Founded in 2015, Girl Meets Brush has community at its forefront. Whilst selling a professional makeup brush and palette range, the company invites MUA’s of all levels to partake in their supportive online community, supplemented by their academy for aspiring makeup artists that was launched in 2018. With an initial philosophy to ‘make make-up simple’ for the everyday woman, Girl Meets Brush offers masterclass events throughout the UK, proving the perfect platform to not only help individuals gain confidence in applying their own make-up, but to aid aspiring make-up artists flourish in their careers too.
Recently, Voir had the pleasure of interviewing Girl Meets Brush’s founder, Lynne Mills, on her journey thus far – discussing everything from the overarching makeup industry, to her personal career journey and support network. By helping to produce the next generation of Make-Up Artists alongside exciting product innovation, there’s no doubt that the brand is a one-stop shop for all things makeup. Whilst nurturing talent in a supportive manner, Girl Meets Brush doesn’t fall short of emulating the challenges present within the wider makeup industry, pushing its clients to strive for success. The difference? At Girl Meets Brush, anything is possible, and when it comes to the pathway to triumph, there’s nothing quite like a little support and kindness to get you to the top.
Lynne’s story is laced with tales of hard work, ambition, and a few little strokes of luck – the perfect concoction on the road to victory. From makeup tips to a plethora of competitions to get involved in, below, you’ll find everything you need to know about the makeup superstar and her trailblazing brand.
Let’s start off with a couple of icebreakers. What’s your favourite makeup trend?
I think my all time favourite, which is very recent, is strobing. I love natural skin, my signature look is creating that natural, flawless glow. Strobing is great for this time of year and it’s quite simple to do too, you just use a natural cream or liquid highlighter and add it at the top of your cheekbone, your temples, your cupid’s bow, and then a little bit down your nose, creating that flawless look but with a light matte foundation. It just gives a really lovely glow that stands out. It’s perfect for day makeup, for evening make up, for catwalks, and editorials – you can incorporate it in so many ways. It’s an all-round look.
If you could only use one makeup product for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This is a tough one! There’s actually two, but I think the frontrunner would be a cream blusher. I love NARS’ Orgasm, you can put it on your cheeks, your eyes, and on your lips too, and the difference it makes is amazing. But also mascara, because you can define your brows and eyes by doing your lashes.
What is your best beauty tip for our readers as a professional MUA?
This one is from our community, it involves applying mascara – we were talking about it just a couple of months ago. It was something brought to the group, and we were like Oh My God! We’re gonna do this, it even works well on dark lashes. You just get a little brush and a cream liner or a liquid liner. You tickle a little bit of your mascara, brush it, and stroke it at the back of your lash with a fan brush. Not that many people use it because they’ve never heard about it!
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background in Make-Up Artistry.
Well, it’s been 18 years. First of all, when I got into makeup, I wanted to be trained in makeup and fashion. There wasn’t a lot of options in Scotland, but that has changed drastically over the years. I trained in fashion and editorial in Manchester instead, and I did a beauty course that covered skincare and that kind of thing. When I came back to Scotland, I set up a business. What I wanted to do was build a team of make-up artists for special occasions and parties. Within a year, we were doing weddings across the country [Scotland] – I had a team of 5 make up artists which grew to 10, and we did this until 2011. We focused purely on that before we starting doing shoots and editorials, one of which was featured in Vogue, which was a really great platform for me. I then did a product launch, developing my own eyelash products which were launched by Harvey Nichols. It was a false eyelash with an eyeliner flick attached, and it was picked up by ASOS too. After that, Eylure contacted us, so I collaborated with them, they licensed the product and we sold it out to them eventually.
Did you work with any celebrities during that period? Did this help you further down the line with Girl Meets Brush?
Throughout doing bridal work, the products and editorial shoots, I worked with quite a few celebrities such as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Anna Friel, Arlene Philips, Russell Brand, Mo Gilligan, the original cast of Great British Bake Off Team and Celebrity Juice Presenter, Keith Lemon. All of this led up to the Girl Meets Brush launch.
So how did Girl Meets Brush products come about? Do you feel there was a gap in the market for this?
So the business of Girl Meets Brush was about having all this experience and putting it together, this inclusive brush set that has everything that you need – rather than a set where something is missing or there’s far too many brushes. It comes with a gage so you know what to do with it. It’s developed for makeup teams to both use on their jobs, but also sell to their customers. What happened was that the business evolved into a community for makeup artists, and then into an academy as well. So, we’ve got the product side of the business, as well as the academy and community side too, which has evolved from 2015 to now. When we were in lockdown, our online community had so many signs ups, so that’s when it really started off. We did make-up challenges and online masterclasses, building on that community and keeping the creativity going. Now, the online community has evolved in that we focus on creating opportunities, so we do fashion weeks, masterclasses, and publication opportunities too.
Your brand is all about community, offering support to make-up professionals of different skill sets. How do you make make-up simple for the everyday woman and MUA’s?
We offer online courses, we run a membership, and we give people high-end, quality training. You can choose to pay monthly to have more flexibility too. We’ve got a few different labels, but first, we’ve got three groups for community – for people just to chat and get to know others as make up artists, to share tips, and to work. Ultimately, we give people community, training and opportunity.
Your online masterclasses are very inclusive in terms of both technique and business – do you feel like learning the business side of the makeup industry is as important as the artistry?
