Spectrum: Sisters build global beauty brand from garage in Barry

Two sisters who started a beauty business from a garage in south Wales 10 years ago have grown a global company with sales of millions of pounds a year.

Spectrum Collections has sold more than two million make-up brushes and accessories so far this year and surpassed £2.5m in sales in the UK – its biggest market – in the year to date.

In the United States, where the company is currently seeing faster growth than the UK, sales so far this year are over £1.5m, said co-founder Sophie Pycroft, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

“We had some of the best days of our lives in that garage,” the 36-year-old said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, and it’s very nostalgic now.”

Spectrum’s products have been used in the backstage areas of Netflix drama Bridgerton, London Fashion Week and the MTV European Music Awards.

Sophie and Hannah, who is 35, both worked with clients on photography, videos and website design in London before setting up the business and could frequently be found backstage with hair and make-up artists themselves.

The sisters had always been interested in beauty products and chats with professionals backstage led to a “lightbulb moment”.

They decided to create a collection of brightly coloured, distinctive make-up brushes at a lower price point, made from synthetic fibres.

“We wanted to create products that had a bit more personality than the ones you would see behind the scenes,” she said.

“We were trying to create a professional product but aimed at a more mass market,” Sophie said.

“We knew that we ourselves would never go into a shop and spend £40-plus on a single make-up brush. But we would actually buy a set of brushes for that price,” she said.

To achieve a cheaper price, synthetic fibres were key, while the density of the hair helps to achieve a high quality finish.

Traditional brushes are made with animal hair from squirrels, goats or sable, a species of weasel.

Although synthetic bristles had been around for decades, Sophie says many industry professionals used animal hair brushes when the sisters launched the brand.

The sisters had no product-based experience and were “starting from scratch in terms of knowledge or guidance,” Sophie said.

They worked with the same factories that produced animal hair brushes, but used different materials.

After months of sampling and seeking feedback from their network of make-up artists, they created their own range of brushes.

Sophie and Hannah live on the same street, are family-oriented and like being close to home.

Their all-female, all-Welsh team at Spectrum Collections is made up of nine members, all based in or around Barry.

“We always wanted to stay in Wales. We never wanted to uproot the company to London,” Sophie said.

It was one of the key drivers for them to create their own business.

“Being home in Wales kind of keeps you grounded in a way,” she added.

Much of the company’s marketing is done through social media: Spectrum gives brushes to make-up artists and influencers who will tag the brand.

Marketing the brushes as vegan and cruelty-free also tapped into a wider trend in the fashion industry to move away from animal-derived textiles such as leather and fur and many professional make-up artists also became fans of Spectrum’s brushes.

The firm’s suppliers are in China and the company conducts audits every six months, Sophie said, checking that workers were treated correctly and that the environment the brushes are made in complied with regulations.

Sophie and Hannah created “personality-led collections” – vibrant colours and designs as well as more minimalist options – mixing beauty and fashion.

In 2018, Spectrum agreed a deal with Disney for a Little Mermaid collection inspired by mermaid princess Ariel. It included brushes with pastel-toned bristles and and turquoise bags with metallic fin closures and pearl studs.

The company also produced a Frozen bundle of brushes in icy, shimmery whites, with sponges shaped like the snowman Olaf.

Spectrum has moved away from licensing deals more recently, however, and wants to focus more on its own ranges.

Customers were “really enthusiastic” about the very bright colours when they first started, Sophie said, but as the cost of living rose sharply in the past few years the sisters saw a shift.

“We still try and give them something different when it comes to the design, but I think people are buying less now. And they’re just trying to buy stuff that is going to last them that little bit longer,” she said.

Currently, 60% of Spectrum’s business is in the UK, 30% in the United States and 10% in Canada and other parts of the world.

The sisters now want to further expand the company across the globe.

Working with each other is “the best part of the business”, Sophie said.

“We normally agree on everything because we’re very, very similar. Neither one of us would want to do it without the other,” she added.

“We definitely come as a pair.”