Denée Pearson Went From Packing Boxes As An Intern To Global Brand President Of NYX Professional Makeup

Denée Pearson has come a long way in the beauty industry. She was once a 13-year-old running through the drug aisle and now serves as the global brand president of a major cosmetics company.

Career Epiphany

For the Rutgers University grad with a degree in business marketing, Pearson’s career epiphany occurred while wandering through the drugstore aisle as a 13-year-old, she explained while speaking at the 2025 Forbes Power Women’s Summit. She searched for the ideal foundation and lip shade, but there was no perfect match.

“The problem was that the beauty shelves didn’t have a shade for someone like me. And so that foundation that I put on looked a little orange, clown-like mask,” she told the crowd.

“Those nudes actually weren’t nude on my skin tone. They were super chalky. And so my glam wasn’t so  glamorous…What I didn’t know then that I know now is that the beauty industry didn’t have room for me at that moment. They didn’t have a shade for me. They didn’t have products for girls who looked like me, which led me to my purpose…which is that if I want to feel seen and I want girls like me who look like me to feel seen, then I’ve got to be the change. And I have to make sure that any Black or brown girl can walk down that same drugstore aisle, pick up her perfect nude, and not have to think twice about it,” Pearson continued.

From there, her beauty career took off.

From Intern To Global Brand President

Pearson has positioned herself as an advocate and leader in the cosmetics industry, but her success did not come overnight. While at Rutgers University, she interned for L’Oréal in 2001, Happi reports. After graduating in 2004, she landed a role at Lancôme as its U.S. marketing manager and was promoted to its U.S. director of marketing, according to her LinkedIn. In 2010, she earned a master’s in cosmetic and fragrance marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

In a full-circle moment, she secured a permanent post at L’Oréal Luxe in 2011 as its assistant VP of global marketing and later VP of global marketing, her LinkedIn states. Pearson’s career now spans more than two decades, and she currently serves as global brand president of NYX Professional Makeup.

At the Forbes Power Women’s Summit, Pearson expressed that diversity and inclusion guide her moral compass.

“From packing boxes as an intern to building billion-dollar brands, I’ve been about change. More shades, more voices, more seats at the table. But it wasn’t until I landed at NYX that I finally felt at home,” Pearson told the crowd.

Already, Pearson has grown NYX’s strategy, which led to the launch of products such as Shine Loud High Shine Lip Color, Fat Oil Lip Drip, and Brow Glue, according to Happi. Additionally, the outlet notes that she was instrumental in scoring significant partnerships with Netflix’s “Casa De Papel,” Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” and Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Barbie The Movie.” Notable celebrities such as Cardi B have promoted NYX’s Duck Plump High Pigment Plumping Lip Gloss, which was showcased during a Super Bowl LVIII commercial slot.

“NYX is the brand of entertainment, and [Cardi B] is the ultimate entertainer…The NYX brand is so bold, and we pride ourselves in being our authentic selves, and that’s exactly who she is,” Pearson said on the “Breaking Beauty” podcast.

NYX most recently scored a highly anticipated partnership with “Love Island USA” season seven contestant, Olandria Carthen. On TikTok alone, the promotional video has garnered over 4.5 million views.

@nyxcosmetics

👏 restock 👏 is 👏 coming 👏 STAY TUNED!!! #nicolandria @Nicolas Vansteenberghe @x_Olan #iynyk

♬ original sound – NYX Professional Makeup

But what is the brand’s secret formula to capture online attention?

Pearson shared on the “Breaking Beauty” podcast, “Our first evaluation is we always ask ourselves, ‘What does NYX stand for and what do our partners stand for.’ We have a lot of people at the table, that’s one of the things about NYX. It’s not a one person decision. We have different creatives and different experts and we sit and we debate these things.”

“It’s never just putting a logo on a product…We always make sure that our storytelling comes in an authentic way. We go deep in our messaging. We like to embody the story,” she continued.