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About Us  

prima materia

(noun): Latin for “prime matter”

A term from early alchemy. Coined by Aristotle, it is the formless base of all matter. As a literal concept, “prime matter” is a material that can convert whatever it touches into something perfect.

A magnum opus

Scientists at Prime Matter Labs

We’re in the business of better beauty.

The beauty world is full of big ideas, but big ideas without the proper expertise to back them up fall flat. That’s where we come in. With the most experienced team and the best track record in the business, we do contract beauty manufacturing, but better. To us, that means beauty and personal care, made with care.

For the past forty years, we’ve based our operations out of Miami. But, with every client we’ve helped find success, we’ve grown ourselves as well, now with additional state-of-the-art facilities in LA and NYC.

Our mission is to be the most trusted product development and production partner for brands as they redefine the beauty industry. We consider ourselves lucky to work with incredible indie, emerging, and established brands to create award-winning products recognized by the media and loved by consumers. 

We can’t wait to share what we’ve learned with you.

Our Story


  • 1983

    Our Start

    Prime Matter Labs' journey began in Miami where our founders, Mark and Mohamed, were running an export business with their father. They soon joined forces with Frank, an experienced professional in hair care manufacturing. Together, they seized the opportunity to collaborate with a growing hair care brand, laying the foundation for what we’d become today.

  • 1984

    Building Chemistry

    As it became clear we were here to stay, we stocked up on quality hardware to help us meet demand. A prodo-Pak form fill and seal machine we bought in 1984 continues to deliver outstanding results even today (with a few upgrades).

  • 1991

    A New Home

    In 1991, after eight years of operating, we had completely outgrown our original lab in Medley. We decided to build a 50,000-square-foot facility in Miami Lakes, which still serves as our team’s headquarters.

  • 1995

    100 Strong

    We staffed up to over one hundred people for the first time ever in 1995. And it’s a good thing we did, facing growing demand for our products and a newly minted deal for a global lifestyle brand that wanted to partner on a full set of skin care products.

  • 1998

    National Footprint

    After more than a decade of helping brands grow and expand, we became the go-to manufacturer for some of the national players in the beauty space. Alongside some of the leading sun care brands in the world, we leapt into the new millennium.

  • 2000

    A Second Home

    We couldn't stay away from Medley for long. Upon recognizing the opportunity to expand our business into aerosols and bag-on value products, we decided to build out our second dedicated facility, just steps from our original home.

  • 2020

    Prime Matter Labs Is Born

    The manufacturing landscape has changes a lot since 1983, but our drive, innovation, and commitment to success have not. Amid the shifting landscape, we decided it was time for a new name and brand, looking to reach an even larger audience and show then what we can do.

  • 2021

    Growing West

    We spread our operations nationwide by acquiring Cosmetic Development Laboratories (CDL) in Torrance, California. By extending out reach and capacity, we were then able to help even more customers realize their goals, grow their businesses, and achieve success.

  • 2023

    Amplifying Capabilities

    We upgraded and scaled all our facilities to better service our customers on both coasts. In Miami, we completed the renovation of our Miami Gardens facility and added +12M units of bag-on-valve capacity to our Medley facility. We also doubled batching capacity at PML West​ in Torrance, California.

Our People

Leadership

  • Aaron Paas photo
    CEO

    Aaron Paas

    After growing up in Canada, Aaron spent his career working in consumer packaged goods and technology. He spent several years working with Procter & Gamble across every stage of brand and product development, then moved onto Etsy where he built and launched software tools for sellers. Aaron is also a founder himself, launching a natural personal care brand, Wildist in 2017. He joined Prime Matter as CRO in 2020.

  • Jennifer Hurtikant photo
    CSO

    Jennifer Hurtikant

    Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jennifer brings over 20 years of formulation, development, regulatory, and manufacturing experience to our team. As Chief Science Officer, she leads our science organization across the company to realize our vision of making contract manufacturing better for brands.

