Violette
Serrat

Violette Serrat is the founder and CEO of VIOLETTE_FR, the French beauty maison she built at the intersection of artistry, community and commerce. An internationally renowned makeup artist turned entrepreneur, Violette has spent her career moving between the creative and business sides of the global beauty industry—giving her a rare perspective on how an idea becomes a product, a product becomes a brand and a brand becomes a business.

Her path began with art, not business. After training in art and fashion, Violette began experimenting with makeup as another creative medium, mixing her own pigments and raw materials to create looks she couldn’t find anywhere else. She went on to build an international career as a makeup artist and creative leader, eventually serving as International Makeup Designer for Dior, Global Beauty Director at Estée Lauder and then Creative Director of Makeup at Guerlain.

For more than 15 years, however, she had been quietly imagining a brand of her own. In 2021, after more than three years of development, she launched VIOLETTE_FR: a multi-category beauty maison built around a distinctly French philosophy of celebrating individuality rather than correcting it.

Violette approached growth with the same intentionality she brought to product. She built VIOLETTE_FR online first, cultivating a direct relationship with her community and establishing a clear brand identity before pursuing major retail distribution. By the time the company entered Sephora in 2025, it was growing 74% year over year, with new customers up 104%. The brand launched in more than 190 Sephora stores across North America and has continued its international expansion across leading retailers including MECCA and Liberty London.

Backed by investors including Female Founders Fund, Felix Capital, Silas Capital and Monogram Capital Partners, VIOLETTE_FR secured an additional $5 million in financing from existing investors in 2026 to support its next stage of growth.

At the center of Violette’s approach is a deceptively simple philosophy: “I’m here to complete, not to compete.” In an era defined by trend cycles, constant content and pressure to scale quickly, she has built differently—protecting a clear point of view, treating creativity as a business advantage and growing with the long-term ambition of building a maison rather than chasing the trajectory of a traditional high-growth startup.