“You know, we use hundreds of different models,” Ms. Woodall said. “When we launched, we used 160 women from 83 to 16, from ebony to alabaster. I never wanted people to look and think, ‘I can’t see myself on this website.’”
The line is aimed at women 35 to 60 but Ms. Woodall thinks that the customer range is broader.
“What I learned from doing the shows around the world is that the bicoastal L.A. woman, the New York woman, is an anomaly,” she said. “Let’s get her out of the picture for a second because I’m more interested in the Chicago suburban mum or the woman at South Coast Plaza in California, the woman in New Jersey.”
“You know, we have some women who feel a bit lost and they need a reset,” she said.
She speaks very quickly when talking about tips. It’s easy to envision her as a teenager showing her British friends Clinique products she’d bought in America. Now she’s aiming her advice at an older crowd.
There are little things that are helpful,” she said of women over 35. “Think about how much powder is on the skin, because it will sit and look tired.” She never wears the stuff. “Maybe on telly,” she said.
For eyes: “Black eyeliner will close them up and emphasize dark circles, so blend it out. And please don’t get an eyeliner tattoo, as it will go green.”
She was leaving the next day to go back to London, then Spain to visit her sister for the holidays, then somewhere warm with her daughter Lyla. She was browsing yoga retreat destinations on her phone.
She remembered one more tip: “As our eyes lower with age, the brows follow it down. So go against the grain and fill the brows in under the arch and over the end,” she said with a sense of urgency. “It gives you a bit of an awakening and avoids a brow lift.”