Martha Stewart and Courteney Cox have the rapport of lifelong friends, though they only just met.
“I love her, and I apologize but I don’t think I ever even watched an episode of ‘Friends,'” said Stewart, in conversation with Cox and Jenny B. Fine, editor in chief of Beauty Inc, at a luncheon cohosted by their respective brands, Elm Biosciences and Homecourt, in New York City on Monday. “I want to.”
Held at Altro Paradiso in SoHo, the midday event gathered a small cohort of female founders, beauty insiders, makeup artists and content creators, including Lucy Goff of Lyma, Pati Dubroff, Christine Chang of Glow Recipe and Georgia Louise.
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With Goff front and center, both Stewart and Cox bonded over their love of the Lyma Laser, while the famed cooking connoisseur dished about the vast amount of skin care she tested before launching Elm Biosciences with Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali in August. The brand, like all of her entrepreneurial endeavors, was made to “fill a void.”
“When I find a void, I want to fill it,” Stewart noted.
A similar sentiment was shared by Cox, who debuted her sustainable, “out-from-under the kitchen sink” brand, Homecourt, in 2022.
“I have a lot of hobbies, I have a lot of things that I love doing, and with this brand I was able to do a lot of those things,” she said. “I was obsessed with design. I’m [also] very neat, so I combined design with fine fragrance, because I’m obsessed with scents, and then also I love it clean, and it really works. So that was a perfect way for me to do something new, but take all of my passions.”
With her home life under control, Cox said she leans on her assistants to help manage the many duties that come with being a multihyphenate. But she prefers to have her hands full. “When I’m not busy, then I get nothing done. If I have one thing to do, it doesn’t get done. If I have 50 things to do, they all just keep moving,” Cox confessed, to which Fine pointed out: “That’s the true statement of a woman.”
On mastering the art of scent and skin care, Stewart likened the process to crafting the perfect recipe. “When we blend scents, it’s like adding a pinch of salt in a recipe to make it perfect to blend,” she said.
For Cox, she’ll know the fragrance formulation is right when it’s “grounded” and she “believes in it.” But she also knows it’s a trial and error process — one that constantly forces you to change and adapt.
Embracing change is something Cox learned from Stewart.
“In your documentary, you said, ‘If you want to change your garden, then change it,'” the actress remembered. “I live on the ocean with the most beautiful walk, and this one big, gorgeous lawn. This seemed like the perfect thing. And then I went, ‘Sorry, I’m going to change my garden.’ I made it into this meadow. I thought it was kind of crazy, but I remember hearing you say that, and I thought, ‘I want to change.'”