Luxury brand Dior has tapped aesthetician and influencer Sean Garrette as its new U.S. skin care expert. Garrette is the brand’s second skin care ambassador after celebrity aesthetician Joanna Czech held the position from 2020 to 2021.
“I was in this space where I had moved from just creating content on social media and working more with brands and helping them create educational content and strategies to reach a large amount of people,” Garrette told WWD. “It wasn’t just to talk about a new product, but talk about the science and effectiveness behind it. For Dior, they have amazing skin care, but my job was to come in and be able to educate the customer on why the skin care was so good, why Dior makes the products they do and how customers can incorporate the products into their routines.”
Over the years, Garette has earned a dedicated online following for creating educational videos around skin care. He started off working at beauty counters before going to aesthetician school and ultimately starting his own skin care practice. He saw a gap in the beauty industry when it came to skin care for people of color and Black peopel. He decided to remedy it using his knowledge as a professional.
“I just never thought that I would have a career in beauty,” he told WWD. “Being an aesthetician, I didn’t see a lot of male aestheticians — especially Black male aestheticians — so I never really thought it was a career path that I could have. When I started, I really started my social media as a landing page for people of color to find products, especially sunscreens and skin care products that worked for their skin because there wasn’t a lot of education around that. Even in school, we would go through our books and you didn’t really see any of these skin conditions addressed for skin of color. I took that as my way to educate people that looked like me.”
Although Garrette partners with skin care brands, he says his strategy has always been about giving his followers accurate and informational content before anything else.
“I always try to come from an honest and transparent place around the products that I’m recommending because the thing is, as an aesthetician, I ethically have this thing at the back of my head that any of my followers I treat them as my clients,” he also told WWD. “I want them to have the best results and to use the best products. So, my strategy isn’t a strategy. I just treat my following as my clients. The same way that I would treat a client that is coming in for a facial, it’s the same way I’d treat someone who is in my DMs looking for solutions for hyperpigmentation.”
When it comes to his new role at Dior, Garette wants to keep educating people on the benefits of Dior skin care products. “I feel like the [Dior] skin care can be a little underrated, especially in the luxury sector” he said. “I think people push it off when they see luxury beauty — they think maybe it’s not as effective, but from my experience with Dior, they make really good, effective skin care. We just need to broaden the message and bring in a new customer and bring Dior’s messaging and brand standards into the current day.”