A couple from Mansfield who created a makeup business they refer to as 'the Airbnb' of the beauty industry has been partially acquired by the global brand Revolution Beauty. Their business, AMB, was set up with just a £4,000 investment between them
AMB, formerly Allure Me Beauty, which has now rebranded as My Revolution, is an online beauty booking platform set up by co-founders Jason Iliffe and Nicola Gunby while they were travelling. The website allows customers to book a mobile or home appointment without needing to visit a salon. The couple have just joined global cosmetics giant, Revolution Beauty, which will help them to take the business into the next stage.
"It was such a great opportunity that we couldn't miss out on. Revolution Beauty was looking for something different and it was the right place at the right time. We are so excited as they are a global beauty brand that will allow us to expand into Europe and the world. They already had the infrastructure in place so it made perfect sense," Nicola said.
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Nicola had been working as a make-up artist but, despite opportunities with the Melbourne Cup Carnival, Formula 1, Australian Open as well as on music videos and TV series, she found it difficult to break into the industry. She was frustrated by the difficulties that make-up artists experience, especially those starting their careers, when entering the business trying to locate clients and cover their start-up fees. The couple were traveling when they started AMB and were on a beach in Sri Lanka when they launched.
"I found it really difficult to get work so I wondered why there wasn't a website like Airbnb or Uber for professionals who put their work on there so clients could contact them. It meant you wouldn't have to find the clients yourself. We had 100 signups on the first day which made us realise that we had something here which we could turn into a business," she said.
The sign-ups soon rose to more than 2,000 within the first few months of the company being online. Nicola began searching for investment so that the team could make the next step in developing the business. The new app will be able to help professionals to manage their business better including covering themselves in case of costly no-shows or cancellations.
"We were connected to Adam Minto, the founder of Revolution Beauty. He saw the benefits of bringing AMB in house so we've been able to rebrand to develop an app called My Revolution where professionals and customers can connect. It can also help professionals to manage their diaries, and deal with cancellations or no-shows."
It has been a difficult time for the service industry, including hairdressers and make-up artists who have had to adapt to COVID restrictions very quickly. Freelance artists were left wondering what to do when restrictions left them unable to do appointments, doubling up on PPE and also banned salons from opening.
Nicola said: "It was very difficult when the beauty industry shut down. There were months when you weren't allowed to go into people's homes so that meant we were a bit stuck. So many businesses and salons shut down, it was really sad. We knew we had an idea so we kept going with it."
"Coming out of lockdown, we saw that artists were a bit sceptical, they had retrained or started new jobs or were just doing it on the side. We also saw the other side which was lots of new professionals joining the platform who had just lost their jobs. It was a struggle and we felt almost as if we had to start again. I feel as if everything is getting back to normal now but you felt like you lost everything and had to start from the ground up," she added.
The business has gone from strength to strength in recent months including the sale to Revolution Beauty. Nicola takes it day by day when it comes to managing the brand and the workload but is determined that the brand will become even bigger.
"It's crazy to think that when we first started, we would have been bought out by a global brand. I would have laughed if you told that as I would have thought there was no way. You get stuck into the work and you don't realise what's going on but you need to take a step back to realise how big it is," she said.
