MARA Cosmetics is an organic skin food hub founded and created by Clare Eluka in 2010. Starting at the tender age of 17, Clare spent the next 8 years working for luxury brands such as Bobbi Brown, The Body Shop and BECCA and on shoots for musicians, film and TV whilst studying as an actress.

Clare realised that as a skin care expert, makeup trainer, deputy manager and visual merchandiser there was still a huge gap in the cosmetic market for 100% purely organic skin care. Clare made a transition to beauty writer for online fanzines and fashion blogs in 2008 and began investigated branding, ingredients and companies claiming to be organic. As a young woman with wheat and dairy allergies, it became an up hill struggle to find products that are non-synthetic and do not contain bulkers like Hydrologized Wheat, Sodium Lareth Sulfate and Alcohol which over time damage the skin and aggravate allergies on the skin, hair and even internally. Clare constructed a range based upon ingredients that compliment each other, can be used in their purest form and have an adequate shelf life.

“I realised that If I wanted to see a change in beauty regimes, I had to be that change and create the change - hence MARA Cosmetics was born. People have called me crazy for starting a business in the mist of a recession. I think there is no time like the present. Creative people can now afford to take risks and change career path as old structures diminish and new innovative business concepts come through” - Clare Eluka.

‘In Igbo the word for beauty is ‘mara mma’. Because of my Nigerian roots and western upbringing, the collaboration of natural beauty with London style packaging and marketing is the perfect hybrid’.

The first range for Mara Cosmetics is The Brantastic Range. The clue is in the name! The prime ingredients of the range are Rice Bran Oil extracted from Brown Rice (the healthiest oil in the world), popularly used in Asian countries like Japan. Mango Butter indigenous to India, is an exotic, quick absorbent used for moisturising dry to all skin types. The range currently consists of a cleanser, toner and moisturiser.

The benefits of using MARA Cosmetics are that it is homemade skinfood, good enough to eat! The Brantastic Range is for all skins, including pregnant women, babies, elderly people, men and women. We are a unisex, universal brand whom pledges to appeal to ANYONE WITH SKIN.

MARA Cosmetics is an eco friendly brand. We encourage all of our customers to reuse the recyclable plastic packaging by sending it back to us to refill as their next purchase. MARA Cosmetics can afford to be priced at a fraction of what luxury brands are selling because we do not use expensive marketing tools, fancy packaging, colourings, stabilizers and unnatural preservative. We refuse to test our products on animals and have been dermatologically tested on human skin. MARA Cosmetics are free from: wheat/ dairy/ gluten/ parabens/ alcohol/ artificial colourings/ glycerine/palm oil and SLS.  It is surprising that in this day and age, many people do not understand the long term effects dangers of chemicals in product. We source the best raw ingredients from a manufacturer on Yorkshire who liaises with China to provide MARA’s Rice Bran oil and our distributor in Surrey who sources our Fair trade  Rose Water from Bulgaria.

By Clare Eluka - Beauty Writer for A-SHU.CO.UK.