Vênsette

Josephine, my Vênsette makeup artist, holds my chin lightly as she scans my bare face. Dressed in a black smock, her dark hair pulled into a low bun, she raises none of the alarm bells (Lascivious lips! Heavy-rimmed eyes!) that the artists at department-store makeup counters tend to set off. She tells me that she got her first break in 2004, with a gig on the set of a Destiny’s Child music video.

Back then, music videos were one of the few outlets available to makeup artists. But the rise of red-carpet photo culture, fueled by Instagram, Pinterest, and innumerable gossip blogs, has spawned a parallel ecosystem of beauty services. Vênsette, which charges $200 to dispatch a hair and makeup artist to your door, is unabashedly among the most expensive.

Women already have a lot of things; they’re more interested in services,” says founder and CEO Lauren Remington Platt, a fixture on the New York City benefit circuit. “They’re willing to spend a lot on making their lives easier.”

“These are women who have very limited time,” Platt says of her customers, half of whom rebook within two months. Clients range from corporate executives to celebrities like Kendall Jenner. “Traveling to the salon, that’s time that a woman could be spending with her children or working.

Read full story on Vênsette.com

Also read: Makeup Alley App