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May Globus

About May Globus

Vancouver City Editor May Globus is obsessed with the sartorial and all that surrounds it: art, design, culture, music and film. Oh, and she really likes writing about it, too. A left coast girl at heart, her Sweetspot finds just might show why the westside really is the best side.

For Your Benefit

Vancouver (Aug.04.10)

I'm not a typically envious person, but I turned a few shades of green last Thursday when meeting Maggie and Annie Ford Danielson, the six foot-tall glamazon daughters of Benefit Cosmetics co-founder, Jane Ford.

After all, I'd be the happiest clam out there with their quick access the brand's Dallas bronzer (which goes on my cheeks every day), BADgal blue mascara (which go on my bottom lashes every day) and Something About Sophia, from their Crescent Row fragrance collection (which is spritzed in my hair, behind my ears and on both my wrists every day).

Maggie and Annie let me ask them a few questions about their new, exclusive Sunday Funday and Scene Queen makeup palettes in between meeting and greeting with fans filing into Sephora for Benefit touchups.

MG: So you girls just got into town for a bit of a whirlwind preview for your new palettes?

MFD: It has been [a whirlwind]! Yeah, we're calling it the "book tour", because this has been our third week [going strong]. So the first week, we were on the east coast in New York and in Boston. Last week, we did Vegas, San Francisco and L.A., and now we're in Canada.

MG: What are your individual roles at the company?

AFD: Well, both of us do previews like this, and we go to [different] Sephoras and work with clients and really try to figure out what clients and customers want from beauty -- and from Benefit specifically. When we're not doing that together, I am based in San Francisco at the corporate office, where I do product development.

MFD: I'm [based] in New York. In addition, we also sell Benefit on the Home Shopping Network. So Annie and I are the brand spokespeople on air, and I'm also the account manager, which I manage from the east coast. But most of the time, we spend together on the road.

MG: You two seem to get along quite nicely!

AFD/MFD: Yeah!

MG: So was getting into the makeup business always your calling?

AFD: Not really. I think living in our house with our mom and with our aunt close by, there was always makeup around. It was very girly, and we got to play with it a lot, but I never thought it was what I wanted to really do. Even throughout college, I didn't think it was what I was going to do. Then Maggie called me one day -- because she's six years older, she'd been working [for awhile] -- and said she thought it was time and she really wanted to join Benefit and it got me thinking about it, too. It had never been brought up or was something that we were going to have to do.

MFD: It was never something that was forced. I feel like a lot of times when you work for your family or there is a family business where there's a next generation, there's a pressure to join. Our mom and our aunt never put that pressure on us. There was no pressure, which I think is good, because once you do decide, [at least] we had the choice. And when you make that choice, you're more passionate about it.

MG: Of course. And these new makeup palettes were your guys' idea?

AFD: Yes, it was our first shot at products, so it was exciting.

MG: Tell me a little about them.

AFD: So we have two palettes: Scene Queen, which is mine, and Sunday Funday, which is Maggie's. Scene Queen is a little bit more nightime and is in deeper shades, like blues and greys. We wanted to create something that gave women the entire look, so you have your blush, you have your highlighter, you have your shadows and eyeliner and brushes all in one set. We know, because we travel all the time, that it's hard to keep that stuff together.

MFD: For a lot of women, it's a little overwhelming to figure out what goes together and what colours are good for their skin tone. We specifically kept concealing products out of our kits because we chose these colors to go with every skin tone and every woman, so they can then use them in conjunction with their favorite -- and hopefully Benefit -- concealers and powders and foundations. We didn't want it to be limiting.

AFD: We hand chose all the shades and the concept, and [the palettes] are only exclusive to Sephora, just because the Sephora client really loves good makeup and they love to experiment, and it's the perfect item.

MFD: Kits are huge at Sephora, but there was no one doing the full face kit, so we really found there's a niche that we could fill.

MG: And Scene Queen and Sunday Funday correspond to each of your personalities?

MFD: A little bit of a different attitude! We were tasked with standing behind these and [conveying] the vibe we want to get across with these kits. Living in New York, with Sunday brunch and that whole concept of casual yet put together, it [was a question of how] do I put together trends like that into a colour palette. And that's what my palette represents.

MG: Benefit has always had phenomenal packaging, but I've noticed over the past few seasons, the illustrations look amazing. Do you collaborate with artists on that or is it done in-house?

MFD: For mainline Benefit, it's done in-house. But Annie and I, for these two palettes, actually collaborated with an outside artist because we really wanted to push the envelope. Not that Benefit artists can't do that, but we wanted to see what else was out there, and so we did work with an artist from London, Nikki Farquharson. She was sending in submissions and really getting our vibe.

AFD: With core Benefit, that the artistry is done in-house. Like you said, I think we're one of the only brands that can do that kind of playful, interesting packaging while still being sophisticated. Our artists in-house are [great] with keeping up with the times.

MG: So tell me about your line with the Home Shopping Network.

MFD: We decided to do that because as a brand we're in a lot of retailers in the U.S., but we just can't reach everybody. It's difficult for those who don't live near malls or Macy's or Sephora to understand Benefit. We wanted to reach out and try to grab a new customer, and being on the Home Shopping Network is ideal for that. It's also an amazing advertising for your brand, being on television -- there's nothing more powerful than that. For a brand like Benefit, it translates well on camera, since it's a bit of an unusual brand; it's very lifestyle-based and happy and not complicated. We knew it was going to be a win-win.

MG: How many items are in the HSN collection?

AFD: Right now we're trying to keep it small, to keep it simple because we don't want to demonstrate five different things. We demonstrate one thing and do it over and over again so people can grasp how easy it is.

MFD: I'd say there are 12 to 18 basic things for building the brand DNA.

AFD: We do Benetint and our brow products and our BADgal mascara.

MG: So a lot of your bestsellers.

MFD: Yes, exactly.

MG: What can we expect from Benefit going into 2011?

AFD: We have a lot of good things coming down the line. I think that our products have worked really well and have been really fun, but we've started to push the envelope in terms of what we put into our products and the amount of energy and time [that goes] into our formulas. POREfessional just came out, and we can't sell it fast enough. We're really trying to keep up and push the bar with every product we put out.

MFD: We're trying to capture the market on primers. Our first try was That Gal, and that was [great] for us. Every year we come out with another priming product, like Stay Don't Stray, which is an eye primer, and now we have Dr. Feelgood. We [would] like to be the ones known for our primers.

AFD: And concealers.

MG: My final question for you guys is what are the top three Benefit products you can't live without?

AFD: I would do Erase Paste, Benetint and Hula [blush].

MFD: I would also say Benetint, Brow Zings and then a lip gloss, like Back to the Fuschia, because I think it polishes everything off. It's amazing.

MG: Thank you so much for your time, ladies!

AFD/MFD: No, thank you!