I started a side job from my room in the town hall – now I own a beauty empire

FROM growing up in social housing to owning an eight-figure cosmetics brand, Paige Louise Williams is the ultimate poverty-to-riches story.

The 31-year-old left school without a qualification and earned £600 a month at Selfridges when she set up her eponymous cosmetics brand as a sideline.

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When CEO Paige last spoke about the brand’s finances in 2019, it was turning over a staggering £6m a year.

This number has likely increased dramatically since the P.Louise brand became a household name thanks to its popularity on the video app TikTok.

Paige was originally hailed for creating the “world’s best eyeshadow base” in 2016.

Her brand’s latest top products include the Bad B***h Energy Lip Duo, which is available exclusively for £22 and comes in 75 flavours, and the liquid blush The Cheek Of It, which is available exclusively for £15 and comes in 51 shades.

Paige’s business portfolio also includes an academy, where she teaches others her signature dramatic make-up style, and a P.Louise store and tourist cafe at her Stockport headquarters.

Last year she was a guest judge on the BBC make-up competition Glow Up and took the opportunity to tell more about her story.

“I went from social housing to a cosmetic kingdom,” she shared on Instagram after the episode aired.

“I was Paige from Droylsden – the girl with no qualifications, no business plan, no money – just a girl with goals and the determination to succeed.

“Now I am P.Louise, the cosmetics brand, the makeup academy, the brand; my empire that I have built.

“I came out of nowhere.

“The life I live now is something I had to work tirelessly for.

“It hasn’t always been Lamborghinis and six-figure checks.

“When P.Louise was just me, without a brand behind the name, life was a different story. I didn’t come from money and it showed.”

Paige joined MAC Selfridges as a make-up artist in 2013, after working tirelessly for roles and receiving a few rejections along the way.

Biggest Beauty Flaws

Tara Ledden, beauty editor of Fabulous, shares the do’s and don’ts of beauty.

“No matter how much time and money you spend on your beauty routine, if you don’t get the basics right, everything else is wasted.

“There aren’t many things you can’t negotiate, but these are the biggest cosmetic mistakes that are sabotaging your regime.”

• Do not use SPF: Sun damage is the number one cause of premature skin aging, so if you want to keep your skin looking firm and radiant, sunscreen is essential.
• Use of products whose expiration date has passed: At best, they are ineffective and do not deliver the results they promise, at worst they cause irritation and infection. The shelf life of beauty products varies – for example, mascara is usually good for 3-6 months, while lipstick is good for 9-18 months. Check the ‘POA’ symbol on the packaging (it looks like a jar and has a number inside it for how many months it is safe after opening. If you can’t remember when you opened your product, throw it out and start over, marking the month and year on the packaging with a permanent marker.
• Not knowing your undertone: If you use makeup with the wrong undertones, it will never look natural, no matter how much you mix it! An easy trick to figure out if you have cool, warm, or neutral undertones is to check the veins on your wrist – if they look blue, you have cool undertones, if they look green, you have warm, and if they’re a mix, you have neutral.
• Skip heat protectant: It may seem unnecessary, but just like sun damage to the skin, excessive heat is the most common cause of hair damage. So if you want shiny, healthy hair, or if you want to grow it longer, using a heat protection product is essential.
• Not washing your face before bed: it’s as simple as this, if you don’t wash your face before you go to bed, whatever has been on your skin during the day will stay there longer, clogging your pores and drying out the surface. Any skincare you apply on top won’t be effective with a layer of dirt underneath, and you’ll probably end up with dirty pillows too – yuck!

However, her salary was only £593.18 a month and she devised a 10-year plan to create a global brand.

Then P.Louise was born.

Initially working as a freelance make-up artist, she then set up an academy to teach other girls her signature glamorous style, which she continues to do to this day for a whopping £600 a pop.

I came from nothing. The life I have now is something I worked tirelessly for. It wasn’t always Lamborghinis and six-figure checks

Paige Louise Williams

As her following began to grow, Paige created her own viral eyeshadow base, now known as the £10 Rumour Base… and it’s still a best-seller.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The P.Louise brand has become hugely popular, achieving record sales with a wide range of beauty products, including skincare, thanks to its renewed popularity on TikTok.

“I manifest everything I want and it has always worked,” Paige added.

“You must always believe in the inevitable and the impossible and by manifesting what you really want in life, you will attract it.”