A familycentric bulletin board helps the makeup mogul recall memorable moments

 
  Zomnir takes a break from work to share a laugh with her five-year-old son, Cruz
 
  Photographs of models from past campaigns line the office walls
 
  Beauty-centric collectibles cram Zomnir’s office

Wende Zomnir is clearly enjoying the high-voltage moment makeup is having this season. How could she not? After all, one could say she helped lay the groundwork. Back in 1996 in Newport Beach, Zomnir and Sandy Lerner (cofounder of Cisco) launched Urban Decay (UD), a renegade cosmetics line that shook up an industry built on pink and beige by littering it with pigment-rich lipsticks and eye shadows named Peroxide, Love Child, Psychedelic Sister, and Oil Slick. The brand—this year celebrating its 15th anniversary—was a beauty game-changer. “I feel like UD really paved the way for the big companies to try something edgier, and we’ve become the source for what’s next in makeup,” says Zomnir, sitting in her loft-like Orange County office. To wit, Chanel’s latest nail lacquer, Peridot, may have an uptown address and a gem of a name, but its holographic, green-gold iridescence has a distinct Urban Decay lean. To those in the know, it recalls UD’s early Acid Rain eye shadow.

Groundbreaking Makeup
Such innovative hues may be commonplace now, but Zomnir found them scarce growing up in Texas. “There were cheap brands like Wet n Wild, but the color was only rich in the compact—the purple wasn’t really purple when you put it on.” When Zomnir was 14, her defense-contractor father was transferred to Belgium, where her search for high-contrast makeup took her on weekend excursions to the cosmetics mecca Boots in London. It wasn’t until after moving back to the States and meeting Lerner in Northern California that the search became a calling. “We were kindred cosmetic spirits,” she says of Lerner, who had retired from Cisco by then. Together they honed in on the market’s need for more than pretty-in-pale-pink palettes and began cooking up alternatives.

Since that fateful beginning, Zomnir has helped turn the niche brand into a global heavy hitter with as much staying power as its long-wearing shades. Covergirl Rihanna is rumored to have recently swiped her makeup artist’s UD stash, and women in Dubai flaunt black kohl-rimmed eyes, thanks to UD’s new topselling 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil.

And Zomnir aims to keep it that way. The beauty brand’s 15,000-square-foot converted warehouse space is overflowing, and plans to link to the adjacent building are already under way. Chaos and creativity reign in Zomnir’s spacious office, which speaks to the many things she juggles. Her vintage dining-table desk is covered with in-the-works color palettes, marketing memos, and potential product names from a recent brainstorm “on life’s general vices.” Other ideasparking items—a unique piece of embroidery and Andrew Bolton’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty tome (“for instant inspiration”)—linger nearby.

Urban Decay's Next Phase
Her expansive bulletin board, meanwhile, is family central, full of photographs of Zomnir’s husband, Doug Collier, and sons Crash, nine, and Cruz, five. Shots of heli-boarding trips in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains and family sojourns to Fiji make it clear this corner-office couple finds time for fun—Collier, the former CFO of Volcom (now owned by French luxury group PPR), recently retired to surf and spend more time with the boys. Zomnir, however, shows no signs of slowing down. She’s already hit the waves this morning, combining a little Zen time with product evaluation.

“I test-drive everything through my surfing and workouts,” says Zomnir, who stays a step ahead by working with her team on high-tech advances. “My attitude is that we can always do a better formula with more payoff, longer wear, or easier application.” UD’s new holiday eye shadow booklet, Book of Shadows IV, is sure to be the brand’s latest hit. Packed with 16 colorful shades plus a full-size 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner, a travel-size Eyeshadow Primer Potion, and a travel-size Supercurl Curling Mascara, the compact boasts quite the clever addition: a mini portable speaker and smartphone-ready how-to videos for creating various looks—from smoky to cat-eye. “The job is never done,” says Zomnir. “We’re always reinventing.”