Posted in: BBC, Netflix, Review, streaming, Trailer, TV, YouTube | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, competition, Dominic Skinner, glow up, make up, reality, Review, Stacey Gooley, streaming, television, tv, Val Garland

Glow Up Season 1 Review: Make-Up Competition Series Fun Netflix Find

If you love shows about fashion, makeup, and body art, Netflix's Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star is worth a watch. A reality competition where 10 make-up artists (MUA's) compete to become Britain's next Make-up star. Hosted by Stacey Gooley judged by some of the industry's best, Dominic Skinner and Val Garland. The contestants compete in a variety of challenges; number one being a professional assignment followed by a creative brief. The point is to avoid a face-off. One of the truly enjoyable things about the show is the 10-15 minute head-to-head bottom two elimination rounds. Typically involving something like eyebrows, lips, freckles, essentially a small feature of the face while the judges hover. It's fun to sit around and watch this with friends as we pretend to know more about makeup than they do; yes, even criticizing looks most of us can't begin to create.

Each episode is filled with the enjoyment of looks, from editorial to celebrity- even looks that may be featured on fashion week. The contestants are asked to be inspired by their favorite designers and musicians, and it's even more so fascinating to see how they evolve throughout the competition. A lot of the looks are super far out, and elderly women bleeding tye-died- my description of it probably sounds disturbing but if you watch episode six, I don't know you might love it like I did. The contestants show comradery, but the judges did not get buy-in from me in the beginning: they seemed a smidge cold, but as the show progressed they really opened up and engaged with the competitors.

I was all for UK drag queen Ellis Atlantis taking home the win: an underdog, having been at the bottom two spots four times throughout the season. Atlantis continued to evolve into an amazing make-up artist. Now as much as I was glad for Atlantis' victory, I could not for the life of me understand how Nikki Patel grabbed runner up. I felt like she was in a face-off almost every episode. Her work was subpar compared to many of the other artists and, quite frankly, she really didn't present herself well to the judges or the viewers. That aside and based strictly on the judges' feedback, how-oh-how did she remain in the competition past episode two? Regardless, the show is fun, a tad bit dramatic at times (that's why the FF button was created), and with my nature being to appreciate something magnificent created out of nothing, Glow Up checks off all the right boxes. With season two dropping on Netflix last week (this time targeting amateur contestants), let's see how they match up against the judges- and each other.

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