Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star

From bedrooms across the country,

thousands of budding makeup artists

sent in their fiercest glow ups

and ten of the best have been selected.

This is massive.

Each week they'll tackle a professional assignment...

It's going to be tough but that's the real world.

Get it on, boom, boom, boom.

...judged by some of the biggest names in the business...

Okay, I need the girls in lineup.

...before heading back to Glow Up HQ...

- Bring in the models. - The pressure is on.

...to slay the all-important creative brief.

I want my mind blown.

Good golly!

We want extreme creativity, it's absolutely crucial.

Because we're looking for the next makeup star.

The two who fail to deliver...

will go head to head in a Face Off.

You're only as good as your last look.

The loser goes home,

until just one remains to land a contract,

assisting some of the world's biggest makeup artists.

The winner of Glow Up is...

It's time to Glow Up.

North London, home to Glow Up headquarters.

For the next eight weeks this state-of-the-art studio...

Oh, my God!

...will be a home from home for this year's aspiring makeup artists

or "MUAs" for short.

This is amazing!

Deciding once again who's on point and who's fallen short

are two makeup industry giants.

Dominic Skinner has created global campaigns for MAC Cosmetics.

Last year the MUAs came in and they really blew us away,

so this year, I wanna see techniques that are just supreme.

I want that bar raised higher.

Val Garland has created looks for the biggest names in music,

fashion and design.

Average work just won't cut it for me.

I want to see creativity.

I want to see art.

Welcome, everyone! Hi!

Come on over.

Oh, hello! Hi!

So, ten MUAs stand before us,

but of course only one of you will be crowned.

Britain's next makeup star.

It's so exciting.

Our remarkable, brilliant judges will be making that decision.

I give you the iconic Val Garland

and our own creative king: It's Dominic Skinner.

For your first professional assignment,

you have been booked to do the makeup on JD's Christmas campaign.

Ad campaigns demand perfect technique

and makeup that complements the clothes

without overpowering them.

All while looking good billboard-sized.

And with over 700 stores in 19 countries,

clients don't come much bigger than this.

It's the clients vision,

so, if they want a red lip, they want a red lip.

If they say "no foundation" they mean "no foundation."

If your work is good enough, it will be seen by millions globally.

However, if you don't come up to scratch, it won't be featured.

So, don't let us down.

No pressure.

Cool. So that's your first assignment.

Get your kits together and get moving.

I've got nerves but I feel like they're good nerves.

I've got like a little fire up my bum.

As well as impressing Val and Dominic,

each week, the MUAs will also face a guest judge.

Zara? Can we also maybe just brush up his brows as well?

This week it's makeup artist Min Sandhu.

I'm leading the team today for JD on makeup.

Working with sports brands is a big chunk of what I do.

She's created ad campaigns for the likes of Nike,

Puma

and Chanel.

Min, how are you?

- Really lovely to see you. - How are you doing?

Hello! Guys, come round.

For this campaign we need to deliver two group shots.

So we're gonna split into two groups.

First group, you will be adding flashes and accents of Christmas gold.

The second group, you'll be doing the same but with seasonal silver.

Flawless skin is absolutely crucial today, guys.

It has to underpin each and every one of your looks.

Of course you're working together on the group shot

but actually you're judged individually.

And whoever impresses the most, you'll get the opportunity to assist Min

when you're doing additional photos for the campaign.

I need my models to be ready on time,

so you will have 1 hour 30 minutes to complete your look. Good luck guys.

- Thank you so much. - Thank you.

Each MUA has been randomly assigned a model.

How are you?

- Chilling, how are you? - I'm good.

You ready to turn into a drag queen? No, I'm joking.

You just sit there and look pretty, that's all you've got to do.

The brand are looking for healthy, fresh, glowing skin.

We have to remember

that this is a campaign for sports clothing.

We can't let the makeup be a distraction to that.

I really want to prep the skin and make sure it's looking great.

He's got amazing skin anyway, so I don't need that much.

Cleansing, moisturising, priming the skin is absolutely essential.

