Actress Naomi Watts has shared the first details around her new beauty brand Stripes.
Watts, 53, is addressing what she says is a lack of conversation and information around menopause as well as an ingrained ‘doom and gloom’ attitude with the new line.
“Women should feel like the menopause conversation is a normal one to have,” Watts told WWD. She revealed the line will be made up of products geared towards addressing the physical impacts prompted by the normal hormonal changes that will affect around half of the world’s population.
“This should be the end of the shame and secrecy, and the beginning of something new and wonderful,” says Watts.
According to WWD, Stripes will include a cooling face mist, thickening scalp serum, hydrating vaginal gel, probiotic supplements, body oils and more.
The brand has been created in partnership with biotech company Amyris, the clean beauty company behind Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s brand Rose Inc, Jonathan Van Ness’s haircare line JVN and popular squalane-based skincare line Biossance.
Watts is hoping to push the conversation around menopause forward, a topic that is becoming more widespread but not often included in the beauty industry.
She says in her forties, when her hormones started plummeting, she didn’t feel as though she had any support network.
“I’d crack jokes with friends to test the waters and see if anyone else was hovering around that time, but they wouldn’t land, so I kind of just swam around it in secrecy and shame, feeling pretty awful.”
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The average age for menopause – classified as more than 12 months after having your last period – in NZ and Australia is 51-52, but changes can begin to become apparent in the years preceding, known as perimenopause, and offer up different ones in the years after.
The resulting hormonal changes can impact skin dryness and loss of collagen among other physical changes.
“It can be quite alienating when you’re looking at a brand and they’re putting forward this notion that you can look so much younger,” Watts pointed out to WWD, saying its not something she wants to project, preferring an authentic take acknowledging living through ‘cumulative experiences, ups and downs’.
Watts says she still holds ‘a lot of fear’ as menopause is not a common topic of conversation in Hollywood, but is hoping people embrace it as its a natural phase of life.
“Women have suffered in silence for far too long, and I think it’s fair to say that we will be the last generation of that,” she says, acknowledging we can feel good about being the ‘change-making generation.’
The range will launch on Oct. 18 with 11 products that range in price from US$40 to US$85 and will be available to purchase through Amazon and the brand’s own website, Iamstripes.com.
