Growing up in a small town in Northern California did you always know that you wanted to become a makeup artist? Can you share a little about your journey from working makeup counters to becoming a makeup artist to celebrities like Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway?
I’m the oldest of three sisters, my parents were super young when they had us and I feel like they kind of grew up with us. Kristie is two years younger and Ashley is ten years younger than me. I never felt like we had real guidance when it came to anything having to do with beauty - I never remember even looking at a fashion magazine. I did ballet and remember doing some of the girls’ makeup. I don’t even remember wearing makeup myself. My parents divorced when I was a senior in high school and my boyfriend’s mother who I was really close to suggested I work at a makeup counter in a department store and that’s exactly what I did straight out of high school. I worked for Estee Lauder, each brand would send you to their own training and that’s really how I learned the trade. It taught me how to work with all different kinds of people, young and old. I knew I liked it and thought I’d just work at a counter for the rest of my life.
I had never left the state of California at that point, but ended up following a boyfriend to New York City. Soon after I landed there, I met Edward Tricomi who convinced me to come work as his hair assistant at his salon Warren Tricomi. The salon would sometimes service clients in makeup for Next Modeling Agency - they started sending me out on shoots and that’s how I started on the freelance side. I started doing a lot of real people which made sense based on my background in the department store and then I was doing about 10-20% celebrity work and got my foot in the door with publicists and photographers.
New York was exactly what I needed it to be at that time, I was single and traveling all over the word but after five or six years I was ready to go - I followed another boyfriend back to LA, it’s always about the boyfriends! Of course the week we were supposed to move back we broke up.
Your sisters Ashley and Kristie are also well known in the beauty industry. The three of you opened a beauty studio, Striike in Los Angeles, what was it like to start a business with your sisters?
We all kind of fell into the industry but were focused in very different areas, Kristie became an aesthetician specializing in brows, Ashley started doing hair and I introduced her to an agent soon after I got back to LA. Kristie already had the space where she offered brow services and it was her idea to have me start selling makeup and for Ashley to do hair. We opened Strike Studio around 2014 right when my son was born. We had absolutely no business plan and no idea what we were doing. We were naive and ignorant about what starting a business even was. It created so much resentment between the three of us, it really tore us apart. We even started going to therapy together, we tried all the things. Then Covid hit and everything just shut down and my husband Jonny and I decided to leave LA. Moving back to New York and leaving my sisters at that time was the best thing I ever did, it saved all of us. They were both so mad at me when I left, it definitely didn’t seem like the best answer to the problem but it really was the only solution.
You made the move from LA to Bedford in the middle of the pandemic and opened your beauty shop, Scout in Scotts Corner in Pound Ridge not too long after. I imagine it was a difficult decision to leave your family and community there, can you share what that transition has been like and what initially drew you to the area?
We really didn’t know anyone when we moved here, we had one set of close friends that spent time here and we bought our house in Bedford site unseen. My husband Jonny was working on the film A Quiet Place just north of here and that’s kind of how we knew the area. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do when I moved here. The private client work had come to a standstill and I thought maybe I could open something in the city. Honestly it was my friend John Krasinski who said you should open something here, there was just nothing here like it at the time. A lot of people all said the same thing and I said to myself they’re right - I just took it and ran. That was peak Covid and I thought, am I doing something really stupid? I knew when I opened it was going to be small and didn’t think there would be much overhead - I thought if I’m going to do it I’m going to keep it clean beauty because that’s just the way everything was going.
Jonny was gone a lot that first year Scout was open, he was on location shooting back to back Jack Ryan seasons. I remember when he came back he was in shock over how many people I knew - but also how many people knew us and our business. This place is so small, everyone knows your business but it’s also kind of great moving someplace not really knowing anyone. I’m not a socially outward person so I think living here would be really different if I didn’t have a store. I am gone a lot now that the world has reopened after Covid, I started traveling and I wonder how I would have ever met people without Scout.
What has surprised you since opening Scout?
It’s been a huge learning process for me. I worked with tons of brands being a makeup artist - I got so exposed and got so much stuff from brands, that part has been beneficial. But I think I was a little naive about how working with brands would actually be - it’s really different working on the other side owning a store. Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth now trying to ask for things as a store. It’s a whole different side of the business - that’s really been a learning curve. Also, I never thought I would be a business or retail owner. It’s hard dealing with people for me, especially because I went my whole career not having to do it. Until 5 or 6 years ago being a makeup artist was really a behind the scenes role, especially when I started my career in New York. You weren’t allowed to talk about who you were working with or take pictures of your clients. Even doing makeup lessons, explaining my process to others was difficult to get used to, no one had ever asked to do that before I opened Scout.
I had the pleasure of meeting your sister Ashley, a celebrity hairstylist who still lives in LA on one of her visits to Bedford at a popup she hosted at Scout. Having a sister who I’m also incredibly close to but lives in a different time zone I know how hard it is, especially after having kids, to not have them be part of your regular routine. How do you and your sisters maintain your closeness and continue to work together living on different coasts?
