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There are girls with good genes, and then there’s Ilona Smet. The 20-year-old Central Saint Martins grad and aspiring actress has It-girl style in her DNA: Her grandmother, Sylvie Vartan, was an original Yé-Yé girl and rock icon whose platinum blonde locks, pop vocals, and wardrobe of Vuitton-esque flares and cropped jackets are the subject of Christian Cazalot and Eric Cazalot’s new book, Le Style Vartan. Smet’s mother, the French supermodel Estelle Lefébure, married Vartan’s race-car driver and rock-star son, David Hallyday, and raised Smet between Paris, Los Angeles, and Monaco.
Growing up in a family like hers, it was only natural that Smet would pursue a creative path. A painter since childhood, the flaxen-haired beauty studied sculpture in London before shifting her focus to acting; she also models on the side. “I wanted to go back to what I really liked, which is making people laugh,” says Smet, who just moved to the U.K. after spending the past year in L.A. honing her craft at Santa Monica’s Edgemar Center for the Arts. Bouncing between style capitals has kept her well-versed in the different cities’ fashion and beauty codes: “L.A. is a bit more casual and I can wear whatever I want, like denim shorts, white T-shirts, sneakers,” Smet says. For Paris Fashion Week, however, “I want to be dressed up. I also don’t really wear makeup except when I’m in my town.”
Smet cites Estée Lauder brow pencils and Chanel mascara as essentials for that classic, subdued French-girl glamour that populates the front rows of Paris Fashion Week. A Bioderma Créalinejunkie—“The beauty tip my mother and grandmother told me is to use it until the [last] cotton pad is clean; if it’s not white, you’re not done”—Smet stockpiles the stuff, along with a steady supply of Avène lightweight moisturizer, from a local pharmacie near her apartment in the Sixteenth Arrondissement. It’s one of her first stops when she’s in the City of Light—quickly followed by a visit to the Parisian super-colorist Christophe Robin, whose new Second Arrondissement salon opens this month. “He’s really great with blondes,” says Smet, who uses his Volumizing Conditioner with Rose Extracts to maintain her light honey gold hair in between touch-ups.
Then it’s off to NailSPAris, the “small and cozy” manicure destination that stocks plenty of dark red and black lacquers from Essie and OPI. The polishes are Smet’s go-to shades for the colder weather—and a staple, as far as she’s concerned, for looking like a local. “If you have a good manicure and a good bag,” she says, “you’re set in Paris.”