This profile of celebrity and entrepreneur Josie Maran is part of Street Meet, FLEETSTREET’s series, where we meet up with trailblazers and thought leaders to deliver unique insight and inspiration into issues we all care about.
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Josie Maran: From supermodel to superbrand to superpowers
Most know Josie Maran from her beauty brand namesake, which has been around for almost 20 years, launching in 2007 at Barney’s New York, with cold-pressed argan oil. While the supes before her leveraged beauty lines with their names, Maran really owns hers along with her brand’s purpose: environmentally-friendly products that appeal to the masses beyond the health food store personal care aisle. Yes, there was a time when that was the only place you could find natural beauty products. And as the public’s hunger grew for more sustainable makeup and skincare, so did Maran’s line. The former Maybelline model became the face of green beauty.
So what is the San Fran native up to now? Continuing to grow her Josie Maran beauty line (available at Sephora locations across Canada), continuing to do good (not just for our bodies with her products, but to help people, too, through the California wildfires fundraiser Beauty Together), the power of the colour red, and more.
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FLEETSTREET: How have the wildfires affected you, your business, and your life? How did Beauty Together come about?
Josie Maran: “Los Angeles is home for me – I started my brand here, raised my daughters here and have so many cherished memories here. To see the amount of damage the wildfires were causing was heartbreaking. There are people so dear to me who have lost their homes, including my youngest daughter’s teacher. Their school also burned down. The scale of loss and suffering is immense.
“As soon as I heard what was happening, I immediately began thinking about how to help. I think we all felt an immediate urge to help. It’s easy to feel helpless against a tragedy of this scale. I was inspired to see what so many of my fellow beauty brands were doing. I knew it would be much more powerful if we joined forces and that it needed to happen as fast as possible to get relief to people.
“Each of us can help amplify what the others are doing and make the impact that much stronger. So, I cleared my calendar and started calling and texting people. It all came together in about 48 hours. I have a wonderful support team of friends and volunteers who help. My husband has an extensive background in fundraising, and his support and guidance have been invaluable. We continue to get more brands joining Beauty Together all the time, which helps us stay energized and keep going.”
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FS: You’ve said you follow the ideal that prioritizes progress over perfection. How do you do that?
JM: “The Josie Maran tagline is ‘Feel good naked,’ which means feeling good in your skin, staying passionate and curious and valuing progress over perfection. It’s enjoying the journey of becoming, of figuring yourself out both privately and publicly, and not just racing to the end—because there is no end. We are always works in progress. It means enjoying your body. Being kind to it, nourishing it, cultivating it, and respecting it. Feel Good Naked is what we want to help you to feel and do in your life. We do this by creating products that are clean and sensorial, that feel and smell incredible, and that really work so that you love them so much that you never want to stop using them.
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FS: Retinol has long been used in pharmaceutical and luxury skincare brands. How does it fit within green beauty?
JM: “This is not a traditional retinol. Traditional retinols are typically synthetic or animal-derived forms of vitamin A. Our pro retinol is a natural form of vitamin A that comes from a pink algae called dunaliella salina.
“This form of vitamin A/beta carotene is non-irritating while still keeping many of a traditional retinol’s benefits, such as boosting skin’s turnover cycle, visibly retexturizing bumps and unevenness, and reducing the look of fine lines and wrinkles. It also contains argan oil, which is deeply nourishing and can do all this without upsetting the skin’s natural balance.
“This plant-based form of pink algae is grown in a lab, so we can extract the ingredient without disturbing its natural lagoon ecosystem, which fits in with our environmental standards. I’m so proud of this formula and it’s an essential part of my own daily routine.”
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FS: How have you evolved with using fragrances? What smells do you love?
JM: “Scent is such a powerful part of how we experience the world, and when I was developing our new body butter fragrances that came out last year, I was inspired to recreate some of my most cherished childhood memories. My goal was to create fragrances as sophisticated and nuanced as chemical perfumes that could capture not just the smell of something but a feeling, a memory, and to create them with 100-per cent natural ingredients.
“It was a big ask, but I found the perfect partner in Jerome Epinette, who loved the challenge. The feeling of treating myself to a melting vanilla soft serve ice cream cone after a day at half moon bay beach became Vanilla Vibezzz, the bright optimism and juicy goodness of the pixie tangerines from Ojai became Topless Tangerine. The scent of juicy figs off of a fig tree in our backyard, bursting with sweetness on a warm afternoon became Bohemian Fig.
“It’s a personal story for me. My mom struggled with chronic fatigue syndrome when I was growing up, and synthetic fragrances and chemicals would often trigger her symptoms, so we tried never to have them in the house. Even for me, synthetic fragrances can come as a jolt to the brain and the body and often cause me to have headaches. … I always have an unscented version for my mom.”
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Anything you want FLEETSTREET readers to know?
JM: “All throughout my brand, you’ll see pops of the colour red. Red is a very special colour for me. It means fire and passion, joy and life force. I wear it to bring me strength and power whenever I need to feel extra confident or grounded.
“It also [triggers remembering] a fun memory for me. At 12, I started modelling, so I really grew up staring into the camera lens, and there was always a little red ‘on’ dot staring back at me, besides the Leica label [on the camera]. I used to imagine that red light gave me a superpower, reminding me of my power centre, my joy.
“I like to imagine the pop of red throughout the line will bring a little bit of that power to others.”
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FS: How do you stay fit and healthy?
“Pilates with @itschelseagabrielle.”
What’s your go-to breakfast?
JM: “Lemon water, coffee, raw almonds.”
What are your favourite workout pants?
JM: “Rhone.”
What’s in your water bottle?
“Camelback for lemon water.”
What exercise are you secretly impressed you can do?
“Handstands!”