INTRODUCING SARAH CREAL

Written by LENA RAFF
Photography by CARLOS RUIZ

Beauty industry veteran Sarah Creal wondered why no one was talking to her. With a twenty-year career that began behind the makeup counter at Bergdorf Goodman and evolved into product development and brand building for some of the world’s most coveted collections—Tom Ford Beauty, the original Prada Beauty, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, and Victoria Beckham Beauty, to name a few—she had always been both a purveyor and an (enthusiastic) customer of skin care and makeup—that is, until her 40th birthday.

Creal explains, “I realized that there was no luxury brand that was formulating for, educating, or reflecting women over 40 in a way that I found cool and exciting.” To verify that this experience wasn't her's alone, Creal called her sister, who was 55 at the time, and asked if she had a hard time finding good beauty products. “She said, ‘Yes, my vanity is a graveyard of formulations that don't work.’”

With the sense she was onto something, Creal kept at it. “I actually did research on luxury beauty shoppers over 40 in the United States,” she explains, “and I asked them about their pain points. This was really my inspiration for founding the brand. I wanted to create an entire world with skin care and makeup that would actually keep up with this client.”

This world was to be one without creasing, fading, dry texture that emphasized lines and wrinkles, and colors that transferred and traveled—the product pitfalls that Creal sought to rectify with three non-negotiable criteria: wear, repair, and moisturization. The founder posits, “As you get older, it's extremely important that the formulations you put on your skin are thin, period! This doesn't mean that they aren't potent, incredibly active, and multitasking, but they need to be able to float over the skin.”

Float is right. Each product—from exceptionally pigmented eyeliners that glide on with help from an included brush, to a radiant concealer that easily stretches to become a skin-like foundation, and a balm bronzer and mousse blush that blend seamlessly while keeping the complexion looking bouncy—every product creates a flexible veil that moves with you, both through facial expressions and the day. The sheer, hydrating formulas (infused with peptides and ceramides) seem to somehow skim the skin, never settling into texture or fading out, so that they still appear freshly applied after 12 hours—something Creal ensured through rigorous clinical testing.

As for those under 40, Creal says, “When you are in your 20s, everything looks good on you, but when you develop for people over 40, you see that you really need to have products that perform at a higher level. What I've learned through this process is that anything that looks amazing on those 40-plus is also going to look great on someone younger. But the converse is not true.”