab Muffin came from setting up a blog while sitting in a lab, combined with a nickname from a partner at the time.
- The first substantive Lab Muffin post, published on December 9, 2011, tackled natural versus chemical ingredients.
- Michelle attended the 2004 Australian Science Olympiads Chemistry Summer School after tagging along with a friend.
- Michelle moderated Reddit’s SkincareAddiction community for more than four years.
Find Michelle
Follow Michelle for beauty science, experiments and a closer look at the evidence.
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