For Lara Worthington and Victoria Baron, beauty has long been something of a shared language. Friends and creative collaborators of more than a decade, their relationship has been shaped by a near-instinctive understanding of makeup – its intimacy and its transformative potential. It’s a sensibility that finds new form in OMMAGE, Worthington’s long-awaited return to beauty, created with Baron. Years in the making, the brand draws from art, architecture, design and a shared curiosity for the unexpected. Ahead of its launch, Worthington and Baron sit down with RUSSH Beauty Editor Emily Algar to discuss their creative process, the trust inherent in collaboration, and the emotional, tactile relationship we form with the objects we use every day.
EA: I was just telling Vic, I’m in the office and just opened the product you sent across. It’s amazing; the packaging is so directional and cool. I haven’t tried anything yet, but I am excited to. Congratulations!
LW: Thank you. I feel like it’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it, Vic?
VB: Definitely, but worth it.
LW: I’m at the point now where I need to let it go and let it be in the world. This is the most nerve-wracking part, you know? It’s because I can’t control what comes next.
EA: There’s obviously a lot of launches and brands, plus high-profile people launching brands… but I think people are really excited about OMMAGE. And because you’ve taken so much time…
LW: Oh my God, haven’t we…
EA: My read on OMMAGE is that you’ve poured a lot into it. It’s not just something you’ve done because you can.
LW: That’s absolutely true.
EA: Lara, I want to know – you had The Base, you wound that back and then have been hinting at this new beauty thing for a while. Tell me how you got to OMMAGE, and how long you were sitting on the idea before you decided to pursue it?
LW: Well, I did The Base in… I think 2014? I was just young and learning.
EA: It was a cult product though.
LW: It was a cult product. I guess the idea of creating something for yourself was exciting to me. As a model, I was always the gun for hire, so it was about owning something. I was so excited by it, but I couldn’t get the business side to travel outside of Australia. Then I moved to the U.S. to live with my husband, had my kids, and in the process, I fell out of love with beauty – not beauty itself, just that there was so much of it coming through. I got really overwhelmed and had to take a step back. But since then, I’ve fallen back in love with creating products and have come to a place where I think there’s room for everyone. Even though there are a lot of brands, there are actually only a few I love. Returning to beauty feels very meant-to-be.
VB: The difference between seeing your take on The Base and then seeing your take on OMMAGE is that you have evolved so much, especially in the context of taste and style. You could have relaunched The Base, but that’s not who you are anymore. You’ve got an incredible eye for detail, fashion, style and design – it wouldn’t have reflected you anymore, I don’t think?
LW: No, I agree. Looking at the brand now, when you see the product, it’s definitely evolved.
EA: I know you’re both friends, but how did you initially connect? Was it on set?
LW: We have known each other since we were basically kids. I think it’s our shared love for beauty that’s been the thread through our long-term friendship. It’s been a nice evolution. Also, Vic was part of my original brand, The Base.
“I guess the idea of creating something for yourself was exciting to me. As a model, I was always the gun for hire, so it was about owning something.” – Lara Worthington
EA: Oh really?
VB: In a very small way… But I think the first time I met you, Lara, I was a makeup assistant, and I was cleaning brushes for Rae [Morris]?
LW: Yeah.
VB: And then you were starting out in modelling, and we became friends. Over the years, it’s been really fun. Lara has so much experience on one side of the camera, and I’ve got a different side of the experience. It’s nice to bring her expertise into my world and vice versa.
EA: I love that. I feel like a lot of relationships within fashion especially, are fickle. People are often looking for something to gain rather than a meaningful connection, especially where creativity is involved.
LW: Makeup is so personal. It’s ultimately about taste. When I sit in a makeup chair and I’ve never met the artist, I’m like, ‘How do they see me? What will they turn me into?’ Makeup is so experimental and expressive, and it’s through someone else’s eyes, not your own. I often think we do our own face the best. So having someone like Vic, who I can completely trust, is really valuable. I know that she sees me. So many times, I’ve said, ‘thank you’, left and gone to wash it all off. Meeting Vic was special because she inherently knew how to enhance me.
VB: Oh, thank you. I think that’s why I really loved helping you with OMMAGE, because I liked the idea, and the challenge of interpreting someone else’s vision. I could approach someone’s face in the sense that I do what I want to do, but that’s not necessarily the best path. You’ve got to be able to read the room, read how that person wants to feel and what they’re trying to express. You’ve got to be able to read the storyline. This is how I see what Lara is trying to build with OMMAGE – it’s a world. For me, it’s about understanding that world and helping her with products that express that point of view.
EA: I think it’s hard to find someone who just gets it, within beauty especially, because there is a huge amount of nuance and the details truly matter.
LW: It’s like a haircut. Once you find someone you like, that’s it. I’m a creature of habit. My hairdresser lives in Connecticut, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the city, but I go because I’ve tried others and it’s been a disaster. He’s my guy.
EA: I hear from a lot of celebrity makeup artists and hair stylists that it can be a very vulnerable time when someone’s in their chair. Often, it’s minutes before a carpet or an appearance and the stakes are quite high. It’s intimate, too. It’s why people like to keep their ‘glam’ team close. They say a lot of women spend more years committed to a hairstylist than they do to a marriage…
LW: I mean, this life… it’s not totally isolated, but you spend a lot of time alone. Often, you’re with hair and makeup more than your family, depending on scheduling. But the point I am making is that yes, it’s intimate. Now I’m getting off topic.
EA: I’m so curious as to how you carved out the brand’s visual identity. I can tell there’s been a lot of thought put into the design, the colours, the folded details. How did you get to this place aesthetically?