You've got good skin and I'm jealous. Look at me, I look like a drag queen.

I suggest they give that moisturiser a really good massage into the skin.

It will really get the blood circulating and give it a more plump-y feel.

Let's start with your skin then.

Are you okay with me using my fingers to apply moisturiser? Cool.

They need to make skin look like skin and not look like makeup.

I'm just living my life really. I'm not stressed.

It's definitely less nerve wracking

once you're actually doing something. When you're just sitting,

thinking about the brief it's like...

but when you're actually doing it, it's like "Yeah, this is alright."

From when I was about 13 to about 17, I was not in a very nice place,

I wasn't happy at all.

I just wanted to be slim, I wanted to be blond,

I wanted to be tanned.

I just wanted to be the exact opposite of what I was, really.

I don't wanna say makeup changed my life, "Oh my God this, oh my God that"...

It's just helped me emulate that person that I know I am inside.

It's taken a long time to be like,

"This is you, this is the skin you were given."

Now I feel happy and feel like a little ray of sunshine.

I've got a little mantra. Before I'm awake properly

I like to get myself to the mirror, and I look in the mirror and I say:

"You're talented and your brain is big."

Jake, how on earth do you work with those nails? How do you do it?

I don't know. I think 'cause I've had 'em for so long, I'm just used to having them.

I've never stabbed anyone yet.

Once the skin is perfect,

the teams can move on to the second part of the brief,

adding accents of festive gold or silver.

I was thinking of doing kind of like a navy contour of his eyes,

so I was gonna do a little more of a dark eye feature for him.

Like James, the whole Silver team are playing with colour.

I'm kind of using accents of purple.

I want it to look like he's holographic under his skin.

I just want it to pop a little bit more than what it actually is.

She's got amazing eyes anyway

so the colour should just enhance that a little bit.

Hannah is not only planning to introduce blue to her silver look,

she's playing with textures too.

I want to see if I can frost the eyebrows to come in with the silver,

like a fashion Jack Frost.

Do you know what? I could put it in your mustache as well.

Blue tash.

I'm gonna give her a little bit of a burgundy lip.

I still wanna be in keeping with the theme

but we wanna be a bit different.

I have never done a photo shoot before,

I've only really done on counter work.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere next to Aberdeen.

There's not a lot going on. I would sit in my room

and kind of do a lot more elaborate looks because I had more time.

I think I only really got good at makeup

when I moved to Glasgow.

I got the job on a makeup counter and you've got to do it to a certain time

and you've got to turn up with nice makeup because people are buying it off you.

Right now my dream job is to just be part of a team on a big TV show

or a big movie.

I'm second-guessing my look now.

I feel like the eyes are pretty but I'm kind of scared that

it's too full-on a makeup.

I've done a really strong eye if you wanna have a look at it

and just see where I've gone. I'm putting a strong blue colour

on my model.

That's cool. Alright, I feel better now.

- How're they getting on? - I'm a bit worried

about how well the Silver group actually understood the brief.

I feel like the brief was pretty clear.

You said it's about gold and silver and skin, skin, skin.

I'm worried about these garish blues and pinks.

I don't know if they're going to work.

The Silver group are using off-brief colours and textures...

Can you just close your eyes for me?

...while the Gold group are taking a more restrained approach.

This is gold. This whole look is gold. Our brief was gold!

I'm applying some of the gold on her eyes because it'll make them nice and blue.

Guys, we have five minutes left.

Girl, we're on fire together, you and me.

Okay, great. Other side.

The judges are here. The judges are here.

Alright guys, brushes down, time's up.

Okay.

I think it went well, I'm prepared for whatever comes my way.

- Can you sit down there for me, babe? - Over here?

But it doesn't matter what the MUAs think.

It's how their looks work on camera that will decide whether they'll be used

in this sports fashion campaign.

If Val ripped me apart, I think I'd still be like super thankful,

because it's Val Garland.

She could literally spit on me and I'd be like, "Thanks so much."

That's it, hold that.

My first impression of the Gold group: The standard's pretty high.