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In 2025, there is no shortage of places to buy beauty products, either online or in person. But with a glut of options, curation becomes all the more important. Fortunately for luxury beauty retailer Violet Grey, curation has always been at its core.
“Curation is even more important today than it was when we first started. The whole thing was like, ‘How do we become the trusted source?’” said Violet Grey founder Cassandra Grey. “And then, on top of that, it’s all the surprise and delight and service. We’re in the service industry. [Beauty] is sometimes written off as superficial or frivolous, but these products and techniques, and beauty as a category, really [serve] a self-esteem business.”
Grey first founded Violet Grey in 2012. A decade later, she sold the company to e-commerce giant Farfetch. But Farfetch, struggling to find a foothold in the saturated beauty industry, shuttered its beauty division a year later. Grey, along with private equity investor Sherif Guirgis, reacquired the business at the end of 2024.
“A lot of times, a larger company acquires a brand that has a heart and soul, and then the brand has to plug into a bigger infrastructure. Even without the challenges that I think Farfetch was having as a business, that’s already difficult to do,” said Guirgis, who assumed the CEO role of Violet Grey in 2024. “So for me, it was [knowing that] if we were to take this out of that circumstance, and infuse the business with talent and capital and vision and full-time focus, that was going to make an enormous difference.”
The two have wasted little time in reinvigorating the Violet Grey name. They opened a Madison Avenue store in June, hired Bluemercury vet Tracy Kline as group president in that same month and acquired The Detox Market in August. And the product curation remains as chic as ever: Violet Grey has introduced exclusive shades and scents from the likes of clean beauty brand Saie and fragrance hitmakers D.S. & Durga, and has become the exclusive U.S. retailer of French skin-care brand Poiret Beauté in recent months.
Building on the original Melrose Place store in Los Angeles was something of a leap of faith for Grey, but she said it was a necessity for her bicoastal customers.
“New York is just as much a part of our authentic roots as Los Angeles and Hollywood. There were countless DMs and texts and emails, saying, ‘When are you going to open your New York store?’” said Grey, adding, “The Melrose Place Store is such a soulful, personal and intimate place. It was always meant to feel like someone’s apartment — like if you’re friends with a beauty expert, and they have a really chic apartment.”
Grey has also moved into product development. In May, she launched the Madame Grey extrait de parfum, the first product launched under the Violet Lab brand incubation arm of the company. The $1,100 perfume, made in collaboration with the hit perfumer Jérôme Epinette, is an extravagance even in the high-price world of perfume — but Grey’s loyal consumer base is buying in. (To note: There is now a $250 travel version for those who’d rather not drop four figures.)
“We have the best customers. They’re so loyal, and they really feel an ownership with what we do,” said Grey. “Even when [the beauty] category is slowing down for some, it’s not for us, because of our relationship with the customer.”
