Welcome to Deep Reviews—your one-stop destination to discover the absolute best products and brands the beauty industry has to offer. The Who What Wear staffers you already know and trust will research, test, and review the market's most sought-after and buzzed-about products to see which formulas (of the hundreds up for consideration) are worth your hard-earned money and attention. You can expect honest, uncensored feedback and no-BS recommendations our hard-to-please testers endorse without reservations.
The majority of our Deep Reviews will feature our editors' honest, ultra-hot takes on entire product categories or multiple products from a particular beauty brand, but every so often, we'll sprinkle in a special single-product format called Honestly, I Love It. As the name suggests, these reviews will hone in on one standout beauty formula our editors can't shut up about. This time, I'm highlighting two essential French makeup products—Violette_FR's Bisou Balm ($28) and Bisou Blush ($35).
Traditionally, French beauty has rested on a few foolproof pillars—namely tousled hair à la Jane Birkin, a fresh complexion à la Françoise Hardy, and effortless and slightly undone makeup à la Brigitte Bardot. Even when French women wear something bold, such as red lipstick, they still manage to do it in a way that feels natural and lived-in.
There's just something about it that speaks to me, and because of that, I've spent countless hours reading articles, watching videos, and searching the internet to find the products French women trust. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled across Violette_FR, the YouTube channel belonging to a French makeup artist who creates impossibly chic and colorful looks for her clients, friends, and colleagues. Sure, I loved the looks, but I loved her easy-to-follow tutorials and effortless application techniques even more. For years, I followed her on social media to gain inspiration and product recommendations.
In 2021, Violette launched a namesake beauty brand. As you can imagine, I was excited. I mean, who wouldn't want to use products formulated by one of their favorite makeup artists? I placed my first order, and the rest was history. Since then, two of the brand's products have become makeup-kit essentials because they're easy to use, require little-to-no touch-ups, and give me that French-girl effect that I love.
The first product is called Bisou Balm, and it feels wrong to just call it lipstick. It's more like a lip balm that offers sheer, buildable color. Sometimes, I dab it on the center of my lips and blend it out for a subtle wash of barely-there color. Other times, I swipe it on straight from the bullet for a bolder effect. Either way, it gives my lips a soft, velvety look thanks to its modern matte formula that comes in five different French girl–approved shades.
My next makeup-kit essential is this matte cream blush, which Violette formulated with marbled pigments—not just because they look good in the tube but also because they offer the most natural-looking color to the cheeks. The blend of pigments offers a realism other blushes that use just one pigment can't. Think of a Renaissance painting. The figures always have flushed cheeks that look cherubic. That's what this blush was formulated to achieve.