Conversations with Leila San Jose

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leila San Jose. Them and their team share their story with us below:

A Filipina born and raised in San Jose, California, has always been passionate about helping people. Serving in the Air Force for six years, she consistently was an active member of her community volunteering her time to bring cheer to children who were suffering from the cold or suffering from illnesses. She performed in the honor guard in the state of Washington honoring those who had served before her.

Following after the military, she pursued her bachelor’s in web and graphic design at the Art Institute of Silicon Valley. That’s where she fell out of love with web and fell in love with graphic design. Following after, she experienced more graphic design work through Minted and then Marcus & Millichap. Following after, with a strong passion for graphic design she decided to pursue a master’s degree in Graphic Design at the Academy of Arts in California and is still currently doing.

She uses her passion as a drive through LeiFemme-to influence others to make better choices when it comes to beauty. Her love for clean beauty started with a Clean Beauty Retreat organized by Cassandra McClure where a group of girls came together and created an unbreakable bond. From then on, she remained a clean beauty advocate and became a co-founder of Clean Beauty Kit alongside of Celebrity Makeup Artist, Clean Beauty Podcast and Clean Beauty Host and CEO of Clean Beauty Kit Cassandra McClure determined to inspire “until all beauty is clean beauty”.

In December of 2020, she became obsessed with crystals and how crystals help the chakras and etc. Her and her cousin Darlyn San Jose kept buying more and more crystal jewelry from Crystals of the Cosmos to help them cope with the Pandemic stressors and the loss of Darlyn’s Dad that past June (Leila’s Uncle). The only thing they were missing was stud earrings. So she just decided to make their own, call the company Mahalyn-dedicate the jewelry pieces to their family members where they would choose a foundation. 10% of the proceeds would go to that chosen foundation. The company was rooted on the cultural background and family. We had helped 15 foundations in 2021.

Currently, she connects what she is passionate about honing on her graphic design skills to help others in the clean beauty community. During the pandemic, most companies or influencers wanted to rebrand and so it kept her busy during such hard times. She feels strongly about bringing awareness to subjects that aren’t being brought to the surface like to look for toxic ingredients in your products. Just recently, she had helped out Lynn, the founder of MASAMI a Conscious Beauty Collective Pop-up in designing a logo where their incentive is a collection of indie brands for April-May 2022.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The challenge I have is my PTSD from a very ghastly abusive relationship during the time I served in the military so I have to kind of step back when something triggers it. Obstacles for Clean Beauty, we have had a box print issue in the past and that really took us. But we were able to find a solution and work with what we could for Clean Beauty Kit. For Clean Beauty Conventions, we had to minimize our number of attendees due to COVID.

Sometimes I feel that I have to many hats that at times it can be too much. But I’ve been able to pull through because of the passion I have for everything I do.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work with Clean Beauty brands, I manage our ambassador program, and help with putting the events together. I create content for the Clean Beauty Kit and create logo designs and anything graphic design-related for the brands I work with. I create jewelry with resin and crystals.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Patience, everyone is going through something whether it’s financially or mentally. Self-care is a first must. There are other ways to spread awareness-conference call on Zoom, Clubhouse.

Contact Info:

• Email: layluh512@gmail.com
• Website: www.leilasanjose.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/leifemme/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leilasj/
• Other: www.cleanbeautykit.com

Image Credits
Cassandra McClure, Ford Photography, Alexandra Lally Casas