It’s rare that I devote a whole column to one brand, but not as rare as the decision by any beauty company to back women over 40, so I think Sarah Creal is worthy of the inches.
Creal, co-creator of Victoria Beckham Beauty and product developer of countless global companies for more than 30 years, felt that women of her generation (she’s 56) and their specific beauty challenges (hooded eyelids, decreased product wear time and so on) were being overlooked by major brands in favour of teenagers. Wander into any lip-oil slicked, Korean sheet-mask filled, freckle-pen-dotted branch of Sephora and tell me she’s wrong.
Creal, a New Yorker who recognised the buying power of what will perhaps be the last generation of consumers to have done better than their parents, decided to build an entire brand for mature, busy women with a love of luxury and a bathroom cabinet full of products that no longer serve them. The buzz around her 2024 US launch had me walking from one Manhattan Sephora to the next, buying whatever scraps I could lay my hands on. But it’s the quality of the products that kept me refilling at each visit.
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Now Sarah Creal Beauty is available here, in branches of Space NK and via Creal’s website. So what’s good? A lot. Eyes Up Creamy Kajal Longwear Liners (at £28, a fiver less than the bestselling Victoria Beckham pencils she co-created) outlast any liner I’ve tried. I get no smudging, fading or migrating for 12-plus hours. Moisture Source (£30) is a liquid moisturiser I sandwich underneath my daycream every day. It gives plump, glassy glow without grease. One tiny dot of Face Flex Correct (£44) under each eye wipes out the signs of perimenopausal insomnia. I’d skip the sunscreen (too pricey in a strong category), eye cream (it pills), and if I had oily skin, the bronzer (I’m dry and love it). But Creal has only just got started – several new launches are brewing.
The downside, inevitably, is that Sarah Creal Beauty is expensive. The upside is that her good sense is contagious. US mega brand CoverGirl has formally announced that it will no longer be chasing gen Z, focusing instead on middle-aged consumers. Luxury brands that had once scoffed at the idea of being stocked at M&S are now clamouring for shelf space at what is among gen X’s favourite beauty retailers. In financially precarious times, some basic respect for your customer pays.
