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Chantal Cloutier

Beauty’s Mission
For beauty entrepreneur and spiritual seeker Chantal Cloutier, success in being the best human being you can be, without compassion there is no success. For her and those around her, success – and integrity – is a life well lived. And therein dwells true beauty.

Chantal’s is a domain that embraces two worlds. On the one hand, as the founder of renowned Cloutier Agency in Santa Monica, California, she presently oversees creative direction of one of the most prestigious beauty booking agencies in the world. The agency represents the crème de la crème of a global stable of hair, makeup, wardrobe, props, locations and aesthetic artists. These are the talents responsible for creating the zeitgeist-defining imagery for major film and music celebrities for magazines, film, fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries. The agencies elite celebrity list of music videos, and fashion and cosmetic campaigns are represented at www.cloutieragency.com. Think polished, adventurous, progressive, high-end and you’ve got the Cloutier picture.

On the other hand and with her business thriving, Chantal devotes herself to the good works that define her passion for living.

Bi-lingual in English and French, Chantal was born in Los Angeles, California, and spent her early childhood in Montreal before returning to Southern California. In the late 70s, she apprenticed for Franklyn Welsh, a top New York hair and makeup artist who had relocated to LA and who became her close friend, influence and mentor.

With no business knowledge, Chantal 1983 began a long upward road of founding her own business in the dining room of a small apartment in Hollywood with a single phone line in 1983. Chantal’s talent for visuals, processing detail and astute observation became her calling card. “I see when someone or something has the potential to look better. It can be a person, and object or a home, but right away I see the light in all of it. And in growing my business, I could recognize within a few minutes if an up-and-coming artist had the talent or not to succeed.”

Today the agency operates out of a sunny atelier on Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue with ten employees and a whole bank of always-ringing phone lines. Chantal credits long time collegue Madeline Leonard with being the heartbeat of the company. “She has been my other half since 1986,” Chantal says. "Along with a handful of really great women who there, it is like a sisterhood the way they support each other through personal ups and downs.

Time travels
Chantal is an avid explorer who integrates an international flavor into her life. In the past ten years, she’s broke away from her home life to start to travel through Europe, before falling in love with island life.

Chantal presently lives on a small private ranch outside of Santa Barbara and is remodeling an old hacienda she calls a "labor of love". Her other bi coastal home is a small studio on the beach in the French West Indies. Neither locale offers a lazy or luxurious lifestyle; it is nature that provides the resplendence and opportunity for growth. "On the ranch I take care of the land and the animals, and learn the different seasons through the animals, bugs and spiders that visit there. The front yard is full of deer, as they were there long before me.

“In summer on the island, my favorite thing is to snorkel early in the morning, setting the mood for the rest of the work day,” says Chantal.  “The island offers the chance to study another kind of beauty, an inner beauty embracing customs, ceremonies and the harmonious balance of life. My inspirations are music, film and culture from India, Africa, Native America or anyplace where people adorn themselves with color and creativity that derives not from vanity but from tradition.  

Doing for others
With her business a success, Chantal's daily philosophy is to do one act of random kindness for another. “I used to be involved with programs that help raise the self esteem for women in homeless shelters, work rehabilitation programs or run away teen centers. We spent time redoing a woman's hair, makeup and image. In an hour, it’s amazing to watch how someone’s self esteem, respect and courage shoots up after this love and attention.” I hope to do that again one day, but when these opportunities are not present, not a day goes by that I do not contribute to someone or something anonymously. It can be the smallest thing that can give another joy.

Animals have always been a large part of Chantals life. For years, she rescued abused and abandoned animals, helped with their rehabilitation and given them homes for life. She has always distributed high-style promotional tee shirts for the Cloutier Agency to send an unmistakably strong message to the fashion industry that fur is not fashionable, rather it is cruel.

Chantal Cloutier tries to integrate her business life and personal philosophy into a seamless whole. “With so much focus on outer beauty today, it is a necessity for the soul to nourish one’s inner beauty as well,” she concludes. "That is the university of Life I am attending now."