Netflix’s “Glow Up” tells makeup artist’s stories
September 3, 2020
Season two of the Netflix original show, “Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star” was released on Aug. 14, promising another make-up artist (MUA) with a career-making opportunity in the beauty industry.
Quite similar to the first season, 10 aspiring MUA’s embark on a make-up journey where they take on challenges, go head-to-head in the face-off chairs and essentially push their skills beyond its limits. All while doing these, the MUA’s are getting judged by Val Garland, L’Oréal Paris global makeup director, Dominic Skinner, global senior artist for MAC Cosmetic and some of the biggest names in the industry.
This year’s contestants were Ophelia Liu, James Inerney, Bernie Ferreira, Eve Jenkins, Ashley Mac, Shanice Croasdaile, Jake Oakley, Brandon Gaunt, Kenziah Saunders and Hannah Cunningham. All of the MUA’s were proficient in different areas. While others struggled to keep their look proportioned, Ophelia was a perfectionist when it came to symmetry. While others in the face-off chairs remained, James continuously managed to beat it with his looks of realism. While others may have been afraid to take a risk, Eve jumped right in with self-made prosthetics.
For someone who has not touched a blending brush in her life, this show gave me the desire to pick one up, to try something new.
It is not that the MUA’s made it look easy, rather it is that they made it look riveting. They made it look like an art rather than a pastime – the face a blank canvas to which one could express their wildest dreams, their fears. I, for one, have never seen make-up portrayed this way before. I have never seen make-up as a story, but I think that sometimes I forget that not all stories have words.
Continuously throughout “Glow Up,” Val Garland made snide comments … to be fair, she did this a number of times. But one remark that really stood out to me was that a “child” could do some of the make-up that a few of the MUA’s did. I would have to blatantly disagree. Even if given one or two hours to complete a look, a child’s face painting would not have been as in-depth, as fierce, as controlled as these looks were. These looks took passion. Most of the MUA’s gave it their all to ensure their looks were not only appealing to their eyes, but to the judges’ as well. To say that their
work was child-like would be an insult. However, it is safe to say that “Glow Up” brought about a whirlpool of emotions. It is a competition show so, of course, I was rooting for certain people, but a part of me wanted there to be more than one winner. Yes, I know, this is not typically how competition shows work – unless it is MTV’s The Challenge, where there is a first, second and third place. Still, the final three MUA’s had grown so close and they had all progressed so much as a make-up artist that I wanted them to make an exception to the rules. But, by the last episode, after learning who the winner was, I realized that for many of the contestants, it was never about the money and the beauty opportunity, it was merely about the experience. Take Ophelia, for example, her parents despised her love for make-up, but because she made it onto the show, she got to interact with people who have similar interests as her and showcase her craft. What a great opportunity, right? Overall, I would give this show a big “Ding Dong Dolly,” as Val Garland might say when she is very impressed with an MUA. I think that whether you are into make-up or not, this show could be your next binge watch. You just might not know it yet.