Josie Maran: More than Just a Pretty Face

Barney’s San Francisco opened up in November 2007, and with it came a new cosmetic line for green curious girls everywhere. Josie Maran is a model, actress, and former spokesperson for Maybelline who has launched her own greener line (Josie Maran). The line is still small (three shades of blush, three shades of concealer, three shades of tinted moisturizers) but she’s got several pretty eye shadows, lip colors, and glosses.

What’s brilliant about the line is the little labeling system that helps folks identify the ingredients list which can so often read like a foreign language. She’s got symbols for everything, and the counter will give you a Rosetta stone deciphering card so you can see which products are free of which ingredients. Several of her products contain organic ingredients, are paraben free, biodegradable, fragrance free, and petrochemical free, too.

I was thrilled to finally boogie my way down to Barney’s to try the new Josie Maran line, and was surprised that there was no one else playing in the makeup there. The line is conveniently positioned across from the new Nude skincare line by Bryan Meehan (of UK’s Fresh & Wild) and known for it’s famous supporters-Bono and Christy Turlington– which is smart– as Josie Maran offers no skincare, and Nude offers no makeup, and the two lines are the cleanest in the store. Still, I saw no one approach either line in the entire half hour I was there. Maybe it was a quiet day for everyone, or maybe the idea of green makeup is still incubating in the minds of department store shoppers….is there still a sense that green makeup is somehow less luxurious? Ironic, if that is the case, as petrochemicals were introduced into the industry as a way of making cosmetics CHEAPER to make, and therefore earning a higher return for the major brand holders!

Could this be the reason the Josie Maran line has started out so small? Did her investors advise her that it was too early in the game for a full line of gorgeous concealers, color, and skincare? And why are there no shades for women of fair OR deep tones? If I had wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to wear the concealer or even the tinted moisturizer (I’m not porcelain, but I don’t live in L.A., either, and they looked strange on me). And I was bothered that the line didn’t include deeper colors for women on the other end of the pigment spectrum. This is far too common in the cosmetics industry in general, and as a makeup artist and a woman I have come to expect more. But it’s very possible that the line was designed to do well for a younger (18-25 market) in L.A. (where the majority of Barney’s shoppers certainly sport their fair share of tans, and wear nothing more than a tinted moisturizer and a little gloss). If that’s the case, they nailed it….but we’re going to need a little more research up here!

I’m glad I got a chance to try the Josie Maran line, and I’m soooooo glad that a major department store is carrying a greener makeup AND a greener skincare line!!! I only hope that more Barney’s shoppers will gather the nerve to try them out…..

Green Girls Like Glitter, Too.

After spending two hours reading labels in Sephora the other night, I filled my basket with products from lines I wanted to try, knowing full well that some of them would contain questionable ingredients ….but (I rationalized, in the midst of a spending frenzy), since there are still limited choices for totally clean cosmetics (it’s much easier to find a line of green skincare than it is to find an entire line of green makeup)….I felt I OWED it to my fellow greener consumers to shop with reasonable guidelines: I vowed to buy nothing with parabens, nothing with isopropyls and nothing with propylene glycol…which ruled out 95% of the products in the entire store. Yikes!

Here’s what I put in my basket:

I was excited to try Korres, a Greek line that offers skincare (which is carried by Whole Foods) and cosmetics that is being promoted as super natural and groovy. Sephora always gets great little trial packages that often include full size product, and Korres had one with a bronzer, a mascara, and a tube of their lipgloss for $36. Great deal, and the Sephora girls were very excited about the line. Korres also offers concealers in three shades, which have the dreamy application of YSL’s Touche E’clat (As a makeup artist who works with many brides, I am on a constant search for a eco-under eye concealer) After a cursory inspection of the mascara ingredients, I put the trial bag in my basket, along with a concealer and a lipliner.

Next, I grabbed a cheek stain from Tarte (from the “healthy couture” portion of the line) called Full Blossom. This product is a creamy, push up blusher that’s swirled color, and used to go by the name of “Natural Swirl”. While I was there, I also found a creamy bronzer for the legs (not a self tanner, just a physical bronzer) called “Glam Gams” that went into my basket.

Next, it was onto Bare Escentuals, where I found their “Weather Everything” eyeliner sealer, for use with mineral makeup to make it waterproof (This is an issue for brides, and a sticky one when it comes to ingredients). But so it goes, right? Wrong. I looked hard at the ingredients….and I just couldn’t do it. It went back on the shelf immediately. What I did find, however was an intense desire to leave the store with something sparkly…. My Sephora helper works as a makeup artist for Drag Queens, and understood my urge completely. She directed me to Urban Decay’s line of enormous body covering glitter brushes that look as though they were designed for use by an entire harem. Three colors, three scents, all named after drinks. I glittered myself up, and smelled like a scratch and sniff sticker of a cosmo, but she assured me that the entire Urban Decay line was vegan. I read the ingredients and moved on. I wound up in the middle promo aisle, and bumped smack into a display of Bare Escentual’s newest allover greenish gold shimmer, called “Genuine Jade Beauty Duo”.

