Overnight, Estée Lauder announced the appointment of their new global beauty director: none other than French cool girl and makeup artist, Violette.
Violette is taking the place of Tom Pecheux, who left Estée Lauder to become the global beauty director for YSL. Prior to this, Violette held spots at Dior as a consultant, and La Mer as a brand spokesperson.
Estée Lauder global brand president Stephane de la Faverie spoke with WWD about what Violette’s role will entail; including a heavy involvement in product development and education and training on a global scale, and importantly, the creation of digital content.
“Our goal is to ignite a dynamic new beauty conversation,” de la Faverie said, adding “Violette’s woman-to-woman voice is critical to our strong focus on social media, and we plan to amplify her voice across her social platforms and ours to connect with women around the world.”
Also speaking with WWD, Violette added her excitement about the new role and made it clear that her makeup philosophy is “being who you are”, saying: “The key for me is even if I’m being bold on a woman, she’s not a blank canvas; she’s a muse to me. She will never disappear behind it [makeup]. She has to be celebrated, that’s very, very important. I’m never going to contour and put on tons of foundation that she doesn’t need.
“[I ask] ‘What do you really need on your skin’ and try to have it be as ‘honest’ as possible. I don’t want to change her features. Celebrate is a key word; I always want to celebrate how they look. I’m going to play with any features she has that are interesting and push this. Skin is a main trick. If you know what’s behind the curtain of a magician then the magic is gone. I don’t want to do anything on the skin that makes it obvious you’re wearing foundation.”
