Then, earlier this summer, she launched Sarah Creal Beauty, designed for luxury shoppers over 40. The brand has been sold direct to consumers since its launch and consists of a compact range of skincare and color cosmetics, including a concealer, a brightening and moisturizing essence, a lip balm and a priming eye cream.

The company will then debut at Sephora on September 3rd. And a lipstick line will launch on September 10th.

In this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Creal talks about her decision to launch a brand, her brand’s upcoming lipstick, and the ongoing struggle for women to raise money for their own ventures.

Below you will find the highlights from the episode, which have been slightly edited for better understanding.

Inventing a brand

“I literally woke up from a dream one morning, sat up in bed, and thought, ‘Why isn’t anyone talking to me?’ I’m 54 years old, and no one in the luxury beauty space is even talking to me — not in a way that I want them to, not in a luxurious or sophisticated way. No one is formulating for me, educating me. It was literally like an aha moment. I felt so strongly. I thought, ‘So what about this brand? Are they doing this? What about this brand? Are they doing this?’ And I really couldn’t find a brand that was formulating specifically for my generation, for the over-40s. … And I knew I had never done that. I had always designed for (people in their) 20s and 30s. So I was part of the problem, which is hilarious now, but I really was. I was part of the system, and that’s how it’s always been.”

The challenges of securing financing

“I started looking for funding, and it was incredibly difficult. A lot of people said to me, ‘You know, I just don’t think older women want to look at other older women.’ … The level of misogyny and basically discrimination against women in the investment sector is unbelievable. In 2023, Forbes had this statistic. … You always look at where the investment was going in the United States. And 3.2% of the investment in 2023 went to women-founded brands. If you had a male partner, that went up to 16.8%, and the rest went to men. And to be honest, I thought I was going to be in that 3.2%. … But I ended up raising all of my initial funding myself. At first, I invested a lot of my own money so I could start developing the products and (the packaging). Jill (Golden, my co-founder) and I both worked for free for months and we just built this thing.” I knew from the beginning that I had to invest money because to create a luxury brand, the design has to be beautiful. In my opinion, you really have to create something spectacular. And my name was on it (so I thought): “I’ll give it my all, I’ll do the whole thing.”

Launch at Sephora

“I know these amazing women at Sephora. And one of them asked me what I was up to. And I said, ‘Believe it or not, I’m working on my own brand.’ She said she wanted to see it. … Launching in a retail store wasn’t my focus. I was so focused on developing the formulas, creating the beautiful packaging, developing the branding and bringing it all together and getting it right. … But when I showed it to them, they said, ‘I can tell you, this customer is definitely underserved in beauty. You have something there.’ They wanted me to show it to Amy Abrams (Sephora’s vice president of makeup merchandising). … She came in and said, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe it. Is this ready?’ And I said, ‘Well, actually, we’re launching it on June 3rd.’ And she said, ‘Show me everything.'” So I showed her everything. I showed her all the formulas.

“Just as the face of investing is very male, the face of retail is largely female, and Sephora is a great example of that, from Artemis Patrick as CEO to Priya (Venkatesh, global chief merchandising officer) to Amy. They’re all these incredible, strong women. Amy said to me in that meeting, ‘I love this and I’d love to launch this exclusively with you as soon as possible, whenever that may be. What do you think?’ I wasn’t prepared for that in that meeting. It was incredible. When I said goodbye to her that day, I had tears in my eyes because obviously this is a very personal endeavor for me.”