36 | MARCH 23 • 2023 

N

ear the door to her 
makeup studio at 
Social Salon in West 
Bloomfield, Francie Fruitman 
has a $1 bill on the wall from 
her first client at that space that 
she calls her good-luck charm.
“I wasn’t officially moved in, 
but I took them as a client that 
day,
” the makeup artist recalls.
On the door itself is also a 
mezuzah that Fruitman says 
“makes me feel more at home.
”
They’re both homages to two 
of the most important elements 
in her life: her relationship with 
her clients and her relationship 
to the Jewish community.
For nearly three decades, 
Fruitman has worked as a pro-
fessional makeup artist and 

brows specialist. As of recently, 
she’s also offered services in per-
manent makeup and cosmetic 
tattooing and, throughout the 
years, her work has taken her to 
Hollywood and back.
Fruitman, 51, of Southfield, 
has always had a love for make-
up artistry. “I’ve been doing 
makeup since middle school,
” 
she recalls. She first began doing 
makeup for school plays and, by 
the time she was a senior in high 
school, even received a budget 
from the school to support her 
makeup work.
It was clear that Fruitman had 
a career cut out for her in make-
up. She attended the University 
of Cincinnati College-
Conservatory of Music (CCM), 

where she planned to pursue 
theater makeup. Growing up in 
the 1980s, Fruitman had been 
fascinated with the colorful 
makeup trends in pop culture. 
“I realized my love of theater 
smashed in with my love of 
makeup,
” she explains.
She learned of the school 
through an old Fangoria mag-
azine, a long-running horror 
and cult film publication. It just 
happened to be a makeup effects 
issue that mentioned CCM, and 
Fruitman decided to apply.
“It was a very competitive 
conservatory,
” she says. “We did 
things with Carnegie Mellon 
and the Juilliard School.
”
After completing college, 
Fruitman moved to Orlando for 
more makeup school to learn 
about special effects, prosthetics, 
animatronics and creature con-
struction. “That’s when I real-
ized special effects wasn’t quite 
what I thought it was,
” she says. 
“I didn’t want to work in a shop.
”

TO HOLLYWOOD AND 
BACK
In 1996, one of her classmates 
had plans to move out to 
California, and Fruitman decid-
ed to join her. She lived with 
her friend until she found her 
own place in Hollywood and 
launched her career working 
18 hour days for $50 a day on 
movie sets for low-budget inde-
pendent films.

“That’s where I really learned 
about working on set,
” she 
says. “It’s a total little bubble, 
working in film. There’s a whole 
language, tools and hierarchy 
involved. It’s such a thrill.
”
Still, Fruitman’s career was 
destined for more. She eventual-
ly found herself working on sets 
with the likes of acting greats 
like Kirk Douglas and comedi-
an Don Rickles. Yet when her 
father’s health began to decline, 
Fruitman realized she needed to 
be back home with her family.
In 2007, she packed up her 
Hollywood apartment and came 
back to Michigan. In addition 
to missing her family, Fruitman 
also missed having the camara-
derie of a Jewish community.
“I was lacking a connection to 
something,
” she recalls.
However, the connections 
Fruitman did have gave way to 
a career back home. Around the 
same time, many major films 
were filming in Michigan and 
Fruitman found a way to con-
tinue her work in Metro Detroit. 
“Film productions were coming 
from all over,
” she says.
Fruitman worked at a handful 
of local salons, then became 
involved with Detroit Fashion 
Week, which at the time was just 
a grassroots movement. “Next 
thing you know, I’m working 
with fashion designers designing 
makeup for the whole show,
” she 
explains.

To Hollywood 
and Back

OUR COMMUNITY

Makeup artist Francie Fruitman 
helps people feel beautiful.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Francie 
Fruitman 
applies 
powder brows 
to a customer. 

Francie 
Fruitman

IT’S A SERVICE 
THAT TRULY 
HELPS PEOPLE 
FEEL BEAUTIFUL 
INSIDE AND OUT.

— FRANCIE FRUITMAN

