“I’m wearing this amazing Valentino dress so I think I may do a dark green smoky eye to pick up on the colors in it for fall,” said Lauren Remington Platt, the New York-based entrepreneur and founder of beauty service company Vênsette, on Wednesday, October 15, in San Francisco. Luckily, there’s an app for that. Platt arrived in the Bay Area to launch the San Francisco version of her on-demand beauty network at a dinner she hosted along with photographer Claiborne Swanson Frank at Tosca.

For the past few weeks, Vênsette’s West Coast operations team has made the Bay Area their home base as they ramped up for the app’s local debut. “At the core of Vênsette is our artist community,” said Platt “So we spend a lot of time making sure we have the best artists on our platform.” Vênsette’s interview process begins in person with a two-hour hair and makeup test. Artists who pass the interview and background check are then invited to spend up to three days in training with the app’s head artist. Ultimately only about 10 percent of artists who apply are offered to join the Vênsette beauty team.

Back in 2011, as Platt was launching Vênsette from her living room in New York, she actually had the artists create their test looks on her. “That was a huge point for me,” said Platt “A really great service experience is not just about the hair and makeup. It’s about the artist’s personality, their professionalism, that ensures the overall quality of the experience.”

Platt noted that all Vênsette artists adhere to the same core principles when working with clients in any city. “As artists go through the training process, we place a huge emphasis on the preparation and hydration of the skin,” said Platt. “For us, it’s really about looking like you, but better. We want to enhance the natural beauty of our clients, not turn them into somebody they’re not comfortable with. You shouldn’t not look like yourself.”

By Jennifer McCullum

Pictured: Lauren Remington Platt
Photo by: Owen Kolasinski