“I’m a living cliché with my bangs and my red lipstick!” exclaims Violette, the French-born, Brooklyn-based editorial makeup artist,  with a laugh. Naturally, as the creative force behind Violette_FR—a five-years-in-the-making vegan cosmetics line of eye shadows, lipsticks, and skincare—that infamous crimson mouth is now the result of her own meticulous design. 

“It took me a year-and-a-half just to develop the color,” Violette explains of Petal Bouche, an extraordinarily pigmented liquid lip formula inspired by the memory of a black rose that she came across in Paris’s Jardin de Bagatelle as a child. “You can really create this ombre effect, like a petal,” adds the 38-year-old Gallic beauty, who studied fine arts at the École du Louvre before trading paint canvases for bare skin on a whim—and capturing the attention of French Vogue's then editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld.  

Now an Instagram juggernaut with an audience of 430k and a booming YouTube channel, she's worked hard to infuse the Violette_FR brand’s daring pigments with approachability and signature Parisian panache. So who better for Gucci to speed dial on a recent fall morning for an impromptu holiday lip color swap?

Without missing a beat, Violette dips into Westman Atelier's Lip Suede Bordeaux lip palette, while Gucci grabs Violette_FR's Petal Bouche.   Watch what happens next.

For more makeup tutorials, check out recent episodes of The Face—starring Poppy Delevingne, Chriselle Lim, Maria Cornejo and more—click here.  Plus, the ultimate merry-making gift guide is here! Shop Westman Atelier's best festive edits, from little luxuries to gilded splurges that bring the wow.