Meet the Founder

Meet the Founder

Dr. Nilufar Rahimova, MPharm, PhD

Pharmaceutical Scientist • Skincare Formulator • Founder of NILCEUTICA

Azerbaijan Medical University (Baku, Azerbaijan)

Master and Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan)

Postdoctoral Training, Departments of Pharmacology and Rheumatology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.

NILCEUTICA was born from a simple problem: dry, sensitive skin that no product could soothe. But behind that problem stood a scientist — Dr. Nilufar Rahimova, a pharmaceutical researcher with years of experience in advanced biomedical labs at Kyoto University and the University of Pennsylvania.

When drugstore moisturizers and luxury creams alike failed, Nilufar did what any scientist would: she researched, formulated, and created her own. The result was a revelation — skincare that nourished deeply, felt sublime, and delivered visible results.

That personal journey became a passion. Over the next 12 years, Nilufar honed her craft, blending rigorous pharmaceutical science with the purest plant-based actives. Today, NILCEUTICA embodies that vision: high-performance skincare that refuses to compromise on quality, efficacy, or integrity.

 

"At NILCEUTICA, we formulate as if every product were for ourselves and our loved ones — because that’s how it began, and how it will always be".

Our small-batch, in-house crafted formulations marry advanced cosmetic science with botanical intelligence. We use no distilled water, no fillers — only concentrated, multi-functional ingredients that work synergistically to simplify routines and transform skin.

We believe skincare should be as intelligent as it is beautiful — and that your skin deserves nothing less.

About my work in academia

At the department of Pharmacology, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania we have been working on finding new therapeutic targets for triple-negative breast cancers and androgen-independent prostate cancer.

We identified potential candidates (the top candidate was PKCa protein) that drive PD-LI up-regulation in both aggressive cancers.

We found that some cell lines respond to PD-L1 suppression, which is an immunotherapy target. The elevated levels of this protein and all downstream in this pathway can be the main reason why many patients don't respond to immunotherapy. This can also be used as a diagnostic tool to predict the patients who will respond and the success rate. The manuscripts are in preparation.

In the Department of Rheumatology, I was in charge of researching the biological reasons for a genetic TREX1 mutation that leads to the deadly rare genetic disease of RVCL. We designed several small-molecule inhibitors and CRIPR-Cas 9 gene editing systems as potential treatment options for current patients at University of Pennsylvania Hospital.