Tea with Violette, Make-Up artist and Estee Lauder Global Beauty Director

Oct 10, Bloomingdales, 2nd floor

“What does the word ‘beauty’ mean to you?” Nicole asks me while I am waiting at the Estee Lauder beauty corner for Violette, the Estee Lauder Global Beauty Director and beauty guru that we all want to see and listen on this rainy, sad Thursday night.

I tell Nicole, a thirty-four-year-old Investment banker that I’ve just met, that I don’t really know how to answer such a wide question and that it’s a weird thing to ask when you’ve met someone for the first time, ten minutes ago. “I thought that you, French girls, had a clear idea of what beauty is”. She seems embarrassed and confused, as if what I was going to answer was an obvious statement. We both knew what I was supposed to answer. I knew she expected me to recite the one and only lesson every French girl is taught when she’s in high school and starts to get interested in those kinds of girly things, that “when it comes to make-up and hair, less is more”. LESS IS MORE, there’s nothing more annoying than those three unmeaningful words. But, apparently, that’s how we’re seen by the rest of the world. And this makes me sad. I hate injunctions, I hate them even more when some people feel obliged to look like a certain type of beauty in order to get recognition from their peers. Oh, but don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned to appreciate and even sometimes tried to copy (I know) this effortlessly chic/cute/fresh look that Frenchy girls pretend to master. Violette is one of them.

When I meet her on that gloomy Thursday night following her masterclass dedicated to skin’s recovery after having suffered from cancer (this talk was organized in the context of Pink Month, a global event to raise awareness on breast cancer), she’s really elegant with her silk large pinkish brown trousers and blazer. She just turned thirty-five, but she looks ten years younger. She gave birth to her first child six months ago and I can’t help but wonder how a CEO, new mother can look so graceful, fresh and rested (her silk suit is not even creased). So, I dare to ask. “I’m not a superwoman, she replies, but I am a make-up artist, so I know how to conceal dark circles and dull complexion!” I am not convinced that foundation is her secret weapon but let’s say that it is.

After the masterclass, we hop in a cab and stop to Buvette, a typical French (again) brasserie known for its wine selection.

Violette has leaved Paris for New York five years ago. On the way to the restaurant, she recalls her fresh start in New York and how it all began. “Carine Roitfeld, who was the Editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris when I started to work in the industry, told me that New York would be a carrier booster; she was right. But I miss my friends and my family in Paris so much, it is really hard to take care of a baby when you’re that far from them, especially in New York.” Buvette is her cantine, the place she picks when she feels homesick. It’s cosy and warm, their cheese is delicious and not overpriced. “The Saint-Nectaire tartine with warm bread and a glass of Saint-Emilion is to die for”, according to the brunette.

It’s uncommon to be chosen as the Beauty Director of a firm, which is an important corporate level, when you have no background in the field. Actually, Violette is the first make-up artist who was offered such a position. While delicately sipping her herbal tea, Violette shows me a picture on her phone of her team and her at the Estee Lauder’s laboratory. “They wanted me because as a make-up artist, I had skills they couldn’t find anywhere else. I know how to mix pigments with glitters, I know what’s working and what’s not. They needed someone creative that would be able to communicate on the new launches and collections on social media. They were looking for someone who had a story with make-up, not just a business star!”

She takes out of her Longchamp leather bag a huge make-up kit. Lipstick tubes, eyeshadow palettes, blush… these are dozens of make-up samples that she develops and then applies on her face to crash-test them, several months before the global launch. “On my Instagram and YouTube channels, I give advices on how to create a look that will enhance their features. It’s not about the number of products they will put on their face or the brands, it’s about empowering my followers to be creative and to dare. I’m like come-on if I can do it, you can too… It’s only pigments that you’ll wash-off.”

Violette never dreamt of being a make-up artist en vogue. She discovered the power of make up at nineteen years old. “I was in studying art and fashion in Paris, my friend and I were invited to a dressed-up party; she asked me to put glitters on her face… At the time, the only thing I knew was to do a red lip so painting someone’s face with glitters was a challenge, but I loved it, I had a revelation and I figured out a way to make it my job.” Violette left Paris for New York a few weeks later with nothing else but the strong feeling that her philosophy of “making art on people’s face” would be a success. But as for every success story, there’s struggle, failures and countless hours of work behind it. When it comes to talk about this part of her life, the beginning of her career, Violette stops eating and suddenly talks with great conviction. “I was convinced that make-up artists and agents would understand what I wanted to do, in New York. I gave myself three months. I had no money, no contacts so I took a job in a fur shop, I had to sort them out it was disgusting… But I made enough money to buy pigments and foundation, the adventure could start.” Her style may be ‘effortless’, but certainly not her work ethic. There is no secret, Violette is a hard worker, a stubborn and audacious hard worker. As she was beginning to make a name for herself, “reinventing beauty codes” according to ELLE France, she took a step back from beauty editorials to devote her time to her YouTube channel. “People in the industry told me that I was crazy, that YouTube was cheap and that I would lose myself in it.” What a snobbish attitude I thought but fortunately Violette did not think that way. When she came back to New York for the second time after spending a few years in Paris, she worked hard to share her vision of beauty. “I remember when I moved back to New York five years ago, someone told me that I had to be ‘the best version of myself’ and it shocked me. For me, it is the exact contrary. It’s all about celebrating who you are, we all are the best versions of ourselves right now. Perfection does not exist, it’s fake and it makes people feeling insecure.” That’s how she started her YouTube channel, she was convinced that her audience would follow and share her vision. And it worked.

