Beau Co <> Lucy Lyons MUA
Bristol-based makeup artist Lucy Lyons doesn’t fit the classic “I quit my job and went all-in” story. By day, she’s an executive assistant at a financial firm, managing four execs and running an office. By night (and many very early mornings), she’s a sought-after bridal MUA creating luminous, modern looks in Bristol, Bath, Bordeaux, Ibiza and – next year – Italy.
This is the reality for a huge number of beauty professionals: two careers, one nervous system, and a lot of emotional and financial juggling. Lucy just says it out loud. “I’ve got a mortgage, a child, loads of animals… I need security. But makeup is what I love.”
Lucy’s first leap into beauty was in semi-permanent makeup. “I took out an £8,000 loan in 2013 to train with a really reputable company in Yorkshire,” she explains. “That was the course plus the machine. It felt huge at the time.”
The work itself – tattooing faces, alone in a room with no one to step in if something went wrong – quickly became overwhelmingly stressful.
“At the end of the day, you’re tattooing someone’s face. If it goes wrong, there’s nobody to help you.”
She kept her corporate job the whole time. And even as she quietly shelved semi-permanent makeup, the pull towards beauty didn’t go away.
In 2016, a redundancy changed her trajectory again.
“I was working for a music company I absolutely loved,” she says. “Then I found out I was pregnant… and two months later we were all being made redundant.”
Instead of treating the redundancy payout as a stop-gap, she saw an opening.
“I thought, ‘You know what? With my redundancy money, I’m going to do a course in London.’”
The course was short – two weeks – and cost around £2,000. “It was amazing to do, but it wasn’t enough to give me a deep understanding of makeup or how to get clients. I came home and thought, ‘What do I do now?’”
So she did what most great artists start with: she practised on friends, and started again from the ground up.
The turning point wasn’t a single campaign or viral moment; it was a person.
“Working at MAC I met another makeup artist, Annabella. We were pregnant at the same time. She’s now one of my closest friends and basically a mentor.”
Annabella is a well-established artist trading on socials as @byannabellamakeupartist – and Lucy stays close to the action by facilitating intimate, luxe masterclasses as part of a team at The Pig hotels and Babington House (Soho House) near Bath. Insiders should takenote the next Masterclass is at The Pig near Bath on 21st March 2026
“It’s a such an uplifting and empowering day.” Lucy says. “Our love for making women feel confident in their skin is key, and at weddings in particular I will be the best compliment giver. I am so passionate about what I do.” The sense of empowerment and sisterhood isn’t a marketing line for Lucy – it’s the centre of how she wants the industry to feel.
“Times have definitely changed,” she says. “A few years ago, makeup artists saw each other as competition. Now there’s more understanding that there is enough room for everybody.”
Bridal work is Lucy’s sweet spot. She lights up talking about weddings at The Ned, a styled bridal shoot in Ibiza (“my favourite place – there was a horse!”), and a recent wedding in Bordeaux. Next up: Italy, plus another bridal shoot in Ibiza’s old town. “I want cobbled streets, palm trees, that water-and-sun aesthetic,” she says. “That’s my whole brand!”
But every gorgeous destination means time away from home.
“I’m often away the night before a wedding,” she says. “I get the guilt – I’ve got a nine-year-old, we’ve been together as a couple for 25 years, and I’m trying to juggle everything.”
Her solution, at least for now, is not to choose
So she keeps the security and home-base of her career as an Executive Assistant, and protects her creativity growing Lucy Lyons the MUA brand at every opportunity.
One of the most striking themes in Lucy’s story is financial. She’s invested heavily “I’ve spent so much money on training over the years,” she says. “It’s criminal.”
And like many artists, she describes herself as “not very good with money” and admits that most of what she earns from makeup simply gets swallowed by life.
This is exactly the blind spot Beau Co cares about: women running real businesses without always recognising (or structuring) them as businesses.
“It feels like I pay so much tax,” she says. “Everything gets taken into account and I just get hammered.”
The obvious next chapter is one where her artistry is recognised legally and financially as a business – with all the tax efficiencies, write-offs and rewards that structure can unlock. That’s another conversation, and one Beau Co is committed to having with artists like Lucy.
