About Violette

The V in V_FR

I dreamed of being a fashion designer or a painter. I couldn’t decide between the two until one night I applied glitter on my friend’s face for a party...and everything changed.

I was 19 years old, living in Paris, and that night I decided I had to go to New York to become a makeup artist that will paint and dress up faces. I wanted to celebrate people as muses. 

Two weeks later I was in NYC. I had no makeup experience, no makeup products, no money, and I was not good at speaking English. With the little money I had, I bought individual pots of makeup pigment to mix, blend, and create my own products on set. I read all of Kevin Aucoin’s books and was ready to conquer the industry with my mini suitcase full of pigments. I did everything I could to make it in NYC, but there weren’t enough jobs coming in, so back to Paris I went. 

At that point, I gave myself four years to make it or change my career path. During that period I got some yes’s, but mostly a lot of no’s. Can I have a job? NO. I’ll do your makeup for free? NO. And then I was told: You need to go to makeup school. You need to assist. Nobody is going to hire you otherwise. You need to focus on commercial work, stop being so creative, you’ll never be in Vogue.  

I had rebelled against the industry, my advisors, my friends. I followed my gut and worked extremely hard.

Over the course of 17 years, I got to collaborate with renowned photographers I had dreamed of working alongside and editors of magazines (including Vogue!) whose pages I studied during the earlier days of my career. I became the International Makeup Designer for Dior. I worked on product development for Sephora. I became the Global Beauty Director for Estée Lauder. I connected with so many of you through my Instagram and YouTube channels, which inspired me to take the next step in my career...

And now, the dreamiest of all dreams, I am the founder of VIOLETTE_FR.