12
WORK
LIF E
9 3
A�ONE-DAY�DIARY��
FROM�MORNING�LATTE
TO�LIGHTS�OUT
Amandine
Ohayon,
MD of Kiehl’s
Amandine Ohayon, 34, is the
managing director of Kiehl’s. She lives
in Chiswick with her husband Eric, 37,
managing director for Morgan
Stanley, and their two children,
Lea, four, and Tosca, two
I get woken up at 7am by Lea and
Tosca jumping on my bed. Eric leaves
very early for work in the City, so the
mornings are our girly time. We all
have breakfast together, then I go
back upstairs and, while I take my
shower, they play with all my beauty
products. They love putting nail
varnish on their lips and dunking
lipsticks in my moisturiser.
I dress quite smartly for work but
always try to add a touch of glamour
with my accessories. I’m obsessed
with Christian Louboutin shoes and
have 10 pairs. I like to mix things up,
so I might wear a sweater with
a Topshop dress or jeans with
my Louboutins. I’m originally from
Paris so I still do a lot of my shopping
THE WORLD’S YOUR OYSTER
WHEN YOU WORK AS A
SCUBA-DIVING INSTRUCTOR
����WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK
6
there at Sandro, Isabel Marant
and Vanessa Bruno. In the beauty
business there is definitely a pressure
to look your best at all times but in
the end it’s a question of confidence.
My nanny Lauren arrives at
8.30am. She’s a huge help and I don’t
think we could have the life we do
without her. I do find it difficult being
a working mum but we have a book
which she writes in every day to tell
me what the kids have been up to –
if they’ve been naughty, what they’ve
drawn, eaten, seen etc. She also sends
MANAGING DIRECTOR
AMANDINE DOESN’T LET
WORK RULE HER LIFE
pictures to my BlackBerry a few times
a day, which I love. But I really feel
I need to work to be a better mum.
I leave the house at 8.45am and
I arrive at the office for 9am. I always
go to Starbucks for a big cappuccino.
I check my emails and then I’m
usually in meetings from about 10am
“I always add glamour
to outfits. I’m obsessed
with Christian Louboutin
shoes. I have 10 pairs”
MY�PLAN�B��SCUBA-DIVING�INSTRUCTOR
until the end of the day. The meetings
are a mix of internal ones, with the
marketing, PR or sales departments,
or bigger meetings with retailers and
international sales teams. I was head
of the team which came up with the
Kiehl’s Crème De Corps personalised
bottle which was a huge seller for us
at Christmas. I love the mix of being
business-minded and creative.
My amazing PA Hayley keeps me
on track. Without her and Lauren
I wouldn’t ever know what I was
meant to be doing. I have lunch
around 1pm. If I’m at the office,
usually a group of 10 of us will go
up to the L’Oréal cafe on the top floor.
It has a great view. I don’t eat any
meat, only fish, eggs and lots of
vegetables. I follow this silly French
tradition that you should eat three
different colours in your meal. It was
something my mother taught me and
it’s a simple way to make sure you eat
healthily, even if people do look at you
like you’re mad!
When all my meetings are finished,
I come back to my desk to go through
my emails again, usually at around
6pm. Whatever happens, I leave the
office at 7pm. Eric and I have really
demanding jobs so we grab as much
time with the kids as we can. My
evening time is so precious and we’ll
often pop out for a bowl of pasta at
Ziani in Chelsea. Eric would much
rather go out for food than risk
poisoning from my cooking.
I’m always at the end of the phone
for my staff even though there are
over 90 of them! Kiehl’s is a family
brand so to keep that united feeling,
we even call our team meetings
“family time”, which is cheesy I know.
It can be a very high-pressured
environment and I still remember
how emotional I used to get. Now,
I just watch a sad film at home
if I need a cry.
What I love most about my job
is that no two days are the same.
I’ll go from flying to our New York
office to a meeting sketching ideas
on how our new mascara will look
and be marketed. It’s so fulfilling.
Keep up with Kiehl’s launches online,
visit kiehls.co.uk
I first scuba dived when I was 19 years old on holiday in Mexico. I had a crush on the diving instructor
so I went along and I ended up falling deeply in love with the sport instead of him. I’ve dived more than 300 times
and now my family go twice a year to the Maldives and stay in a hotel on the beach. They love it just as much
as I do. We go every Christmas and summer holiday. Some days, we dive twice a day. We go out on a boat early
in the morning, dive, then relax on deck for a few hours in the sun and do another one in the afternoon. I’ve been
diving for 15 years now and I’ve got my advanced diver qualification but it’s not the same as doing it for a living.
What a wonderful life it would be if that was your day job!
WORDS��AMY�GRIER��PHOTOGRAPHY��CAROLINE�MOLLOY��GETTY�IMAGES���
HAIR�AND�MAKE-UP��NINA�PACH�AT�CAROL�HAYES�MANAGEMENT�USING�KIEHL’S�STYLIST�SERIES
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.