Sisters made up with Mean Girls brushes deal

TWO sisters from Barry who started their business out of a garage are now heading to Hollywood.

While their make-up brushes have already been used by numerous celebrities, this latest deal teams them with Mean Girls, the cult classic film from more than decade ago.

But Sophie and Hannah Pycroft’s business can be described as anything but mean.

The brushes, which come in shades like hot and pearl pink, aquamarine and lavender, are made using synthetic hair, making them a proudly vegan-friendly brand.

Sophie, 28, and Hannah, 29, were both big fans of the 2004 film, which starred Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. They wanted to do a range inspired by the movie, so approached Paramount with their idea and it was happy to get on board.

The sisters said: “We’re both huge fans of the film and it fits perfectly with our brand so to get an official collaboration was such an achievement. It was very exciting for us to announce the project as we’ve been working on it for a year.”

Spectrum has signed a three-year deal with the Hollywood studio and the range being released on August 30 is the first of many planned for the next year.

The brushes will also be featured in this year’s series of Britain’s Next Top Model airing next month.

The brand has built up a big following, with more than 236,000 followers on Instagram and fans uploading photos of their colourful buys online so rapidly they have had no need for a big marketing budget.

Spectrum now has seven members of staff, including the sisters, at its offices in Barry, which it is fast outgrowing. But not only are they keen to keep their business in Wales, the sisters want to stay in Barry.

“With it being an online company, there’s no need for us to move to London,” said Hannah.

The business is now valued at being worth £12m.

The Mean Girls collection will be exclusively available on its website from August 30.

The sisters had the idea while on holiday with their parents in Gran Canaria

“We were brainstorming with mum and dad around the pool,” Sophie, told WalesOnline earlier in the year.

At the time Sophie who was working as a freelance photographer. Hannah was a videographer.

“We thought about starting a clothing brand but the start-up costs were too high.

“We saw there was a gap in the market for trend-led beauty tools and we wanted something that would combine our love for fashion and beauty.”

They took over Sophie’s garage in Barry and worked around the clock in their pyjamas.

They spent a year researching their brand and sampling products, before launching Spectrum Collections – “ultra pretty make-up brushes that would stand out from the boring, dark-coloured ones you see in the shops”.

They held a launch party in London, with the help of Sophie’s old teachers

“We invited journalists and fashion and beauty bloggers,” she said. “The design technology department at my old school, St Cyres in Penarth, made displays for us and we cobbled something together with bits from Ikea.

“That’s when people started talking about us. We couldn’t afford to pay bloggers so it was organic – I think people could see they just loved the products.”

Among the beauty bloggers to heap praise on them is Lottie Tomlinson – sister of One Direction’s Louis – who has 3.2 million followers.

Their customer base is mainly females aged 15 to 40 “but we sell to males – boys like unicorns, too”.

Ashley Roberts of the Pussycat Dolls was made up for this year’s Brit Awards using the sisters’ brush collection – and her proud make-up artist couldn’t wait to show off her look on Instagram.

“We were doing everything ourselves, working 12 hours a day, packing up to 2,000 orders a month,” said Hannah.

Sophie said: “There’s no window in the garage – we were pale and greasy, working in our pyjamas and living off Hobnobs.

“We had an Ikea bookshelf flipped on its side where we did all the packing and the only time we broke for daylight was when the Hermes van arrived or one of our dogs started scratching to go out.

“We had no backers, we were relying on the generosity of our partners and family. We missed Christmas, birthdays, Valentine’s Days – we rarely saw our other halves.

“But we always knew it was going to work.”