Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star | Series 4 Preview

Hosted by Maya Jama, Glow Up returns for its fourth series, as 10 aspiring make-up artists are tested in varied professional assignments from TV to theatre, fashion to front covers, and online beauty campaigns.

At the Glow Up Studio their talents are pushed to the limit with creative make-up transformations, and each week the two MUAs who least impress series judges, Val Garland and Dominic Skinner, go head to head in a Face Off elimination, putting their technical skills to the test. After eight weeks the last MUA standing wins a contract assisting some of the world’s top make-up artists, and is crowned Britain’s Next Make-up Star.

In episode one, the make-up artists (MUAs) travel to Birmingham for their first professional assignment, a social media campaign for a sport and fitness brand. This week’s guest judge, the company’s styling manager Ivy Weir-Ikpeme, challenges the MUAs to produce a gym-friendly, natural make-up look for their diverse customer base. Healthy looking skin and colour matching are a must, plus they need to add one fierce ‘fitspiration’ feature that stays true to the campaign’s brief, but stops the user (from scrolling) in their tracks.

At the end of the assignment, the judges review the test shots and decide which MUAs work is good enough for the online campaign, reaching 17 million followers. The winning MUA who impresses the most is rewarded and remains on set to assist with the make-up for the rest of the shoot, while the others return home.

The following day at Glow Up Studios, the MUAs find out which two underdelivered, meaning they start the Creative Brief in the red ‘Face Off’ chairs, with a 15-minute time penalty. For these two MUAs, the only way to escape the Face Off elimination at the end of the show is to wow the judges in the Creative Brief and beat the seat.

This week’s Creative Brief sees the MUAs challenged to produce a look on themselves based on their Hidden Strength. Encouraged to be bold and push their creativity to the limits, the MUAs produce some jaw-dropping creations, ranging from a prosthetics-based chameleon to an intergalactic atomic explosion. And a survivor of the Manchester terrorist attacks uses volcanic fire to display their hidden strength over adversity.

Following the Creative Brief, the judges must decide whether the two MUAs in the Face Off chairs have done enough to beat the seat, and who will take on the first Face Off elimination, a make-up skill drill on identical twins. The two MUAs are challenged to produce an on-trend look - the reverse cat eye - with a surprising outcome; and the judges decide which MUA is the first to leave the competition.

Glow Up returns Wednesday 11th May at 8pm on BBC Three.