attitude of being fearless w/ Sam Visser

In a world where beauty trends come and go in the blink of a smoky eye, YSL Beauty’s Global Make-up Artist Sam Visser stands at the intersection of past, present, and next. Timeless yet of-the-moment, his artistry blends classic glamour with a sharply modern edge. His journey is not just about makeup—it’s about storytelling. Some people paint with oils, others with words— but Sam paints with his make-up brushes. For Sam, makeup isn’t just a routine—it’s a language.

We are in Miami for YSL Beauty to discuss Sam’s inevitable rise to super-stardom of make-up. As he continues to shape faces and redefine beauty codes, we turn the focus on him—uncovering the story behind the artist, his magnetic bond with YSL Beauty, and the alchemy behind every look he creates.

DUYGU: Sam, you’re really like the future of makeup. I love your style. Everything you did looks really amazing. First of all, I want to know how did your journey start?

SAM: I mean, I’ve been doing makeup now for over half my life. So I started doing makeup when I was about 12 years old and I was just super passionate about it. I was really like a kid on the internet watching YouTube videos and learning and teaching myself from YouTube and practicing on my friends and myself. I was just very excited about it. I loved it. I was collecting little bits of makeup, and trying to get as much makeup as I could and experimenting with looks. I think that’s really how I got into it.

DUYGU: It is more about the feelings, I guess, because everyone wants to express themselves with makeup. It’s like a confidence game. And on the other hand, it’s always you creating an image for a brand, sometimes for a client, sometimes for an editorial, for a magazine. How does it become when you express your feelings with makeup? Where did you get the inspiration and how do you foresee the future?

SAM: Well, I get inspiration for makeup from everywhere. So I really look at the world right now that we’re living in. From traveling, I get a lot of inspiration from seeing people on the street, from cinema. I’m very influenced by movies, by cinema.

DUYGU: Which are your favorites?

SAM: Oh my god, I have so many. I love David Lynch movies. He’s one of my favorite directors. I love so many movies from a certain specific era. I love movies from the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, all these different kind of retro eras of film because I think that also the beauty aesthetic and the cinematography, the lighting and the way that you know the characters look in these times, even if the movies have very different plots or very different worlds that they’re built in. I really enjoy seeing how the different directors lend these different worlds. And I think it’s very inspiring for makeup. It might not even be the makeup that’s starting to do it, it might be the lighting, it might be the costumes, and somehow they can inspire me with the beauty.

DUYGU: All the details and everything. You see, it’s like a unity. When you put something, it must fit with the other details.

SAM: Yes, exactly. Sometimes, in cinema, it’s a lot like what I do as well. It’s all about the clothes, the model, the celebrity, the hair, the makeup, the fashion. I think all of it really unifies together and creates a world. And I enjoy that kind of world building.

DUYGU: You’re reinventing yourself with the new characters, new stories, I think.

SAM: Exactly. Exactly. And really, makeup can have so much of a narrative. Makeup can really tell you so much about a person, tell you so much about how someone is feeling, their personality, their confidence… That’s what YSL is all about, which is audacious confidence, which is boldness, which is beauty, utilizing bold colors or striking shapes of the eyes, of the lips, and I think that YSL is all about that. Really did the same thing with clothes and his approach to fashion, which was utilizing, you know, beautiful textures of fabric and utilizing different cuts of shoulders of, you know, women wearing pants, which had really never been done before, and like also women wearing tuxedos, smoking jackets, you know, he really revolutionized the way that fashion was born on people, and I want to do the same thing for makeup. I think that it’s something that I enjoy the fullness and the audacity of it, and I see the same thing for myself with makeup.

DUYGU: YSL Beauty is so timeless, iconic and also it’s so current. It catches the time. I think this is the important point. How do you mix these two feelings together? Because everything you did looks so new, upcoming, and on the other hand, it’s so timeless. 

