We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maya Crowne. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maya below.

Maya , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Sure, I love painting pictures (no pun intended). Before the pandemic, I was taking art classes at the New York Academy of Art. When the school closed down I was looking for a creative project so I thought why not repaint my apartment in New York City? I could be there for a while. I went to Home Depot, strolled down the paint aisle, and, through my n95 mask, could still smell that familiar paint ‘fume’. I immediately thought, “I am going to suffocate inside of my apartment”, because I can’t leave. I also thought about upsetting my neighbors because they also couldn’t leave their apartments at the time. Additionally, because of COVID-19, everyone was generally concerned about being able to breathe period. Naturally I started to wonder, why does paint smell so bad in the first place? I did two minutes of research and quickly discovered that 95% of paint we use globally is acrylic/latex, which is by definition plastic, but we have been painting our spaces long before the advent of plastic…there had to be a better way. That is how Alkemis Paint was born.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Maya Crowne, the CEO and Co-Founder of Alkemis, The World’s First Wellness Paint. a clean, modern and aspirational brand bringing nature and design together to create healthier, more intentional interior spaces.

Alkemis is ethically produced to help customers breathe easier and live more harmoniously. As one of the only Cradle to Cradle Certified® paints in North America, and the first to harness the wellness powers of natural pigments and crystals, Alkemis Paint eschews environmentally harmful synthetics and toxic pollutants but does not sacrifice performance: Alkemis Paint is as indestructible as stone and will typically give 20+ years of satisfactory performance before repainting is necessary (far exceeding the life cycle of traditional latex or acrylic paints) all while being naturally fireproof (certified Class A ASTM E84 fire resistant) and mold/fungi resistant.

Alkemis’ hand-crafted mineral-based paints are unique in that they are free from synthetic pigments, hazardous organic pollutants (HAPs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), plasticizers/phthalates, preservatives, solvents, biocides, and alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs)—making the product safe for all living beings.

My professional background has been in finance and entrepreneurship. Though I consider myself a self proclaimed ‘aesthete,’ and art and design enthusiast, I have not had professional experience in the space until now. Conceptually, Alkemis Paint was formed to address a problem in the market, which is that there have historically been no real alternatives to fossil fuel based paints. As someone that cares a lot about my health and the health of the planet, myself and my incredible co-founder Price Latimer, are proud to part of the solution and not the problem. Did you know that ‘architectural coatings’ are one the largest contributors to micro plastics in the ocean according to an article done by Forbes in 2022. Did you know that babies are born now with 257 chemicals that are directly correlated to micro plastic exposure? Now you do. Why paint your home, where you spend 90% of your time, with plastic when you can paint it with minerals and crystalline pigments.

I am most proud of some of the collaborations we have done to date and even more excited about what is coming up on the horizon. I have been attending Miami Art Week for as long as I can remember and we are so proud to be the Preferred Paint Partner of Design Miami/. I had put that vision into my manifesting journal before we launched the company and I am so grateful to have achieved it in under a year.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my cofounder, Price Latimer, at a wellness retreat in Sante Fe in 2020. I was immediately drawn to Price because she is exceptionally cool and interesting (anyone that knows her will attest to this). We bonded over a shared love of art, wellness, and aesthetics. As our friendship grew I eventually mentioned my budding ‘Clean Paint’ concept to her. As someone with a professional business background, I needed help with the creative side of brand building. I knew Price and I shared similar aesthetic standards, although I had no idea what she did professionally, I simply asked if she knew anyone that could help me build a design centric brand that would meet my visual standards. I was elated when she asked me ‘well do you want more help than me just referring you to someone?’ Little did I know at the time that Price was a graduate of RISD, had an extensive career in art and design, in the process of getting a formal education in interior design at Parsons and just leaving her last entrepreneurial endeavor. Call it fate, but it certainly was, in my opinion, meant to be.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We strongly believe that the modern consumer is looking for products that are clean, modern, and aspirational. When you think about the paint market in general, you have a couple of companies that are doing one or two of the above (from a category perspective) but you don’t have anyone doing all three…until now. As we build our brand, we are steadfast in who we partner with from a collaboration standpoint because it directly impacts our reputation within the market. These brand associations, especially when you are building a new category for a product (aka “Wellness Paint”) are exceedingly important. Design is very visual so instead of doing traditional distribution (like at a Home Deport) we partner with design galleries (like R&Company or MC+ Design Studio), design fairs like Design Miami/ and brands (like Tata Harper or Cisco Home) that align with our core values. People are then easily able to purchase our products directly online.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alkemispaint.com
• Instagram: @alkemispaint @mayacrowne
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alkemis-paint/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNVmSFQ-ve-sBkX648OE7pw
• Other: TikTok @alkemis.paint

Image Credits

Shot of me solo with green background: Matt Borkowski/BFA
Me & Price: Magdalena Wosinska
Alkemis Can: Joe Kramm
Us with Tata Harper, Parsons School of Design, Moral Turgeman, and Hilah Stahl from Spoak (BFA)
All Interiors Shots: Logan Jackson