A Perfect Palette

Mary Mcdonald Creates A Maximalist Manse In Southern California For A Pair Of Vivacious—And Wildly Successful— Beauty Entrepreneurs.

- Vanessa Lawrence

TO SPEND AN AFTERNOON TÊTE-À-TÊTE WITH Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, the cofounders of the California-based cosmetics brand Too Faced, is to understand that their phenomenal success in the beauty industry is as much a matter of a heartfelt ethos as it is a result of innovative products. This may sound obvious to some (many consumers, millennials in particular, are known to put their dollars where their mouths and hearts are) and silly to others (is a lipstick not a lipstick by any other name?), but it goes a long way toward explaining how they built Too Faced from a start-up offering 10 eye shadows, 10 lipsticks, and eight nail polishes into a powerhouse that was purchased in 2016 by Estée Lauder for $1.45 billion—the most expensive acquisition in the company’s history. And it also helps account for the 17,000-square-foot modern French fantasia of a home the couple recently completed with the help of Mary McDonald—a star of the Bravo series Million Dollar Decorators—in Corona del Mar, a coastal enclave eight miles from Too Faced’s Irvine headquarters, where they both still run the show (Blandino as chief creative officer/dreamer and Johnson as CEO/action man).

When the couple launched Too Faced in the late 1990s, the beauty landscape was composed of tasteful nudes, somber browns, and minimalist packaging. Blandino and Johnson blew this stale line of thinking to pale pink–packaged smithereens. Both men had worked at Estée Lauder department-store counters before Blandino, a former art-school student, came up with Too Faced’s first product: Ooh and Ahh, a glitter eye shadow.