She founded her first retail company at just 15, and built a reputation in Paris for turning around businesses. Surviving skin cancer only fuelled her drive even further. After working backstage at Cannes with icons like Jennifer Lopez and the Kardashians, she now brings that high-pressure standard to Dubai with the beauty house March14, and this is exactly what makes Ruby Barreau extraordinary.

Delna Mistry Anand: What does it mean to be an entrepreneur at just fifteen?

Ruby Barreau: I was always an extreme observer. Every business I entered, I could automatically see where things could improve, whether it was the service, the operations, the client experience, or simply the way the people were spoken to. I could never unsee inefficiency. Very early, I became obsessed with testing my own ideas and I was not afraid to start building systems, improving customer journeys and restructuring operations. Over time I became known in Paris for business turnarounds. At first for smaller companies, and then, even for much larger ones.

Today, March14 is where all of those worlds finally meet. It is the place where my business mind and my artistic mind meet. I am naturally multidimensional, I love operations as much as aesthetics, I love beauty as much as marketing, and I love systems as much as I enjoy visual storytelling. I have always been deeply sensitive to aesthetics, emotion and human behaviour. Some people are made to master one discipline, I guess I was made to connect many of them together.

DMA: Your personal struggles, though immensely challenging, seem to have further strengthened your resolve to do better, to do more. Where does one gather this kind of inner resiliance from?

RB: This is actually the first time someone has asked me this question in this way. When I received the diagnosis, the world stopped for a moment. I always thought news like this would destroy me psychologically. But something very strange happened instead. Without consciously deciding it, I started accelerating everything in my life. It was almost as if my brain suddenly became aware of time in a completely different way. I worked faster, created faster, dreamed bigger and I just became unstoppable.

That period taught me that absolutely nothing is guaranteed, not one second. So if you love something, do it now. If you have a vision, build it now. If you want to become someone extraordinary, start immediately. Waiting is one of the biggest tragedies of human life. Cancer built something in me that I do not think can ever be broken now. I fear absolutely nothing anymore. Not failure, not judgment…not even death itself. And once fear disappears, your relationship with ambition changes completely. You stop negotiating with your dreams.

DMA: The backstage world from Cannes to the Kardashians to Jennifer Lopez, looks glorious from the outside, what does it actually feel like from inside?

RB: I honestly find it incredible. It is the reward for trying to become the absolute best in your field. These people do not call you because you are available. They call you because they believe you are the best option under pressure, under scrutiny, and with no room for mistakes. That is an extraordinary feeling.

But yes its true, backstage reality is very different from what people imagine. It is fast, intense, unpredictable, and psychologically demanding. Sometimes a celebrity changes their entire beauty direction thirty minutes before a red carpet. Sometimes five people are speaking at the same time while security is moving everyone around and photographers are already waiting outside. I thrive in that environment because my brain naturally becomes calmer inside chaos, and I think this is why I succeeded in celebrity beauty. I adapt extremely fast, and I genuinely enjoy high-pressure situations. Beauty in that context, is deeply emotional. You are not simply applying makeup or doing a tan. You are helping someone feel confident before one of the most exposed moments of their life. There's something very human about that dynamic.

DMA: March14 is built on the belief that beauty is not a luxury but a standard. Tell us more.

RB: To me, luxury is something optional. Beauty is not optional, beauty affects confidence, energy, psychology, relationships, opportunities, the way you enter a room, the way you see yourself in the mirror. What is dangerous is that society often treats beauty superficially, while in reality it has a massive emotional impact on human beings. March14 was created to completely rethink that experience. I did not want to build another salon. I wanted to build a beauty residence, a place where backstage-level beauty standards, technology, artistry and emotional connection exist under one roof. Everything at March14 was designed with that in mind, the music, the giant open spaces, the simultaneous services, the social energy. I wanted women to walk into March14 and feel possibility. Not just: 'I look prettier today'. But 'my life feels bigger here'. That is why people become emotionally attached to March14. It is not only about superficial beauty, it is the feeling of entering a world where people genuinely care about making your life feel more beautiful, easier and more exciting.

DMA: And finally, what is the one belief that drives your work forward?

RB: I genuinely care. Everything I create, recommend, sell or build comes from obsession and personal testing. I need to know something deeply before I put my name on it. I think people trust me because they feel that honesty immediately. They know I already spent years experimenting, researching, failing, comparing, improving and refining before presenting something publicly. If I recommend a product, a service, a protocol or a system, it is because I truly believe it is one of the best possible options. That level of care changes everything. Because when you genuinely care, excellence becomes automatic. Attention to detail becomes automatic, innovation becomes automatic.

My goal was never simply to create beautiful things. It was to make people's lives easier. To save them years of mistakes, disappointments, wasted time, bad experiences, bad products, wrong decisions. I already went through the experimentation process for them. And I think that is what real expertise actually is. Not knowledge for ego, but knowledge in service of others.

Visit March14 at march14-beauty.com