How The CEO of Sephora Gets It Done
Artemis Patrick knows all about Sephora tweens, not only as the president and CEO of the brand’s North America business, but also as a mom to a 13-year-old. “She asks all the right questions,” she says. “She’ll come to me asking for sunscreen or a good cleanser. She doesn’t come asking me for retinol. She knows better.” Patrick says her daughter is “extremely knowledgeable” about beauty, adding, “I hope I have something to do with that.”
Patrick’s own love of beauty began when she was a kid living in Iran; she’d get dressed up and watch her mom put on makeup. She immigrated to the United States when she was just seven years old and moved in with a foster family at age 10. “There was a lot of turbulence growing up and having to come to a country where I didn’t know the language,” she says. “Having to adjust, moving with foster parents who didn’t look like me but who were amazing people. That was difficult at the time.”
After working in e-commerce and merchandise at companies like Peet’s Coffee and Restoration Hardware, Patrick landed a role as director of e-commerce merchandising at Sephora. She’s since been at the company for 18 years, now as its first female CEO. Her current focus is shaping Sephora’s growth in the United States and Canada. She visits a new market at least once a month, and with the LVMH (Sephora’s parent company) headquarters based in Paris, her job involves a lot of travel. “My motto is not to stress about the time difference. It is what it is,” she said. When she’s not traveling, Patrick lives in San Francisco with her husband and their daughter; here’s how she gets it done.
On her morning routine:
I’m obsessed with my Oura ring and I check it first thing in the morning. Sleep is super important to me, and I like to sleep in as much as I can. After I check my sleep, I look at my email, and I always start the day with coffee. I often have early morning calls with the team in Paris. Zoom calls can start as early as 7am. Sometimes I’ll do that meeting and walk to work after. I live about a 35-minute walk from the San Francisco office, which is great when it comes to commuting.
On exercising and managing stress:
I walk to work when I can, but even when I don’t, I try to take a couple of meetings on the phone instead of on Zoom so I can go for a walk. I love yoga, especially when it comes to mindfulness on the weekends.
On treats that get her through the day:
Chocolate-covered almonds make me feel like I’m eating something healthy. But I also keep a couple of products at my desk that help me feel refreshed – a Caudalie toner and the Rare Beauty hand cream.
On unwinding at the end of the day:
I mellow out by turning off for an hour or two when I come home. I try to come home and unwind with a glass of wine, have a conversation with my husband, and find out how my daughter’s day went. I like to make sure I’m present for those conversations. I always get back on email—usually when my daughter is doing homework—so I’m never really out of touch and someone can text me.
My happy place is ordering Persian food. Ghormeh Sabzi is my ultimate favorite, but I also love a good kebab. I watch mindless TV. I love the Real Housewives franchises. I’ve pretty much seen all of them. Right now, Miami is my favorite, but I’m excited for the next season of New York.
On her beauty and skincare routine:
You will never see me going to bed without a routine, no matter how tired I am. My base is cleanser, a serum, a moisturizer, an essence, and an eye cream. I love the Dr. Dennis Gross LED Mask. It only takes a minute of my time and I absolutely think it works. I also love to try new products, but it’s hard with skin care because you want to stick to a routine. I wash my thick, curly hair every three or four days. When I do wash it, I blow dry it at night so I can sleep in the next day. I use my Dyson dryer with a diffuser, but it takes me a good hour. It’s no joke. If I’m traveling for a week, I’ll get a blowout because I can maintain it for four or five days with dry shampoo and hair oil.
On how she approaches work on the weekend:
I’m always checking email, but I don’t create work on the weekends. I can be a receiver of information because Sunday is Monday in Paris. But I am very cognizant of trying not to send emails to my team on the weekends so I can give them a break. If it’s urgent, I’ll say it’s urgent. But if it’s not, I’ll put it in my drafts and send it Monday, or start with a note that says they don’t need to respond over the weekend. If I want to work, that’s on me. I don’t want to create work for my team.
On self-doubt and motherhood:
I came back to work fairly quickly, after about two-and-a-half months. Especially in leadership roles, there are moments when you have self-doubt. When you’re a mother you start to feel like you’re not good at either thing. You’re not at work as late as you’d like, and when you come home, you’re not spending as much time with your child as you would like. You start to feel like, “What am I doing?” My boss at the time was a mother of two, so it was good to get that positive reinforcement and not beat myself up about it. Something I learned early on is that you don’t have to go to everything for your kids, but you do need to go to the things that matter to them and then honor your commitment.
On the people who help her get it done:
I did have a nanny when my daughter was younger, but starting at age three, it’s just been my husband. He’s incredible. He has a lot more flexibility at work than I do. He’s the one that’s doing the pickups, the drop offs, the organizing our daughter’s summer plans. He’s just fantastic at it. I don’t know what I would have done without his support, especially now, moving into this role.
On ambition and leadership:
The word “ambitious” has a funny connotation, so I would never put myself in that category. But then someone would say, “How did you become CEO?” In the broadest sense, ambition means that I want to learn more, take on more, and understand more. My philosophy is to have people around me that know more than me on certain topics and can teach me. Being open to new ideas is something I really believe is important as a leader, and I think that comes from my childhood.
On the podcasts and books she loves right now:
I listen to memoirs and podcasts. I’m loving the Acquired podcast right now, and I’m currently listening to the one with Howard Schultz. When it comes to reading, I like fiction. I just finished Demon Copperhead and I just started Remarkably Bright Creatures.
On the advice she wishes she had earlier in her career:
Don’t sweat the small stuff and get caught up in what you can’t control. There’s going to be so many things in life that are going to come at you. It’s not that I have mastered this. But just focusing on the things that you can control, and letting the other stuff happen as they may, is something I wish I thought about earlier.
On “making it” professionally:
I’ve never thought about my career as a beginning, middle, and end. People ask how I got here, and that’s not how I think about my career. I do whatever I can to learn something new, and sometimes that comes with a promotion, but sometimes it just comes with more responsibility. But I always feel like I’m learning. I’m not sure if I’ve made it yet. As long as I continue to learn and grow in what I’m doing, that’s what success looks like to me.