Violette Will Teach You How to Be the Ultimate French Girl

With summer around the corner, we need all the beauty inspiration out there. Easy, breezy dresses? Yes, please. Big straw hats? Why not. And topping it all: a light, fresh makeup look that won’t smudge and budge, making us a greasy mess.

Enter Violette. The Paris-born, Brooklyn-based it-girl, known by her first name only, has been in the beauty industry a long time now, and since 2017 works as the global beauty director for Estée Lauder, which is no easy feat by any standard.

The self-made makeup artist is the poster child of the American dream, arriving to New-York in 2013 at the age of 19, broke, with no working experience and with barely any English.

She then studied art and fashion before starting a (very) successful YouTube channel, teaching the art of makeup. “I always hesitated between becoming a painter or a fashion designer, but neither excited me enough,” Violette admitted in an interview with Inside Out magazine.

“And then all became so evident when one night, completely by accident, I had to do a friend’s make up for a costume party. I put sparkles all over her face and it came to me: she was my muse. I was ‘dressing’ and painting her face. Today, all women are my muses, not some sort of blank canvas. I am celebrating all women and their femininity.”

Now she runs an equally successful Instagram page, where she shares her tips and tricks. “Makeup is actually not as superficial as some might assume,” she said. “On the contrary, there is a very deep psychological connotation to it. It is a tool that impacts who and what we see of ourselves in the mirror.”

Her bare beauty screams French girl, and is just what we needed for summer.

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Lips Galaxy. #makeupbyviolette

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Color mood from head to toe by @sezane #sezane

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