“You’ve got to be able to read the room, read how that person wants to feel and what they’re trying to express. You’ve got to be able to read the storyline. This is how I see what Lara is trying to build with OMMAGE – it’s a world. For me, it’s about understanding that world and helping her with products that express that point of view.” – Victoria Baron
LW: I think the inspiration came from everywhere. Firstly, I worked with an incredible designer, Brian Rotinger – he’s in L.A. But I did so much research too. I spoke to anyone who would listen. I spoke to Frank Ocean’s guy who worked with him on Homer, his fine jewellery brand. Interestingly, I didn’t seek out men, but I’m glad it worked out that way because there’s a sense of juxtaposition. When I say I want to do a cheek tint, he’s like, ‘What’s a cheek tint?’ I like the method of not building and designing it from the actual product – it’s flipped on its head. But really, the creative inspiration was from art, architecture, everything. I thought a lot about pressure: crushed cars, squished metal. I wanted the packaging to lend itself to touching and feeling.
I think colour and the gesture were the two main things we started with and built from – not the makeup, interestingly. OMMAGE is a brand with beautiful, clean formulas, but that’s a given, right? That just has to be a given. It was definitely the language, the gesture and the feeling that the products give you that I started with. I could have just bought stock off the shelf or ordered colours I liked, but I didn’t want to do that.
EA: I can definitely tell. I feel as if the brands that seem to cut through, that are really interesting to me these days, are the ones with a very distinctive point of view. That are almost ornamental.
VB: Another detail I found really interesting was the interaction between the packaging and the user. Normally, packaging feels like it sits away from the body; like an object that’s not connected to you. Whereas everything you’ve created, Lara, feels like it’s part of someone – like it’s been touched or squeezed or pulled. It feels good in your hands. It has that satisfying magnetic click, like a set of AirPods. There’s a psychology around the satisfaction of that magnetic closure.
LW: Form, function and formulation; those three things have to be married together for something to feel good.
EA: I know you went to South Korea together on a bit of an inspiration trip while building this, too. Tell me about Seoul – did you love it?
LW: The three of us actually went – Brian, Vic and I. The beauty culture in Seoul is incredible, and the design culture in general. Everything is so experimental – the stores, the packaging. One of my favourite brands is Gentle Monster, and it just exists on another plane over there. That combination of innovation and play has really inspired OMMAGE. Seoul is just ahead of our time when it comes to colour, texture and product format. Even the way they do their makeup. Interestingly, we hardly saw a red lipstick…
“Normally, packaging feels like it sits away from the body; like an object that’s not connected to you. Whereas everything you’ve created, Lara, feels like it’s part of someone – like it’s been touched or squeezed or pulled. It feels good in your hands.” – Victoria Baron
EA: Vic, tell me about formulating the products. Also, what makes a beautiful, elegant, effective makeup product, in your opinion?
VB: During this process, I had the idea that I want makeup artists to love this, but I also want every other person to love it too and have it in their bag. It has to be intuitive. My relationship with makeup is that it’s about how it makes you feel – whether you visually see a colour and it makes you feel something, or the way the texture feels on the skin. When you have a good product, it just feels right. I think that ease of use is what makes us reach for things time and time again. That was the goal with OMMAGE formulations. And of course, it’s clean, vegan and full of really nourishing ingredients.
LW: The skin tint is actually a relaunch of the original The Base formulation; we’ve just expanded the shades. I think that’s the message I’ll start with, even though new customers won’t know what I’m talking about. OMMAGE will go so much further than that brand, but I do want original customers to be able to rediscover the skin tint. Now I’m experimenting with so much colour, too. When I look at the landscape of beauty, there’s so much beige, and then there are the really bold, expressive brands. I want to occupy some space in the middle. My intention is colour inside, colour outside. Wearable daily shades, but then an icy blue with a silver shimmer, or a really rich burgundy. Ultimately, makeup is not that deep; it’s a personal and playful experience for yourself.
VB: Plus, anyone can do it anywhere. It can take five minutes or five hours. There aren’t many things that are so immediate, either.
EA: I wanted to ask one thing you gleaned or learnt from one another, maybe a perspective shift that came from working together on this project?
LW: I think Vic has incredible instinct within the realm of makeup. Something I’ve learnt from her over the years is how colour and texture actually behave on the skin. It was really important to me that she test every single thing, even though it was complete chaos sending it all from the U.S. We ended up having secondary samples made, but we’d try things and then sit on calls for hours. She understands product and how it behaves, and I think that’s such an important thing when you’re creating a makeup brand – it’s not just what it looks like.
EA: That’s true. And it’s so nice to open up the brand to others, as I think a lot of founders can be quite protective or nervous.
LW: I always think it’s like a soccer team – you always need to pass the ball. You cannot do it by yourself; you need to collaborate. There are so many people who have helped me with this brand: Dominique Temple’s team, Brian’s team, Vic. Vanessa Coyle, my stylist, was involved. And so many Australians, actually. Rachel Muscat helped me a lot. She created Human Race, Pharrell’s brand.
“I’ve asked my friends who are founders, does it get easier? It’s like I’m in my third trimester, about to give birth to this business. I’ve had kids – surely a business can’t be as life-changing as that? But maybe it can.” – Lara Worthington
There are so many people who have built this with me. I found really good people to work with. I’m very lucky.
VB: You’ve been really focused and clear on what you want, Lara – you really are steering the ship. Not that I’ve ever considered you not a hard worker, but I really didn’t know you could work this hard.
LW: Ha! No, I know. Maybe it’s because I have such a high level of where I want to get to, but in my mind, I’m not even on the train yet. I’ve asked my friends who are founders, does it get easier? It’s like I’m in my third trimester, about to give birth to this business. I’ve had kids – surely a business can’t be as life-changing as that? But maybe it can.
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