So her role as senior development chemist and laboratory manager for skin, body, hair and suncare brand Q A, and developing exciting new and innovative products day in day out, is a dream come true.

‘It’s so nice to work in something that you’re passionate about and have an interest in,’ she says.

Q A founder Freddy Furber. (Image: Ellipsis Brands/Cuckoo PR)

The family-run brand, created by Freddy Furber and based at Wymondham, launched at the end of 2019. Riding out the challenges the pandemic posed for the then-fledgling brand, it is now stocked at more than 10,000 stores worldwide and sells a product every nine seconds.

Loved by beauty editors, who have likened it to cult brand The Ordinary, its products are 98 per cent natural and are formulated by a mostly female team right here in Norfolk.

It can sometimes feel like you need a chemistry degree to navigate the vast array of buzzy, TikTok trending skincare ingredients out there. But if you don’t know your azelaic acid from your cica, Q A’s signature bold rainbow packaging comes printed with a handy checklist, showing you the benefits of the products at a glance, so customers can devise their own, personalised skin or haircare routine.

Q A's Vitamin C range is one of its most popular. (Image: Ellipsis Brands/Cuckoo PR)

And because the products are developed, made and packaged in-house, prices can be kept accessible.

Norfolk magazine has been invited to Q A’s headquarters, to meet the team ‒ and, excitingly, I get to have a go at making my own product. The last time I stepped inside a science lab was at school.

On the day I visit, Joy is working on a cleansing balm, Mason is making a batch of lotion and Anna is doing some stability testing ‒ a standard 16-week-long procedure that all the products go through.

The skincare market is hugely competitive, so they can’t reveal exactly what the products they are working on are, but there are regular launches ‒ look out for the two newest, Collagen Cleansing Balm and Multi-Peptide Serum.

Hyalauronic acid is one of the range's hero ingredients. (Image: Ellipsis Brands/Cuckoo PR)

‘We get sent lots of ingredients and we have to vet them and make sure that they do what they say, that we like them and we like the feel,’ says Joanna. ‘Also we want exciting things, we don’t want the standard ingredient that everyone’s had, we want something that’s a bit different. With Q A we have our key ingredients such as the hyaluronic acids, the salicylic acids, those kinds of things, and then we have the........

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