Here’s a look at four of beauty’s most beautiful offices.
Violette_FR
Dumbo, Brooklyn, New York
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A picture may say a thousand words, but a single shelf in Violette Serrat’s office tells entire stories.
That’s a somewhat literal statement—the makeup artist and founder of her eponymous beauty line has a penchant for all things vintage, and it shows—but it’s also true in a figurative sense; the trinkets, mood boards and even the Parisian-style moldings that decorate the office serve a very specific purpose: to express Violette_FR’s artistic and cultural heritage in an ineffable way.
“I don’t think I’m always the best communicator, but this brand is so clear in my mind,” says Serrat. “Because I have my world around me, so I can point to things, so I’m constantly aware of things in a concrete way – it’s like direct access to my creativity.”
Among the seemingly countless jars of dry powder pigments purchased at various Japanese flea markets over the years (“when I started doing makeup, I carried my pigments in kits because makeup products were too expensive,” says Serrat), until the twenty-somethings perch brushes on Serrat’s desk, the space resembles an artist’s studio almost as much as it does an office space.
“I see this brand as a modern house, and to build a house you need a ‘maison’ – a real house,” says Serrat, who manages ‘cabinets of curiosities’ – or small, glass-encased displays showcasing the historic references, color samples and images that inspired the Violette_FR products, on display at the entrance to the office.
A literal closet in Serrat’s personal office, meanwhile, houses other key items: the kaleidoscope she found at a flea market that inspired Boum Boum Milk’s secondary packaging, vintage beauty packaging from French heritage brands, floral guides and so on.
“A client sent me this color guide that I’m currently looking at because I’m very interested in the symbolism of colors,” says Serrat, whose signature pink-peach walls are the result of a carefully homemade Pantone paint mixture and several Home Depot runs.
“Everything with me is so specific, sometimes I think: ‘Can’t you want something that’s already been done?’” Serrat laughs. “But in a way it’s good: it’s easy for me to know what I want.”
Where the water cooler convo is located: “Strangely enough, the conference room – because we’re all there and within 15 minutes we’re laughing and having a conversation about something uninteresting – redirect – it entertains you.”
The beginning
SoHo, New York City, New York
For the average beauty enthusiast who is chronically online, stepping into Scarlett Johansson’s office in The Outset immediately conjures up a familiar scene. “It’s kind of like our showroom,” says brand manager Lorelei Orfeo about the modern-rustic open space, colloquially known as the “living room” by the brand’s team.
The cognac brown leather sofa in the room in particular has “become a bit famous,” Orfeo continues. “It’s where a lot of our content takes place and where we do a lot of our TikTok livestreams.” Many of TikTok’s favorite influencers — including “Get Ready With Me” hit Katie Fang and breakout podcaster Bobbi Althoff — have starred in social content on the couch alongside Johansson and The Outset co-founder and CEO Kate Foster Lengyel.
A few feet away, samples of the brand’s Purifying Clay Mask, Barrier Rescue Balm and makeup-priming Prep Serum are stacked along a bookshelf atop stacks of coffee-table books – including a tome of Yaffa Assouline’s ‘Avant-Garde Orientalists’ and a Copy of more than 700 pages of Milady’s aesthetic guide. “Kate is obsessed with this book – she always pulls it out for inspiration,” Orfeo explains of the latter.
Meanwhile, a life-size cardboard cutout of Johansson — whose time lately has been spent filming Greg Berlanti’s upcoming “Fly Me to the Moon” — overlooks the showroom. “It was from an appearance on ‘Good Morning America,’ and while she was gone, we said, ‘Okay, we need our Scarlett.'”
Other touches, like a slew of past campaign images sprawled across the walls and Johansson’s dining table now the focal point of the meeting room, ensure that even when the co-founder isn’t physically present, she’s in the office in spirit – and, in the box of her cardboard cutout, Prada from head to toe.
A typical team coffee/food run looks like this: “Devoción, which is right around the corner, is our most popular spot – Ole & Steen is our other coffee go-to, and Sweetgreen is a few blocks away for lunch.”