Every day, more than 350K people connect with her through her YouTube videos and Instagram posts. She masters make-up trends and marketing strategies social media like a pro. “I’m a storyteller”, she confesses. Her latest capsule collections for Estee Lauder, “Poppy Sauvage” and “La Dangereuse” are the result of the multiple inspirations she reaped. “My Poppy Sauvage capsule was inspired by Poppy fields in Provence, where I spent all my summers when I was a child. I’ve always been amazed by their soft color and their velvety petals.”

I had no doubt that Violette was the perfect, convincing beauty storyteller, but does it have something to do with her being French, I wonder? “Of course, it has! When I got the job, the Lauder team stressed the fact my French vision of beauty was also what they wished to highlight. Mrs. Lauder wanted her brand to suit women’s crazy schedules. In that respect, she developed easy-to-use, go-to products in that it doesn’t require a perfect technique to apply them. I like that, that’s also part of my beauty habits and mindset. Make-up is a woman’s best friend, not her enemy. I like to use one product for different purposes. Think about a red lipstick. It can also be used as a blush or as an eyeshadow, I show it daily on my Instagram page.” Violette says that she’s her first client, “I think that’s one of the reasons why the capsule collections I designed met a massive success. Each product has been thought, tested, modified so that it can suit all complexions, it’s the perfect ‘vavavoom’ touch.”

Violette’s voice in the beauty industry is respected and admired, so is her talent. She has recently published a series of videos, the LBD (standing for Little Black Dress, an essential of the French wardrobe) of make-up in which she takes times to explain various basic techniques from the smudgy smoky eye to the copper eyelids or the blurry red lipstick. “I found it funny to revisit the classics of make-up. But still, the same people who were asking for this kind of content, post insulting comments. I have learned to ignore people who are constantly making fun of me under my posts, it’s a waste of time to reply. Sometimes, I know these people, they are simply jealous of my position and of what I have achieved in less than two years.” Her black, almond eyes sparkles. The attitude she adopts, the way she talks, there is little room for improvisation and spontaneity. It’s not that she is fake, she really is not, it’s more about self-defense and protection, “something that I have learned on the job” she tells me. Each cosmetic brand has its Beauty Director, the position is sought-after, this is one of the most competitive position and many competitors do have corporate values, “they’re marketing and business beasts! They lack creativity though. I remember being so frustrated when I was invited to press launches of new products, everything was so similar, they were all way too skittish.” Violette never studied business, she flushes after admitting that she had no idea of what a business plan was a year ago, so she learned and spent nights on Excel…

A few minutes after we ordered a crème brûlée and a Tarte Tatin, Steven Pan, her husband called her. He is an American famous fashion photographer; he met his wife on a photo shoot for Vogue US as she was doing model’s make-up. He wants to talk to her because he is editing a series of beauty portraits for Allure’s Christmas issue, he wants her to double-check his photo-editing work.

The perfect working girl Violette that I met at first, trying her best to hide her French accent has suddenly disappeared! I could really get a sense of who she really is when she was on the phone with her husband. No fuss, no formal answers, just a wife casually joking with her husband with a strong (VERY strong) French accent. As I am not her husband, she’s more formal when she gets back to me. “I am a visual person, especially with colors, she says. It is part of me and of my identity as a make up professional. It’s a work of art to be able to assemble colors and textures on someone’s face, it’s like painting. Steven knows that I am a perfectionist and over meticulous person, I guess I have a special eye for this. It makes me proud and confident that Aerin Lauder (Estee Lauder’s granddaughter) trusted my vision without asking me to change.”

When it’s time to leave the restaurant, we kiss one another on the cheeks (“Faire la bise” is a very French thing), I tell Violette that I love her perfume and ask her what it is. “For now, it’s a secret I can’t tell you, but I’m glad you like it. I’ve been working on this project for months.”

Wait, am I supposed to advertise that? Or should I just stress the fact not only does Violette look good, but she also smells good. Anyway, business is business. And Violette understands better than anyone else what is advertising 2.0. It is Less Is More.