SAM: Yes. For me, makeup and beauty is really all about being timeless. I think that trends are obvious. They happen. They are a big part of the beauty world. But I think that when you utilize timeless makeup, it’ll always be beautiful. I have such an attraction naturally to timeless clothing, to timeless makeup, to timeless hairstyles… I normally mix the styles of today, of what is trending, with also a retro aspect. I like things to look contemporary, but also like they are maybe from taking bits from the past. It’s like music, it’s like when you take a song and you’re remixing music it’s the same thing with makeup. You know how we’re really into blush today, how that is such a big trend of now but then remixing it with an eye shape that maybe was very popular in the 1980s from YSL and you know that creates something that feels very current but also feels timeless, it’s like remixing. So that’s the significant makeup, it’s remixing. It’s different lips, different eyes, different blush. That’s how you create something new. It’s by combining all these different things.

DUYGU: Yes, exactly. And what is your favorite product from the YSL Beauty?

SAM: God, there’s so many. 

DUYGU: No, but choose one. 

SAM: I would say that I’ve really grown to love something that I use all the time. It’s a very multi-use product, which is something that I tend to love. It’s things that you can use for many different uses. It is the Translucent Candy Glaze, Love Shine. And it’s a lip product, but also I use it on the cheeks, I use it on the eyes, if I want to create a glossy eye effect, I use it on the eyes. For the cheeks, it gives a beautiful glow, and you can wear any blush, any highlighter, any sort of skin product. You can wear a lot of foundation, no foundation, and you can use this as a very beautiful glow. And it’s one of those products that’s so multi-use. Also, it’s so nourishing and good for the lips, good for the skin, and it keeps you very hydrated.

DUYGU: Yeah, I love the candy glaze. All the family, it’s amazing. And you know, now it’s like a gloss era for YSL Beauty. We are seeing so many forms of the gloss, and now we are at the launch of Loveshine Plumping Gloss. And how do you define a woman with a gloss and a woman without a gloss? Because I think it changes the attitude too much.

SAM: Yes, it is very different. I think that gloss, it also depends on what color you’re wearing under the gloss. If it’s clear or if it’s a light pink or a sheer tone, it feels very playful, it feels very fresh, very wearable, something that’s more comfortable. But also when you layer a gloss on top of, say, a very dark red lipstick or a very dark brown or berry lipstick, it feels much more seductive, much more sensual, very powerful, and it kind of creates an attitude, you know? So, I’m a big fan of both because I also love matte lipstick as well. So, being able to utilize both and kind of change your personality based on what lip you’re wearing is really fun. But I’m really into gloss right now because especially the Love Shine Plumping Gloss that’s very moisturizing, it’s very hydrating, it also comes in so many colors. ten different shades, so you can really kind of adapt the color to go with your personality.

DUYGU: Yes, you can choose your personality of the day and you can choose your gloss.

SAM: Yes, exactly.

DUYGU: It’s a playful game. And what is a crucial makeup step that you can, for example, suggest for every woman? Because I think now people really tend to do makeup and it’s really becoming big. But on the other hand, I can see it’s just a trend. They don’t know how to do it or,  there could be maybe one magical step that everyone could own.

SAM: I would say that, I mean I find that Arab women have such beautiful eyebrows and eyelashes and I think spending the most time on really utilizing the mascara to really separate the lashes and curl them and give them the most time. I always love enhancing someone’s best features and I’m always noticing with Arab models and Arab celebrities that the eyelashes, I’m like, oh my god, I’m so jealous. I want these eyelashes. I want these eyebrows. So really utilizing that.

DUYGU: We love the eyes.

SAM: Yes, I love the eyes. For sure. And also Arab women have such beautiful eyes to do strong eye makeup. So I think it’s all about enhancing the eyes. With eyeshadow, with mascara, with eyeliner.

DUYGU: So today I did the right thing.

SAM: It’s beautiful. You have amazing eyelashes.

DUYGU: Thank you.

SAM: And brows. 

DUYGU: Thank you so much. 

DUYGU: What is the most attractive part of the YSL Beauty on your side?

SAM: I would say, the way that YSL Beauty is all about self-expression and how it’s about this attitude of being fearless and not being afraid to embrace whatever kind of beauty that you want to utilize, whether that’s very strong makeup or no-makeup makeup. I love that it’s really about everyone feeling the best that they can feel, but also with a boldness and a strength to the beauty.

DUYGU: I think this is your power. Thank you so much.

SAM: Thank you so much.