Rare beauty
El Segundo, California.
“It’s pretty incredible what a coat of paint can do to a building,” says Joyce Kim, Chief Product Officer of Rare Beauty. After joining the brand in 2019—before its 2020 debut at Sephora—Kim recalls the (now seemingly unthinkable) bare walls before the launch of Rare’s headquarters in El Segundo, California. “We hadn’t settled on a final paint scheme, colors or creative signatures of the brand; it was basically just an office shell,” she recalls.
In 2023, the brand founded by Selena Gomez had not only long ago established the pink and plum tones that define its visual presence, but also the mission to promote inner and outer well-being – two of the key principles underlying the brand redesign. headquarters falling.
The refresh, carried out by interior design firm Havenly, was accompanied by the development of Rare’s aromatherapy-infused Find Comfort body care collection. “Developing the line actually ran parallel to creating the mood, atmosphere and environment of the office,” says Kim.
Hardly a stone has been left unturned in the quest to create that warm office feeling – from a strategically placed range of lounge-worthy sofas, to a touch of mood lighting throughout, to the implementation of ‘Mental Health Thursdays’, which involve office-wide activities such as yoga, breathwork sessions and group walks. “We take over the main entrance to the lobby or the kitchen and move all the furniture so we have space to do these activities,” Kim says.
The pièce de résistance of space? Custom Sherwin Williams paint shades adorn each step of the lobby stairs, echoing the shades that make up Rare’s hero Soft Pinch Liquid Blush collection.
Where the water cooler convo is located: “The kitchen – it’s just become a place where so much content creation happens. Tony, our head of IT, has been featured on our TikTok a lot because he’s the epitome of someone who doesn’t know much about beauty, so when the whole team is in the kitchen and he’s there having lunch, we can I’ll tell him simply interview with the question, “What are your favorite Rare Beauty products?”
Shinier
SoHo, New York City, NY
Architect Rafael de Cárdenas was the creative force behind Glossier’s headquarters in SoHo, New York, a space that brings the brand’s signatures – and know-how – to life in the form of pink upholstered sofas, subtle red accents and a relaxed, minimalist design that seeks to prioritize aesthetics and comfort.
“Rafael worked closely with Emily [Weiss, founder of Glossier] to make sure the space was a good fit for us,” said Kendall Latham, director of retail and experiential design at Glossier. “We wanted it to feel cozy, even though it was an office for 150 people.”
For example, the office’s natural light-filled ‘lounge’ serves as a multi-functional space where team members can enjoy a meal, hold informal meetings or, thanks to a mini-stage at the front, attend speaker sessions from the likes of Deepak Chopra, Bobbi Brown et al.
Glossier’s many eras are well documented throughout the space—an archive near the entrance displays prototypes of now signature offerings, such as the brand’s pink bubble wrap pouches and clay molds of the Glossier You perfume bottle; elsewhere, framed portraits from Troye Sivan’s 2019 campaign for Glossier Play, the brand’s now shuttered line of makeup offerings, glitter (literally) along a wall.
Meeting rooms are named after accomplished women – Beyoncé, Cher, Michelle Obama and the like – while smaller, numbered phone booths serve a secondary purpose as blind product testing rooms. “It’ll be like, OK, rate door number one compared to door number two and three — we’ll use it as a fun experiment space,” Latham says.
One wall in the office’s primary workspace is dedicated to showcasing Glossier fan mail, a surprising amount of which comes in the form of wedding and Bat Mitzvah invitations.
“This company – we’re just getting invites,” says Roya Shariat, Glossier’s director of social impact and communications, as she gestures to a save-the-date sent by a bride-to-be who claims she is, in fact, Cloud Paint and Stretch Concealer will wear. on her big day.
Where the water cooler convo is located: ‘The coat closet. Or the bathroom – you can get ready there before or after work, and the lighting is just the best – it automatically makes you feel warm, I can’t explain it,” laughs Shariat.
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