It went into the basket with a giggle.

Next, I wanted to investigate the glosses a little more closely. Tarte had some cute gloss options in their “healthy” line, one was a set of four double ended glosses–a remarkable deal–and the other was a two-sided gloss with a color on one side, and tooth whitener on the other. Ingenius!!! I couldn’t decide. I put them both in my basket, and walked over to Carol’s Daughter glosses. Clean ingredients YAY! But I didn’t like the texture, or the look of them.

Finally (because the store was closing), I examined the contents of my basket and found that I couldn’t take home the Korres trial bag. The first ingredient in their gloss was polybutene. It was also the first ingredient in Tarte’s glosses. Polybutene is not only a petrochemical which makes glosses glossy, but also has a currently-being-researched relationship with formaldehyde. I vowed then and there to be more careful about the things that go directly on my lips, and put all of it back.

I left the store with my cheek stain, my creamy leg bronzer (both from Tarte) my Green Jade sparkles, and a petrochemical free smile on my lips.

Results?

The cheek color is gorgeous. The bronzer is cooling (it tauts goji berry, aciai, and pomegranate), and the subtle Jade sparkle is fantastic!! My husband’s eye’s lit up when he saw it and he immediately brushed it copiously across his very hairy arms. He asked if it was a) too girly for him to wear, and I assured him it would bring him good fortune and b) where they got the jade.

Good question.

Green Goes Buh-Bye?

I’m really disappointed. I have been so busy that I forgot to share some of the cool new products I’ve tried lately, and in the two weeks that have passed, one of those products took a bit of a hit on the open market. I’m talking about Physician’s Formula newest Organic Line. It is the very first makeup line in the U.S. to be “Eco-Cert” qualified, and while the line is starting out small (tinted moisturizers, bronzers, blushers, concealers & powders), the packaging is delightful (it’s primarily made from recycled paper), and the quality is pretty good (considering you can pick it up at your local drugstore). The line was launched initially, it seems in packaged sets: A tinted moisturizer plus a bronzer plus a concealer stick for $24.00

Did I mention the price point is FANTASTIC? Anyway, I bought two sets and returned the one which didn’t look great on my skin (the fair to light tint has a pink undertone, while F/L bronzer is super warm, and the concealer stick smelled so strangely fruity that I had to wash my face before I could enjoy my dinner). No problem returning products to Walgreen’s, even used, which I LOVE. I ended up getting a smaller light to natural set, giving the bronzer to my husband who WORSHIPS it, and purchasing a separate bronzer called “natural” which has a touch of pink mixed in with it. It’s one of the best bronzers I’ve ever used, and I love that it is organic, and weird ingredient-free.

So yesterday I felt ready to further explore my relationship with Organic Physician’s Formula, and walked into my local Walgreen’s to find that the line had been pulled. “Not enough interest”, they said. PF (like many cosmetic companies) test certain markets by introducing these package sets, and seeing how well they sell before stocking a store with individual SKUs of their products. My local Walgreen’s is here in San Francisco, in Pacific Heights (a neighborhood that tauts a nice Whole Foods, several wine bars, and hundreds of educated female hippies and other liberals who have achieved some level of success (it costs a small fortune to live next to the dog park in a studio). Why aren’t these people buying organic makeup? Is it that they prefer not to wear any at all? Or perhaps they get the goods from the paltry selection at Whole Foods? No. I’ve spent hours in the cosmetics aisle in Whole Foods, reading the backs of moisturizer bottles and tubes of lip gloss, and I am usually alone. You know where I see my neighbors?

In the department store, sitting in a makeup artist’s chair. (sometimes mine)

Yes, while I am “The Green Makeup Artist”, I am also an artist for a major line. It gives me a chance to touch all kinds of faces, not just those of models or brides, and it teaches me discipline. I confront the ugly demons of acne, dark circles, rosacea, heavy or mismatched foundation, and much worse, on a regular basis. I am also given the chance to educate– to retrain insecure or unhappy women to see themselves as beautiful, and to use less makeup, skillfully to look the way they wish they looked when they woke up. (that’s a mouthful!)

Anyway, I don’t talk to these women about Green makeup choices unless they ask. While I represent a philosophy of beauty that is natural, I am also being paid to represent one line in particular. So who am I to blame my friends and neighbors for Organic Physcian’s Formula poor launch result?

I endeavor to balance the scales of cosmetic injustice by posting here much more often, and attending as many green “networking” events as possible. I may not be able to preach from my prepaid makeup pulpit, but I can surely spread the green gospel when I walk amongst my own people. Watch out, Dog Park!