Get the Look: French Girl Eyes & Lips
Makeup artist Sabrina Bedrani masters cool minimalism with a flick of eyeliner and wine-stained lips.
Photography By ALICE ROSATI
Written By CHRISTINA HAN
Styled By MELANIE HUYNH
Makeup By SABRINA BEDRANI
Hair By OLIVIER DE VRIENDT
Nails By NELLY FERREIRA
THE ARTIST
Sabrina Bedrani | @sabrinabmakeup
THE INSPIRATION
A modern-day beauty cavorting through a historic French castle—Christian Dior’s Château de La Colle Noire, to be exact.
WHERE TO WEAR
A solo people-watching expedition at the Café de Flore in Paris or on a third date with your favorite new bedfellow.
MEET THE FACE
Aymeline Valade | @aymelinevalades
Actress and model Aymeline Valade has graced the covers of many an international magazine
(I-D and Numéro included), and appeared on over 200 catwalks for fashion houses such as Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton. With her imperfectly-perfect touseled blond hair, razor-sharp cheekbones, and garçonne-chic sense of style, she’s the quintessential French cool girl. On set with The Violet Files, Aymeline exposed the truth behind the much fetishized subject of French-girl beauty:
“French girls are always saying that they don’t do anything, they don’t like being artificial. The truth is, we don’t like to look artificial, but to appear ‘natural’ it actually takes a lot of work. A French manicure actually needs a nail buffer, the white line, so while it looks like you did nothing, you did a lot of work. It’s just because you don’t see the nail polish so you think you did nothing at all! Another example: we are very into eye brows but we’re not going to draw them, we’re going to tweeze and use our fingers to push up the hairs to make them look thicker. It might look like we did not do a lot of work but we always keep the brows looking sharp. So, basically we fake everything to look natural because to do nothing you look plain, but to look natural you have to fake it.”
Read on to see the six-step tutorial for achieving Aymeline’s seemingly-effortless French beauty look, brought to you by Dior.
FRENCH GIRL EYES & LIPS
BY SABRINA BEDRANI
1/6
THAT GOOD-SKIN GLOW
The main trick to achieving the French-girl no-makeup makeup look is to put on a little foundation first to even out the skin tone (I used Dior’s Diorskin Forever Foundation), then apply Dior’s Glow Maximizer to give the complexion a lift. Use your fingers to dab the liquid light-reflecting primer onto the temples, cheekbones, eyelids, lash line, and cupid’s bow.
2/6
WELL-DEFINED ARCHES
I wanted to give her a strong brow shape without making them too square or masculine. To that end, I used little strokes of the Dior Universal Brow styler along the natural shape of Aymeline’s arches to define them further.
DIOR DIORSHOW BROW STYLER
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3/6
BETWEEN THE LINES
This liner look is not your classic cat eye; it’s a little more edgy. To create the look, I took an angled liner brush to the tip of the Dior Smoky Black Diorshow Khôl to pick up the product. The brush offers a more precise application than using the chubby pencil point directly on the lid. I used small strokes to create a line along three-quarters of her lash line (keeping the inner corner line-free) and added a pronounced flick on the outer edge.
4/6
BRIGHT EYES
To make the liner look pop, I applied the subtly shimmering Dior Diorshow Fusion Mono shadow in Mirror with a small brush in the inner corner of her eye and along the inner crease and lash lines, basically creating a V shape. I then layered a tiny dot of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream onto the lids to accentuate the shimmering shadow even more. The liner really gets pushed forward against this backdrop and becomes the focus of the look.
DIOR DIORSHOW FUSION MONO IN MIRROR
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5/6
TO GREAT LENGTHS
To further define the eyes (without overpowering the rest of the face), I simply curled the lashes and gave them one coat of black Diorshow mascara.
DIOR DIORSHOW ICONIC MASCARA BLACK
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6/6
WINE-KISSED LIPS
A lip stain adds color to the mouth but doesn’t make the overall look too “done.” Dior’s Fluid Stick lip colors offers more pigment and depth than a lip gloss, but it isn’t so shiny. I applied the Trompe L’Oeil shade with my fingers and then blotted with a tissue for a red-wine-stain effect.
DIOR DIOR ADDICT FLUID STICK TROMPE L'OEIL
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MEET THE ARTIST SABRINA BEDRANI
Written by Evelyn Crowley
ARTIST STATS
Name: Sabrina Bedrani
Known For: Luminous skin, sophisticated pops of color
Where to find her: Los Angeles
Clients: Kirsten Dunst, Sandra Bullock, Felicity Jones, Michelle Williams, Lizzy Caplan
Years in the Industry: 18
Instagram: @sabrinabmakeup
Beauty Essential: Dior Diorshow Mascara and Diorshow Maximizer Lash Pumping Serum
Mentions in The Violet Files: Cover Story: Felicity Jones, The Iridescent Smoky Eye Tutorial, Cover Story: Vanessa Paradis, The Orange-Red Lip Tutorial, The Smudged Eye Tutorial
On a chance visit to New York in her early twenties, Sabrina Bedrani’s future was sealed after stepping on the set of her first fashion shoot. “I took one look at the makeup artist and thought, ‘Wait, this is a job?’” she says in her distinctively girlish French accent. At the time, Bedrani was on track to obtain a degree in English from the Sorbonne in Paris. However, once she realized her greatest passion—makeup—was a viable career option, she promptly dropped out of school and flung herself into learning everything there was to know about the art of maquillage.
Today, Bedrani is among the most sought-after makeup artists in the industry. She has painted longtime client Vanessa Paradis’ lips numerous shades of crimson (including here for VIOLET GREY). She has applied sultry, smoky shadows to Julianne Moore’s eyes many times over and was appointed Sandra Bullock’s on-set artist for the star’s fifth Vogue cover. “I want my clients to feel beautiful and confident, rather than trying to make a ‘makeup statement,’” explains Bedrani. This sensibility and skilled artistry has her frequently on set for Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair, and collaborating with the likes of photographers Norman Jean Roy and Peter Lindbergh.
Earlier this year, Bedrani added Dior brand ambassador to her job title. “It makes sense,” she says of the role, which recently brought her to VIOLET GREY’s Melrose Place flagship store as an artist-in-residence. “I really do love all of their products. And the company is French, just like me.” When not on set with a client or traveling the world with Dior, Bedrani can be found in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood, where she lives with her partner, three children, and dog, Depot. “We found him in the parking lot of a Home Depot,” she explains of the name choice.
Read Sabrina Bedrani’s French Girl Eyes & Lips Tutorial and more at VIOLETGREY.COM