Yes! Absolutely. I mean, we’ve got a lot of make-up artists who had very little experience on the business side of things when they joined. The high-end program focuses on your skills and portfolio, including how to put it together and present it well for the clients. A lot of make-up artists who come to us have experience and great images, but nothing is happening and they feel quite stuck. It’s up to us to take them through the necessary process. It is definitely easier when you find your signature look and find where you fit in the market. The make up market is enormous, there are so many areas and you don’t have to be able to do everything. People get so overwhelmed, but the truth is that you need to focus on what it is you want to do. The easiest route is to find your strongest area and go from there. Get your portfolio and website set up, your social media looking good, and work on how to use to these platforms properly. Get that social proof and then just set some targets and goals for yourself.
Makeup is a difficult field to be successful in. How do you think your academy helps with this? Do you wish that something similar was around when you were starting out in the industry?
Yes, absolutely! I wish there was something like this when I was starting out. Even just to be able to get help from your peers and to have a safe space. In our academy, we give positive and constructive feedback to one another and people feel safe to ask a question without feeling silly. You can always ask for help from our community with something you’re stuck on, but when I was starting out, you had to figure everything out yourself. There wasn’t a huge amount of support at all. People never really wanted to share any of their secrets, so I think it’s good to have a community that’s based on sharing secrets for success.
When it comes to Girl Meets Brush, we’ve got a lot of success stories about people who have felt a bit stuck within the industry, but who came to us, used the skills we gave them, and launched successful businesses for themselves.
Tell us more about the opportunities that you give people, such as fashion weeks and editorial projects.
A lot of the opportunities come through doing our make up challenges. For example, the Glow Up series which is on BBC – the make up they do on the show is amazing, some of them are very creative. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, as it’s not going to be your everyday makeup. So we do this challenge series, and at the end we have different winners and educational awards – rewarding people that are working as professionals now.
Our main winners are experienced make-up artists who know what they’re doing. But those who are just starting out on their journey have shown amazing work throughout the challenges too. Maybe in the next year or so, they will be the ones creating the publication opportunities. They are developing their aesthetic and learning from the other girls, with everybody sharing their tips and expertise.
We’ve got contestants from Glow Up coming to masterclasses with us and sharing their advice. It just allows them to grow in that way. In terms of publication opportunities, we have master classes in the academy that help them to do that, creating a good photo, with good lighting. But what we also do is fashion week, running twice a year, which is a great opportunity for the girls. We want to challenge them and make sure that they put themselves forward, so we’ve got that running up until the middle of next month in September. Quite a few of the girls are doing bridal work, it gives them a platform. Some of the girls did a shoot in Iceland!
You are holding a Girl Meets Brush Make-Up competition where candidates go face to face to create the best look. Tell us all about it. How can you apply, and what should we expect?
We hold lots of challenges! The Glow Up is one of our main challenges, but we also do our make up artist of the year, and that runs in a similar way. We do a challenge series which people can still apply for. It runs for 10 weeks and will likely start in September, running to near Christmas. You get another publication opportunity, as well as the chance to join us backstage at the February show during Fashion Week.
We do lots of challenges in between though, including one just after the Glow Up based on the MET gala. It pushes everyone to create. In fact, we have some girls who largely use it for their portfolio. Some amazing opportunities end up coming their way. it just sets them apart and gives them that platform to have their works seen in editorial credits and fashion weeks. It also helps them to understand how to network. Those who apply themselves to it see the success. When you come to Girl Meets Brush, you need to be involved in our community to get the most out of everything but, we have so much to offer.
Our next Challenge Series is starting up really soon which is our MUA of the Year Awards, you can win some amazing opportunities & credit here too & it’s one of our most exciting challenges.
Last Years MUA of the Year Winners
Do you have any words of wisdom for those who are taking part in the competitions, or for those who want to give it a go at home?
Please don’t be overwhelmed or think the industry is too saturated, because it’s not. It is about doing what you love to do and being interested in make-up, as well as finding your signature style and focusing on what it is that you love. With the right support you can succeed! It is a huge industry, but there are so many opportunities – so stop thinking that it is too big or too much, because it’s not. There’s room for everybody. The bigger the industry grows, the more opportunities there will be.
Here at Voir, we’re all about community, and Girl Meets Brush is no different. With humble beginnings, offering products that were simply accessible to the masses, the brand has now flourished into its very own, global MUA forum, aiding individuals around the world at each stage of their journey. Through editorial opportunities and competitions, the brand has provided burgeoning talents with the opportunities that they need to make it to the very top – a prospect difficult to achieve in an industry as competitive as this one.
If there’s one word to sum up Girl Meets Brush, it’s encouragement. In a world where the strongest of talents can often go unnoticed, sometimes, competitiveness is the easy route. Girl Meets Brush refuses to subscribe to this philosophy. Instead, it offers a strong support system where everyone helps one another, sharing their strengths and weaknesses whilst simultaneously striving to be successful in whatever sector of the industry they choose to tackle. What is there not to love?
Get involved with Girl Meets Brush competitions/forums:
GMB Masterclass
Any Aspiring MUA’s can sign up to GMB’s Free MUA Masterclass with Founder, Lynne Mills, which discusses how to get started as well as details on the academy & how they can help. A sign up offer is now available.
Brand Ambassador Programme
GMB are relaunching their Brand Ambassador Programme for their Brush & Palette Collections later this Summer with amazing Pro Discounts & Promotional Opportunities, including exciting Make-Up Challenges for all. You can also win the opportunity for a Palette Collaboration! GMB are looking for Pro MUAs, Aspiring MUAs & all Make-Up Lovers in general too! Sign up for more information.
GMB Facebook Community
GMB’s free facebook community is available where you can meet like-minded aspiring MUAs & share your work. Find support & inspiration on GMB’s page here.
Words by Gracie Eastwood
Header Image Lynne Mills @girlmeetsbrush