  • Jessica Khuat photo
    CFO

    Jessica Khuat

    Hailing from Canada, and now New York, Jessica joins us after a long and diverse career working across the finance organizations of Procter & Gamble and Heineken. She leads our entire Finance and Accounting organizations at all our businesses across all our sites to help drive our growth strategy.

  • Photo os Anwar Barakat
    VP, PML East

    Anwar Barakat

    Local to Miami, Florida, Anwar leads all Prime Matter Labs Miami-based facilities as the VP, Prime Matter Labs East BU. With a background in business administration and experience with virtually every aspect of the process, Anwar is a great source for information and guidance for team members.

  • Photo of Natalia Davalos
    Sr. Director of Operations

    Natalia Davalos

    As our resident Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Natalia oversees the manufacturing operations of our facilities in Miami Gardens and Medley, Florida, providing her strong leadership and problem-solving skills to ensure high performance production processes and operational excellence. Raised in Havana and currently based in Miami, Natalia studied chemical process engineering in Moscow and has over 20 years of experience in chemical engineering and operations at CPG and cosmetic manufacturing companies.

  • Photo of Reinaldo Hernandez
    Director, PML West

    Reinaldo Hernandez

    After starting as a Compounding Lead at Prime Matter Labs several years ago, Reinaldo has progressed through various roles in the company, leading to his current role as the Director, PML West BU Lead for our facility in Torrance, California. His passion for the production process was developed throughout his career working at personal care contract manufacturers where he sought out a variety of roles and responsibilities that provided him with the experience to manage teams and an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the production process.

  • Jason Obeso photo
    Director, Chief of Staff

    Jason Obeso

    As Chief of Staff, Jason helps to drive the company's growth by leading the development and implementation of some of the company’s key systems and supporting the Leadership Team on strategic and administrative planning and decisions. Jason joined Prime Matter Labs with experience managing supply chain challenges and had previously worked in sales and analytics at higher education institutions.

  • Photo of Tamima Najmeddine
    Sr. Director of Supply Chain

    Tamima Najmeddine

    Throughout her tenure at Prime Matter Labs, Tamima has taken on various roles across teams which has provided her with the experience to deeply understand our brand partners’ needs and our responsibilities to them as a true supply chain partner. She plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth flow of materials, efficient production, and timely delivery of products, and works closely with all departments to guarantee brand partners can meet their commitments.

  • Photo of Leora Schachter
    VP, Marketing & Brand

    Leora Schachter

    Native to the New York metropolitan area, Leora brings over 20 years of experience in strategic marketing, brand storytelling and audience development for consumer-packaged goods, wellness and technology companies. As VP, she leads the the company’s brand marketing initiatives, guiding client communications and supporting the Business Development team to help drive growth and awareness for Prime Matter Labs.

  • Adam Price photo
    VP, Technology

    Adam Price

    Adam leads the technology team tasked with developing and launching software products and tools that enhance and streamline our manufacturing and client management processes. Originally from North Carolina, Adam joined Prime Matter Labs with previous experience managing engineering teams at WeWork and developing apps and websites at MTV Networks.

Founders

  • Founder & Board Member

    Mohamed Barakat

    Mohamed grew up between Lebanon, Canada, Colombia, and Brazil — ultimately settling in Miami. His global perspective guides us with a big picture point of view for managing our growing business.

  • Founder & Board Member

    Frank Linares

    Frank was born in Cuba and grew up in Miami. He got his start at Cyclo Chemicals in Miami — specializing in raw materials synthesis and manufacturing for the personal care industry. After making his way up to Interim Technical Director, he left to found Prime. Frank instills in us the drive to take on the toughest formulation challenges and build for scale without losing sight of the goal.

  • founder & board member

    Maged “Mark” Barakat

    Mark, like his brother Mohamed, has lived all over the world. Mark's operations experience fosters our own goals to always find a better solution or more capable supplier with every project we take on.

Prime Matter Labs Medley team
Prime Matter Labs Warehouse team photo
Group photo of Prime Matter Labs Leadership team

Ready to launch?
So are we.