Napoleon Perdis is big in LA. With the shiny new flagship store, academy and head office in Hollywood, two other concept stores in LA and one in San Francisco, a network of 80 other doors in beauty shops across the US that will number 200 by early next year and a deal with giant beauty store Sephora, the Greek-Australian from Sydney's Parramatta is doing all right.
Mention this to him and his response is unexpected: "Do you think? I feel like I've got so much to do."
While all the shops and deals are slowly getting his brand to "cut through" – marketing-speak for getting your brand to rise above thousands of others in this billion-dollar industry – it is his appearances on the Home Shopping Network, which gets beamed into 89 million North American homes daily, that are behind his public recognition.
This year he also struck a deal with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to be the official make-up sponsor of the Emmy Awards, an arrangement that international cosmetics giant Lancome held before him.
"As a main sponsor I got to walk the red carpet – the celebrity one, not the secondary one. There are always two (red carpets) at awards ceremonies in Hollywood, and it was surreal," he said.
"I had Debra Messing coming up (to me) and Catherine Heigl and Sally Field. I had done their make-up and they were all so wonderful and complimentary."
Perdis, 38, is living the dream. He began his assault on the American market in 2005 – buying an apartment in New York and striking a deal with upmarket department store Saks Fifth Ave.
One year later he felt so confident he could make it there he sold his Sydney waterfront mansion and moved his wife and four daughters to a four-storey mansion on Mulholland Drive in LA.
He installed an Australian manager at the helm of each new store and his brother Emmanuel, the financial whiz behind the business, began to make regular trips over to ensure smooth sailing.
With Justin Timberlake and Billy Idol as neighbours, three luxury cars in the driveway and his girls at private school with Johnny Depp's son, Perdis is already at home. In fact, LA is a natural habitat for the make-up guru.
Where else but Hollywood could the son of working-class cafe owners from western Sydney make his mark in the cosmetics industry?
"America is a great equaliser. The money and success I had in Australia meant nothing here. I had to start at the bottom again, schlepping my wares around like I did in the beginning in Australia.
"I have had very dark days. The first year-and-a-half, nobody knows what you go through. I have had to negotiate with tough Jewish retailers who have been in the business here for dozens of years. It was hard.
"I wasn't prepared to go home without giving it a really good go. I had everything on the line.
"In Australia I had a beautiful home on the harbour, I was on top of my game, everyone knew who I was. I needed a new challenge as I had achieved everything I had set out to do in Australia.
"I have spent the past 2½ years in America building, building, building. I am on a plane every three days. I work so hard, but I am ambitious and I want this."
It is only now that Perdis feels that the past few years of working non-stop are beginning to pay off: "When we opened our flagship store on Hollywood Boulevard in May I felt I was finally getting somewhere.
"America has taught me a lot. I have learned to be proud of my culture and where I come from. I always used to be a bit embarrassed about that.
"The whole reason I began my love of make-up and cosmetics was because I hated who I was as a kid. My parents had a food shop across from David Jones in Elizabeth St in Sydney, and my brother and I would spend all afternoon there and I didn't like the way our shop smelled or felt.
"I would go across the park to the DJs cosmetics hall and it seemed so clean and fresh and glamorous, and I wanted that to be my world."
Perdis has counters in all Australian DJs stores and hopes to return to Brisbane in February to help launch the QueensPlaza refurbishment. At the launch of the David Jones Chermside store he received a rock-star reception, and officials were knocked out by his popularity.
"I love coming to Queensland. There is a great energy there. The women love glamour. Sometimes I can't believe my luck. I live life to the fullest, I love it. I have a story to tell, and I want to be able to carry on telling it."
