Josie Maran had an unusual path to becoming a clean beauty entrepreneur. “I was always very eco-conscious, values that were installed in me by my parents growing up in California,” Maran tells GRAZIA USA. “I watched my mom struggle with chronic fatigue and my grandmother battle breast cancer and felt certain that the chemicals found in everyday products were making the people I loved sicker.”
The experience shaped Maran, who recalls growing up in a house that limited plastics and harsh chemicals. Maran’s real introduction to the beauty industry came early when she started modeling at age 12. “I was working on ad campaigns and editorials with top makeup artists,” says Maran. “I would always ask them if there were any green products that were chic and effective enough to use on set – and the answer was always no. So, I set out to turn that no into a yes, which was how I started dreaming up my beauty brand.”
Fast forward to 2007, and Maran finally made that dream a reality, launching her eponymous line, Josie Maran. With the company motto “luxury with a conscience” in mind, Maran created the brand; she was inspired after discovering the hydrating, fortifying, and nourishing properties of argan oil.
“The mission was to create the first earth-friendly beauty line that was also luxurious and in 2007, after three years of research and formulating and hard work, I did just that,” Maran explains. “I’m very exacting and methodical about the process. Whether it’s a new product that I’m launching or a new social campaign, I’ll examine every aspect of it and make sure it feels right to me. I try not to make assumptions based on how things have been done before. And I have an amazing team around me that helps make my dreams into reality.”
Since the brand’s inception, Maran and her team have grown the line to include Pro-Retinol Face and Body Creams, a Pineapple Enzyme Pore Clearing Cleanser, and the Whipped Argan Oil Face Butter along with makeup including an Argan Black Oil Mascara that nourishes and softens lashes, Argan Natural Volume Lip Gloss, and Argan Creamy Concealer Crayon. The products are sustainable and made with no synthetic fragrances, sulfates, or parabens; they are certified cruelty-free by PETA. The argan oil used in the products is harvested by women-led co-ops in Morocco using the highest quality argan nuts from UNESCO-protected forests.
The commitment to being earth-conscious is clear and this attention to detail has proved to be integral and key to the brand’s success. “Josie Maran was the first clean beauty brand to launch at Sephora,” Maran boasts. “One of my favorite mantras is ‘progress over perfection.’ To me, the journey is more important than the destination. My journey is about finding joy in the everyday; it’s about self-acceptance and love and lifting up other people around me. It’s about embracing your real, raw self—feeling comfortable and con#dent in your own skin.”
When deciding which new products to launch, Maran is inspired by solving a specific problem she wants to solve. “I ask myself, what do I want this product to elicit?” Maran explains. “I always question why I’m making it, in terms of the human experience of it; I must have a good answer for those questions. I want to love and care for people and one way I can do that is through products that are good for you and good for the planet.”
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