Laura Mercier

Laura Mercier is a makeup and body-care brand founded in 1996 and named after the French makeup artist of the same name. Wikipedia describes the line as "French and American": its founder was born and trained in France, while the company has long been headquartered in New York. The brand built its reputation on natural-looking, "no-makeup" complexion products and a stated aim to put professional artistry techniques into everyday hands. It is owned by Orveon Global Ltd, the company formed in 2021 to hold Laura Mercier alongside bareMinerals and BUXOM.

The brand remains active, with a current e-commerce site, ongoing product launches and anniversary messaging marking roughly thirty years since its 1996 debut.

The brand carries the name of Laura Mercier, born Michèle Mercier in Arles, France, in 1960. Trained first in painting and drawing in Paris, she moved into beauty through aesthetics and makeup, graduating from the Carita Paris institute and working there before going freelance. She relocated to New York in 1985 to work for the American edition of Elle, and went on to build an editorial career with magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair and photographers including Steven Meisel and Patrick Demarchelier.

How the brand was founded depends on which role one counts. The brand's own Wikipedia infobox credits Laura Mercier as founder [3], and the brand site presents her as the creative force behind the products. The Gurwitch Products article records that Janet Gurwitch, a former executive vice president of Neiman Marcus, and Gary Kusin founded the corporate vehicle (Gurwitch Products) in 1995, then "licensed Laura Mercier's name and created the Laura Mercier Cosmetics brand in 1996" [5]. The two accounts describe the same event from different angles: Mercier as the eponymous artist, Gurwitch and Kusin as the business founders who built the company around her name.

By her own account, Mercier started the brand to make products she felt did not yet exist. She told Violet Grey she "saw this great white space to create products," and the company says it set out to democratize professional artistry techniques otherwise reserved for set work, making them accessible to a general audience.

Laura Mercier has changed hands several times through its parent company. Neiman Marcus Group bought a 51 percent stake in Gurwitch Products in 1999 [5]. In August 2006 the business, valued at more than $120 million, was acquired by Alticor, the parent of Amway, and became a wholly owned subsidiary [5]. Shiseido then acquired Gurwitch Products in 2016 [5].

The current ownership is more recent than some sources reflect. Wikipedia's brand infobox lists the parent company as Orveon Global Ltd [3]; the older Gurwitch Products article stops at the Shiseido acquisition and still implies Shiseido as owner [5]. The more recent record resolves it: in 2021 the private-equity firm Advent International acquired bareMinerals, BUXOM and Laura Mercier from Shiseido Americas and launched them under a newly formed company, Orveon Global, with the transaction closing on 6 December 2021 [6]. Orveon describes itself as a collective of premium and prestige beauty brands and is headquartered in New York City, with regional offices in London and Tokyo [6].

The brand positions itself around a natural, understated finish summed up in its "flawless face" idea — the notion that makeup should look like skin rather than mask it. Its founder's stated philosophy is that "makeup should enhance, never mask" and that artistry "should belong in every woman's hands," and the company frames its mission as offering high-quality, natural-looking products for a wide range of skin tones and types. Editorial coverage has tied Mercier to a "no-makeup makeup" and French-pharmacy sensibility, with Violet Grey noting she "championed understated French beauty aesthetics long before mainstream popularity." The brand sits in the prestige price tier and sells through multiple channels, including its own direct-to-consumer site and department-store distribution.

Laura Mercier's catalogue centres on complexion makeup, alongside eye, lip and bath-and-body lines. Its best-known product is the Translucent Loose Setting Powder, which the company markets as the "#1 setting powder brand" [2] and which editorial coverage has called a cult classic [8]. Other signature products include the Secret Camouflage concealer, the Tinted Moisturizer and the Foundation Primer.

Secret Camouflage holds particular significance for the founder. In a 2017 interview she called it "definitely my baby" and "the reason why I did this brand," adding that she had expected it to be a difficult product to sell and demonstrate [7]. More recent launches visible on the brand site include a relaunched Secret Camouflage and an Ultra-Blur Mint variant of the setting powder.

Before founding the brand, Mercier worked as a makeup artist for high-profile clients; she was hired as Madonna's personal makeup artist after a Vogue shoot [4], and her client list also included Julia Roberts and Sarah Jessica Parker. The brand itself has drawn editorial features from outlets including Refinery29 and Violet Grey, and in 2012 it became the official cosmetics brand of Project Runway All Stars Season 2.

The brand is active. Its site carries current campaigns and product launches and markets the line under roughly thirty-year anniversary messaging, consistent with its 1996 founding. It operates globally under Orveon Global, selling through department stores and direct-to-consumer channels.