Bonjour mes amis!
Our interview with Jan Marini a few weeks back revealed much about the unique product line she has developed over 20 years. But beyond the chemistry, quality, medical validation and learning what really distinguishes Jan Marini from other lines , we got a glimpse of this very interesting woman and her humble beginnings.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of our interview was hearing Jan talk about what motivates her and gives her the drive to be as successful as she is. Beneath the elegance and runway chic (which come naturally to this former model) is a caring, very centered woman who seeks to draw out the talent and ability in her staff and employees.
What we learned was that Jan didn’t exactly grow up in the lap of luxury. She says that her home when she was younger was at the end of a dirt road, and her brothers slept on army cots in an old, dilapidated garage, with a dirt floor, because of the confines of their modest home.
Jan cites this early, modest upbringing amongst her most valuable strengths. She says that, as an entrepreneur, she finds that her past keeps everything in perspective. The challenges and crises that constantly crop up in business are easier to tackle for her.
This background has also given her competitiveness, tenacity, drive, and ultimately the desire for success. She says, laughingly, that success is much better than growing up in poverty. She loves that owning her own company means that she is ultimately responsible for both its successes and its failures.
Her natural ability as an entrepreneur would not have led to as much success as it has, were it not coupled with Jan’s passion. Jan is deeply in love with skin-care. She says that, even as a child, she was fascinated by skin. After years of lovely, clear skin, she developed severe cystic acne at nineteen. Her desire to understand what caused this chronic condition among young men and women, coupled with finding what REALLY worked to resolve it, launched her into serious skin-care research. She was deeply motivated, as a result of her own battle with cystic acne, to determine what physiological effects could be achieved from specific ingredients to make a difference. The rest, as they say, is history.
The benefit of this history, for all of us, is that Jan was able to produce an extraordinarily effective skin-care line. She says that the most rewarding part of her work is enjoying the use of her own products (which we all know she loves) and helping those with socially stigmatizing skin-conditions (such as acne or rosacea) to regain self-confidence through healthy, beautiful skin.
Her take-away message, for all of you lovely readers, is to really be educated about what you are putting on your skin. Everyone will claim to be the latest and greatest, but that obviously cannot be true. Ultimately, Jan says, there are only a few ingredients in skin care that are truly effective and have actual clinical and medical validation.
Only certain things will really work, so focus on what you want to change or improve about your skin (texture, pigmentation, fine lines, etc.) and find what is most effective for you.
As for those of us at A French Touch Salon, we’ve found that Jan Marini is most effective across the board.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the lovely Jan for giving us her time and allowing us to share her story!
If you’d like to hear more from Jan, you can check out her interview with Nip Tuck here.
A bientot!
