Follow TV Tropes

Following

Series / Glow Up

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/glowup.png
Publicity image from Season 4 - from left to right: Dom, Maya and Val.
Glow Up is a British reality show that’s essentially The Great British Sewing Bee meets America's Next Top Model, in which aspiring makeup artists (or MUAs) compete in challenges related to different facets of the makeup industry, from high-fashion to online beauty tutorials to TV prosthetics.

Each episode consists of two loosely-related challenges, judged by Val Garland (the Global Makeup Director of L’Oreal) and Dominic Skinner (the Global Senior Artist of MAC Cosmetics), along with a different guest judge each week, who usually also sets the first challenge of the day, related to their work, often offering a personalised prize for the winner(s). For the second challenge, a creative brief taking place in the show’s studio rather than on location, the two contestants ranked the lowest in the first challenge are placed in red chairs (as opposed to all the other contestants, who sit in blue chairs). This gives them a 15-minute time penalty in their bid to “beat the seat” (success in this necessitates the judges to pick someone else to take their place). At the end of each episode, the two lowest-ranked contestants take part in a “Face-Off”, a 1v1 makeup challenge (on identical twin models), with the loser being eliminated from the competition.

The first two series, aired in 2019 and 2020, were hosted by Stacey Dooley, while the third and fourth series, in 2021 and 2022, were hosted by Maya Jama. Since the fifth series, aired in 2023, the host has been former Victoria's Secret Angel Leomie Anderson. Also has a celebrity special. In 2022, RTÉ launched an Irish version, hosted by Maura Higgins and judged by Cathyanne Mac Allister and Emma O'Byrne.

    Winners 
  • Season 1: Ellis Atlantis
  • Season 2: Ophelia Liu
  • Season 3: Sophie Baverstock
  • Season 4: Yong-Chin Breslin
  • Season 5: Saphron Morgan


Includes the following tropes:

  • Autism: Season 3 featured two openly autistic contestants – Xavi and series champion Sophie, who both used their experiences as autistic people to inspire their makeup looks.
  • Book Ends: Both the first and the last “Ding Dongs” from Val in Season 4 were awarded to Yong-Chin, who eventually won the whole series.
  • The Bus Came Back: Jack from Season 3 returned in one episode of Season 5 as Special Guest judge Trixie Mattel's makeup artist, tasked with fixing the makeups of the drag artists whose makeup the MUAs got wrong.
    • James and Hannah from Season 2, Dolli from Season 3 and Yong-Chin from Season 4 all appear in the Season 5 finale in the audience for the industry masterclasses.
  • Cast Full of Gay: Extremely so (perhaps unsurprisingly given the subject) – it’s so overly queer that it’s one of the few series that introduces contestants by identifying their pronouns.
  • Catchphrase: “Ding Dong” from Val, a hard-to-get affirmation of praise. Both Val and Dom are prone to using “Conflab” when discussing which contestant gets eliminated in the face-off.
  • Celebrity Edition: Done for Comic Relief in 2022, won by rapper Lady Leshurr.
  • Crossover: At least once a season there is a special effects makeup challenge taking place on the set of a particular TV show – these have included Holby City, Strictly Come Dancing, Peaky Blinders, Pose, The Crown, Doctor Who and Bridgerton.
    • In an example of international cross-show crossover, Season 2's James was the guest judge in one episode of Glow Up Ireland.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Season 1 featured several challenges where the contestants competed in teams – this was dropped from Season 2 onwards, but returned in Season 5.
  • Friendly Rivalry: Like The Great British Bakeoff and The Great British Sewing Bee, most of the contestants get on with each other very well, even though they’re in competition with each other.
  • Handicapped Badass: Any of the show’s disabled contestants; including the neurodivergent Sophie and Xavi in Season 3 (both autistic) and Roo in Season 5 (ADHD); the physically disabled Steph in Season 1 and the chronically ill Hannah in Season 2.
  • History Repeats: A 25-year-old British Asian Perky Goth with a degree in fashion design who won their series – are we talking about Ophelia in Season 2 or Yong-Chin in Season 4?
  • Ignored Expert: One of the more common prizes for winning the first challenge of an episode is for the guest judge (or sometimes either Val or Dom) to give advice on the look a contestant is doing for the second challenge. More often than not the contestant fails to heed it.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: In a series about makeup artists this is perhaps to be expected, especially among the more SFX-minded contestants. Particular mention goes to Ophelia from Season 2 and Sophie from Season 3.
  • Non-Gameplay Elimination: Keziah in Season 2 quit the show due to stress; while Charlie in Season 4 responded to being put in the Face-Off by throwing it, scrawling “QUEER POWER 4EVER” on his model’s face rather than attempting the task.
  • Older Than They Look: Dom – would you believe he’s almost 60!
  • Once an Episode: The finale of each season always involves the finalists performing a masterclass to makeup industry figures.
  • Perky Goth: Both Hannah and Ophelia in Season 2, and Yong-Chin in Season 4.
  • Pointy Ears: Season 4’s Sophie sported them thanks to prosthetics.
  • Product Placement: While technically prohibited on the BBC, the show does feature collaborations with brands + companies as well as individuals, including JD Sports, Superdrug, ASOS, Gymshark and Cirque de Soleil.
  • Shout-Out: Common and sometimes enforced by the creative brief, in which the MUAs are often tasked to make looks directly inspired by artists, books, TV shows, films and musicians.
  • Special Guest: Each episode features a special guest judge in addition to Val and Dom, who set the first challenge of the week and usually offer a prize related to it (these have included NikkieTutorials, Kim Chi, Trixie Mattel, Michelle Visage and Manny MUA). Particular mention goes to photographer Rankin, who appeared as a judge in each of the first four seasons, judging the final in Seasons 1 and 4, and the semi-final in Seasons 2 and 3, becoming so popular that he also became the host and main judge of his own spin-off series, The Great British Photography Challenge.

Top