Why I Only Work With Chanel, Dior and Giorgio Armani Beauty
Consider this: would you trust a nutritionist who was visibly unhealthy? Would you take cardiac advice from a doctor who smoked between appointments?
The same logic applies to makeup. A makeup artist who does not invest in her own skin — who does not test, research, and live by the standards she sets for her clients — has no real authority to touch your face.
This is where my relationship with premium products begins. Not with brand loyalty. Not with sponsorships or trends. With my own skin, and with the demand I place on it every single day.
The Test That Matters Most
Before any product enters my professional kit, it lives on my face. I wear it through a full day — through different lights, different temperatures, different hours. I feel how it sits on the skin, how it moves, how it holds. I watch what it does over time.
This is not a quick test. It is a process of genuine research, conducted personally, without influence from marketing campaigns or industry recommendations. I choose what I choose because I have felt the difference myself — because I know, from my own experience, that these products are exceptional.
And the difference is real. It is not subtle. Premium formulations feel different on the skin — more comfortable, more alive, more luminous. They do not sit on the surface like a mask. They work with the skin, enhancing what is already there rather than covering it.
What a Client Actually Feels
When I apply a Chanel or Dior foundation, a client does not just see a result. She feels it. There is a quality of comfort — a sense that her skin can breathe, that the product belongs there — that simply does not exist with lower-quality formulations.
The luminosity is different. The freshness lasts longer. The skin looks alive rather than made-up. These are not marketing claims. They are the observations of someone who has tested extensively and chosen carefully.
A client who has experienced this once understands immediately why I will not compromise. She does not need an explanation. She feels it.
Skincare Before Makeup, Always
No product — however extraordinary — can perform well on unprepared skin. Applying makeup over a face that has not been properly cleansed and nourished is, as I often say to my clients, like sweeping dust under a carpet. The surface looks clean. Underneath, nothing has changed.
My sessions always begin with skincare. Inspired by the Korean approach to beauty — which treats preparation not as a chore but as a ritual of care — I cleanse thoroughly, and when time allows, I include a gentle exfoliation to refine the texture. Then comes the moisturiser, chosen specifically for the skin type in front of me.
This is not just preparation. It is, as I tell my clients, a pleasurable act of care — a moment before the transformation begins when the skin is simply being looked after. Many clients tell me this is their favourite part of the session.
Only once that base is luminous, settled and comfortable do I begin to build the makeup on top of it. At that point, the skin does much of the work for me.
On the Question of Cost
I do not justify the cost of my products to my clients. Not because the question is unwelcome — but because it never arises.
The clients who choose me have already made their decision. They have seen my work, understood my philosophy, and decided that this is the experience they want. They are not looking for the most affordable option. They are looking for the best one.
They understand, as I do, that quality has a cost — and that the cost is worth it. Not just for the result they see in the mirror, but for what they feel during the session: the care, the attention, the knowledge that every product touching their skin has been chosen with the same rigour they apply to every other luxury in their lives.
Every Brand Has Its Excellence
I am often asked which of my brands is my favourite — whether I have a loyalty that supersedes the others. The honest answer is that I love them all, for different reasons.
Each brand in my kit has a characteristic that makes it exceptional in a specific context. Chanel for its textures and finish. Dior for its colour and innovation. Giorgio Armani Beauty for its foundations. Clé de Peau Beauté for luminosity. Lancôme, YSL, Givenchy — each with its own strength, its own moment.
What they share is the standard I require: that they perform flawlessly, that they respect the skin, and that they contribute to a result that is, without exception, the best version of the person in front of me.
That is the only criterion that has ever mattered.