Hermione Eyre meets the maverick twins who built a cosmetics empire

To tea with the Ford twins, the irrepressible sisters who founded Benefit Cosmetics. "I'm Jean," says one, swishing her dark hair. "And I'm Jane," says the other, swooshing hers.

I can't stop gazing at them. An apple cleft in two is not more twin. Together they created a quirky international brand with a multimillion-pound turnover; together they are double trouble, too. Jean puts down the menu without reading it. "Surprise us!" she tells the waiter. "But not with a rack of lamb," adds Jane.

They are over here to check out their London stores ("So pretty!" says Jean, the creative one. "So full of people!" says Jane, the business brain) and to promote their new range, Love Your Look (on counters next month). But first, the Benefit backstory. "As Dickens would say, we were born..." begins Jane. In Indiana, in fact. They watched their mother, a newscaster, putting on her make-up. "Oooh," says Jane. "Ahhh," says Jean. They went into modelling, and became the face(s) of Calgon bath and beauty products. "At 28 we realised we had to sort our lives out. We tossed a coin. It was going to be casseroles or cosmetics." In 1976 the first Benefit store opened in San Francisco; next year the brand, now owned by LVHM, expands into Poland and China.

The twins are true capitalists. "Do you make products to fulfil your beauty needs?" I ask. "No! We create the need," says one. Of course: whoever needed blue Bad Gal mascara? Or a MoonBeam cheek highlighter? No one that hadn't seen them first. Oh, the silly brilliance of Benefit.

Along with tea and tiny sandwiches I get a potted description of the new make-up ranges. Lana is neutral shades and sheer textures, for a low-maintenance lady. Gabbi is a little more assertive, for a more confident make-up consumer. And Betty, for minxes only, is a vivid, rich-hued collection, which comes with a free trowel. It's just a way of organising colours, but in a typically zany Benefit way.

As I leave, the twins sing me out, warbling: "With grace, style and wit/ It's so Benefit/ With 39 shades that took us for-e-e-e- ever." A small part of me wonders if the Ford twins really exist. A larger part of me is simply thrilled they do

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