Makeup by Mario, Sephora Team Up on Content Series

Mario Dedivanovic will be starring in a new episodic content series, a joint effort between his brand and the beauty retail giant.​Mario Dedivanovic will be starring in a new episodic content series, a joint effort between his brand and the beauty retail giant. 

Makeup by Mario is going bigger on content — and doing so in partnership with Sephora.

The makeup brand founded by Mario Dedivanovic is leveraging its founder for a new shared content series with Sephora, called “Mario’s Beauty Booth,” which will debut on TikTok in episodes revealed every Monday and Thursday from May 18 to June 8.

Dedivanovic, who is also the brand’s chief executive officer, will star in the series and bring along guests such as creators like Stephanie Valentine and Erica Taylor, brand founders Danessa Myricks and Sofie Pavitt and more.

The collaboration comes at an interesting time for the brand, which despite tepid sales in prestige makeup more broadly in the U.S., “we are doing incredibly. Globally, we are in the top 10, and in the U.S., we are firmly in the top five ,” Dedivanovic said of the brand. “There are many things working, like the strength across multiple categories. Another thing is the core products that continue to perform and grow significantly year-over-year, and in general, that we’re resonating with our consumers in all the markets we are in.”

Growing the field team has helped drive sales at Sephora. “Content is obviously very important for impact at Sephora,” Dedivanovic said. “Another part of our philosophy, in terms of social for the brand, is we always aim to inspire. We inspire with artistry, education and the visuals, how we think about inspiring the consumer as well as educating them. Social is obviously a way to continue building on our community, but it’s also a way to listen to them. Through that, we gain a lot of insights. We truly know what the consumer wants of us.”

Although Dedivanovic is leading the series, his brand has grown significantly in size and scope, and he’s become judicious about when and where he wants to show up in content. “The brand has become so much bigger than me, and I don’t think of being consistently present. The brand is so much bigger than me, we have a team of artists passing along the techniques and artistry,” he said. “I love showing up, but I also am intentional about not showing up too much. I think part of my ‘thing’ is that I’m intentional about being slightly restrained. It works for us as a brand. Showing up sometimes, and for more special things, or just when I want, I love that aspect of it.”

In addition to traditional engagement metrics, Dedivanovic is thinking of “Mario’s Beauty Booth” as a tool to grow brand awareness globally.

The content model provides significant opportunity for Sephora, said Deborah Yeh, the retailer’s global chief marketing officer.

“Makeup continues to be a stalwart and leading category for Sephora,” added Yeh. “From a brand standpoint, and this is really connected to our work with Mario, it’s been great to see this incredible emphasis on artistry, both the masters and the up-and-coming artists. Sephora had an artistry campaign around the world because it’s a story that actually resonates not only in the United States, and we are able to introduce a whole next generation of artistic talents.”

Yeh acknowledged that content has evolved with the retailer from “the tumbler we had on our website, to the YouTube how-to videos, then the face charts we posted on Pinterest. It goes back that far,” she said. “We’ve gone from having a tiny content studio carved next to my office in a conference room to a production studio in Los Angeles where we’re doing video on a regular basis.”

It follows Dedivanovic’s master classes with Sephora in 2025, which saw significant interest from consumers. That format, which Yeh described as multiple hours in a dark room, getting in-depth on makeup, is to take “the essence of Mario’s expertise and artistry and interpret it for a TikTok environment. It’s not just taking a real master class and putting it on TikTok, it’s saying, ‘What’s the seed of this?’ And it’s that Mario is the person we want to answer all of our questions.”

Yeh sees room to bring in more series with brand founders. “We would want to find the right story for any kind of other brands. I think what is unique about this is Mario himself, so we’ll find the best way to ensure the brands that we’re celebrating are coming across authentically and true to their DNA.”