Laura Mercier

Laura Mercier (born Michèle Mercier on 2 October 1960) is a French makeup artist and businesswoman.

Early life Laura Mercier was born as Michèle Mercier in Arles, France, on 2 October 1960, the youngest of three daughters. At 16, she enrolled as an art student at L'Ecole Supérieure d'Arts Appliqués Duperré, a design school in Paris, to pursue painting and drawing. Mercier later enrolled at the Carita Paris Institute, a combination beauty school and salon in Paris, France. Following her graduation, Mercier worked as a makeup artist at the school and adopted the name "Laura" to avoid confusion with the actress Michèle Mercier, a client of the salon. After attending Carita Paris Institute, she moved to New York and worked for famous magazines such as Elle, Allure, Glamour, and InStyle.

Career Mercier moved from Paris to New York City in 1985 to work as a makeup artist at the American edition of Elle magazine. Mercier was hired as Madonna's personal makeup artist, following a photo shoot featuring Madonna for Vogue magazine. Other celebrity clients Mercier has worked with include Julia Roberts, Mariah Carey and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Mercier continues to work as a freelance makeup artist and is a published author. In 2006, she published The New Beauty Secrets: Your Ultimate Guide to a Flawless Face.

On 23 March 2014 she joined with Claudia Poccia for the ovarian cancer Awareness Month and donated some of her savings to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. In April 2014 she launched a new collection called New Attitude.