Behind the scenes at your favorite companies.

Although it could be said that Benefit Cosmetics got its start when its founders, identical twins Jane and Jean Ford, were born in a small Indiana town, the brand officially debuted in 1976, when the twins opened a boutique in San Francisco called the Face Place. With the help of standout products like the undereye depuffer Oh La Lift and volumizing Lip Plump, the company soon became a word-of-mouth favorite among local beauty enthusiasts. By 1990 the Face Place had been renamed Benefit, and the brand had expanded to include five stores in the San Francisco area and counters at department stores around the globe.

Described as “a candy store for the face,” Benefit offers creative solutions to the universal beauty challenges that plague women of all ages, from finding the perfect moisturizer to picking the right products to make you sparkle on your wedding day. But unlike some brands, Benefit delivers its serious beauty solutions in playful packages with clever monikers, like Lemon-aid and Boo Boo Zap, that express the wit and creative flair of its founders. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” says Jean Ford. “We like to have fun, and we like to convey that in the products we create.” Along those lines, the company—which now boasts 650 cosmetics counters worldwide, an extensive catalog, and a dynamic website—eschews the standard top-down corporate approach, instead opting for roundtable discussions where all who are present can throw out ideas.

The brand also encourages its customers to help shape the direction its future products will take. “Benefit’s number-one goal is to really be there for our customers,” Jean explains. In turn, “they tell us what direction to go in as far as product development.” It was, in fact, this approach that led to the invention of one of the company’s best-selling products, Benetint. As Jean explains, an exotic dancer requested a product “that would give her nipples a nice rosy glow and last through all of her dance routines.” Dedicated to fulfilling the dancer’s request, the twins went home to their kitchen, steamed some rose petals, mixed up the now-famous potion, and presented it to the customer in the morning.

That same customer focus has continued to fuel the creation of Benefit’s products, including the newly released Dallas face powder, a favorite of Jane Ford: “It’s the outdoor glow for the indoor gal and a perfect mix between a blush and a bronzer,” she says. “It warms up the complexion and leaves the skin glowing with radiance.” The soon-to-be-released Color Plump, one of Jean’s favorites, is also solutions based: “It gives your lips a gorgeous color, plus it contains a tri-peptide complex to plump them up.” Longer-standing brand staples include Mr. Frosty, an iridescent highlighter pencil with eye-brightening effects; Dear John, a vitamin-rich cream for parched skin; and the ever-popular BadGal Lash—an über-mascara that neither Jean nor Jane leaves the house without.

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