We’re all still incredibly close, although it always seems like one of us is on the “outs,” always one person not talking to another. I consider my mom like a sister too, she’s only 17 years older than me and she often comes out to visit from LA. When I first moved here, Kristie and Ashley were both so mad, Kristie was more forgiving and there was a time when Ahsley and I weren’t communicating at all. Our 10 year age difference led to a codependency, I was more like a mother figure to her and I think she had to break that cycle. Even though we didn’t speak for a while I think it probably needed to happen. It was probably life learning experiences - she met her partner and got pregnant during that time. Now we’re close again, we talk almost every single day. I probably wouldn’t have moved from LA if we were super close at the time. See, I do believe everything happens for a reason. You can be mad at family, but you can’t really ever get rid of them.
With so many beauty products available on the market, how do you decide which products to carry in your store or to use on a particular client?
Honestly, for Scout and Duchess it’s really about what I use. It’s about what I like, I think I get exposed to so much that I have a good sense of what customers will like too. Doing freelance and working with celebrities it’s a little different, you’re choosing products for how they’ll wear and photograph, for how long they’ll last. In a store it’s different. It’s about sharing what I like and the products that I use, it doesn’t even feel like I really need to “sell” them at all.
What innovations have you seen over the years in the beauty industry?
The whole clean movement for sure.That’s why I was like if I’m going to do this - open retail then that’s what it has to be. Although it’s a bit of a crock of shit, there’s no real regulations about what is clean and what isn’t. It is kind of a broad term at this point and there are still major players who aren’t doing it, which I think is insane. There are still brands that are fully toxic. Even ten years ago, your options were so minimal for clean. You would never think about using clean for a client because the options were crap. Sure, I still use stuff that isn’t clean, I’m not that hardcore about it but in a retail space it makes so much sense to go clean.
Can you share a little about your “go to” beauty routine? Every time I’ve run into you out and about you always seem so put together but not in a “too made up” way. How does your personal approach to beauty influence your work with clients?
It’s really pretty minimal but I get bored in general so I am constantly trying new things. In theory, I wash my face with an oil cleanser (I use one of many different brands) and moisturize. For foundation, there are a few brands I really love. If I know I’m going to be people facing, I will make more of an effort. Most days I don’t really wear anything. If I need to show off for a bit I’ll throw on some colored lipstick or purple mascara and call it a day.
Social media plays an outsized role in beauty and how we shop for products. Can you talk about your relationship to social media and how you’ve seen it change and the impact it’s had on you and your business over the years?
I hate this aspect of the business - I was lucky enough to start working with a woman named Jenna who is based in LA who does all my social media. There is nothing about it I like - she is always having to ask me to record something which I’ll just give to her to edit. I hate watching it myself - I honestly don’t like anything about it. But I know there’s a direct correlation between what we post and what we sell in the store. I do think it’s a generational thing, my sister Ashley is just so much better at it than me - she’s so much more comfortable. I talk shit about it but I still do it - we all still benefit from it, I’ve done some amazing things in my life because of my social media presence. I know it’s a necessary evil but I sometimes wish it would just go away. Maybe we should all follow the state of Montana who just outlawed Tiktok, wouldn’t that be great if we all just got rid of it?
You are about to open a second shop, Duchess in Bedford Village. What led to your decision to open a second outpost and what can customers expect to find at Duchess?
The space became available and had the setup for treatment rooms which we don’t have at Scout. Similar to when I started Scout, people kept telling me there’s just nothing else like this around Bedford, a place where people can shop a curated source of clean beauty and home products but also come in for pop up treatments. There’s been real demand for that at Scout, I’ve had Kristie fly in to do brows or Ashley to come do hair, we plan to offer those kinds of experiential beauty services in the new space.
Who have been the greatest influences on your own career and what pieces of advice would you give to others in the industry or women looking to launch their own business?
I don’t think anyone should take business advice from me. I think I have found something I love doing and built a small business around that but I don’t think of myself as a good business person. Knowing that, having someone like Lauren who helps run my stores who can help me on the retail side and Jenna who helps with social media and branding makes all the difference in the world. Finding those people that you can jive with and that lift you where you fall is so important. I couldn’t do it on my own. I also feel like I have an artistic brain, I don’t pay attention to details that other people do - similar to how mothering is - it takes a village. There are so many things I’m not good at but know what parts to outsource.
I haven’t necessarily had many mentors in my career but my husband has been great and we’ve always gotten along. He never asks too many questions and knows how to support me. John Krasinski is another one who is just so business savvy, it's a special gift. I don’t know if it’s something you can learn, I think there are people who are just born with it. You can watch those people and just think, wow. It’s always really nice having those people around, I know he cares and I can ask him anything and he would be so down to talk it out with me. Hmm, there seems to be a lot of male dominance in my life….
Lightning Round:
Beauty Product(s) you can’t live without?
I’m going to be super general and just say oil - moisturizing oil there are so many good ones.
Proudest makeup “look” you’ve achieved?
I remember one moment during the premieres for Edge of Tomorrow with Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise. She wore an amazing red Prada dress and we did this pepto bismol pink lip - everyone puts pink and red together now but at that time it was a bit shocking, she looked really great.
Favorite thing about living in our area?
I love all the trees and green, it sucks in the winter but makes it even better in the springtime.
What do you miss most about LA?
My sisters, the only thing I miss.
What would you do with one extra hour each day:
I would probably sleep.
