Get to Know Laura Mercier, Creator of the Best-Selling Tinted Moisturizer

Lina Evangelista, on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar with Laura Mercier as her makeup artist. (Photo: Harper’s Bazaar)

Beauty maestro Laura Mercier may best be known for her eponymous product line today, but the Frenchwoman earned her stripes working for the very best photographers (Steven Meisel, Patrick Dermarchelier), magazines (Elle, Vogue) and celebrities (Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker). Here, Mercier spills on how she got her start, her big breaks, and how social media is shaping beauty today.

I was born in Africa, but I was really young when I moved to France. I was raised in Provence, but because I was a little girl I didn’t realize how beautiful it was. I appreciate it a lot more now that I’m an adult. Very early on, it gave me a lot of wonderful things to look at, to smell — it’s engraved in you. I studied drawing and painting and I loved painting faces. Honestly, I wanted to be an artist. That was my first love. I wanted to paint and really be an anti-social person, but that’s not realistic because I also needed to make a living.

My mother, meanwhile, was a very social person. She was really refined, and she and my father would be invited to the parties and such. I would do her nails — she had beautiful hands — and later on I did her makeup. It was the same thing as painting, but with skin as your canvas. I was so very fascinated by faces. That gave me the inspiration to try beauty.

Laura Mercier, makeup guru and celebrity makeup artist looks back on where it all began. (Photo: )

Right after I finished high school, I started at an aesthetics school called Carita, where I took classes led by makeup artists. That’s where I first started learning about skin. I became the assistant of a famous makeup artist at the time, Thibault Vabre, then became a freelance artist and worked by myself. I was in Paris, and what was most exciting about the time was how different it was from today. When you were working for a magazine like Elle, you would not work with other magazines. You would be booked all the time and you would be part of a team. It was wonderful, not only because you were ensured a lot of work, but also because you’d see a lot of people passing through, such as photographers, celebrities, and new models. It was a fantastic melting pot. You’d also be traveling all the time — maybe you would live on an island for 15 days just for a shoot. It was really intense but the best school ever. I was working then with the photographers Patrick Demarchelier and Gilles Bensimon. As a makeup artist, you have to learn how to work in harmony with the photographer and with Gilles it was all about fresh and natural: Running on the beach and being tan and healthy. It was so different than the heavy studio makeup I’d seen. That was the first genesis for the products I would launch later: My Tinted Moisturizer ($44) and Secret Camouflage ($34). It was about skin that could breathe.

I worked for about six years in Paris on my own before leaving for New York. I actually was never looking to move to New York. I would say, “It’s too scary; it’s not made for me.” But then all my friends were leaving for New York City and in 1985, Elle magazine booked me for a team that would go and test girls for the new American Elle. So I thought, “OK, I’ll just go for fun for a year. I’ll just be in and out.” Well, 30 years later, I’m still here!

Julia Roberts, among the celebrities Mercier has worked with. (Photo: Michael Thompson)

I met some agents in New York and things started really happening. It was the ‘80s and it was the beginning of the supermodel. It was a very creative period with all these people from Europe traveling to New York. Before, fashion didn’t really criss-cross between Europe and New York City, but now it was doing so in a big way. It truly was the era of the most beautiful professional girls. They became celebrities, which we called supermodels, and they worked for a long time. That’s when I started to work with Steven Meisel. I’ve had many big breaks, and I would definitely consider this an immense break. He’s a genius and he’s a workaholic. He’s a perfectionist as well. He has fashion printed in his brain and running in his veins — literally. A girl would walk into the shoot and be just plain and makeup-less and Steven would look at her and say, “OK, this is what I intend to do today; let’s all talk together and find out how to accomplish that.” What Steven could get from those conversations was amazing.

At the time, the ‘80s was not about looking natural. It was about fuchsia, cat-eyes, you name it. Then with the ‘90s, we shaved the eyebrows or bleached them. We did monochromatic looks with smoky eyes and beige lips. I was working with Vogue then with Meisel and Steven Klein, and often the look there was sporty, with soft foundation and tans.

Another one of my big breaks was working with celebrities. I worked with Madonna for eight years — the first time was for the “Take a Bow” video. It was hard work because she’s very demanding and professional, but that’s what I love about her. Then, I worked with Mariah Carey for five years and Celine Dion for five years. With celebrities, it was learning a different way to work with makeup because you’re working with a personality. That’s a very different world from editorial. Later on, I worked with actresses like Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts. Each one gives you the immense pleasure of working with her personality and her taste, which really enriches you.

Mariah Carey, another celebrity and recording artist that Mercier has worked with. (Photo: Columbia Records)

In 1996, I was approached to do my own line. I was happy to jump on board because it was another part of the industry I was attracted to. I used to do my own mixes. It’s probably the dream of every makeup artist to make product the way he or she likes it. For me, I didn’t want just a bunch of colors. I had a very specific concept about working on skin, which I had been developing from day one. It was about just touching up the skin so that it looks healthy but without a lot of texture. At the time, nothing like that existed in America. American women were very attached to covering up their skin. The concept for the tinted moisturizer was very French. You’d let your skin show a little bit without the heaviness.

Today, women are a lot savvier about beauty. Social media has changed things. On Instagram, heavy makeup is back. It comes from the reality shows — Kim Kardashian and her sisters — and it’s creating something that is very strong, specific, and sexy. For some young women, imitating this look is about trying to be somebody else. I would separate that from trying to realize your own beauty. The heavy makeup is just one look. There’s not just one current to follow now. The important thing is how to apply whatever is currently happening the best to yourself and in tune with your personality.

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