September 13, 2022

Hilary Holmes | Founder of Holme Beauty

53 minutes

In episode ninety six of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of Holme Beauty, Hilary Holmes.

Hilary discovered her love of makeup in her final year of high school, and although she tells me that initial affinity for beauty may not have come from the right place, to this day she connects to the transformative energy she felt upon that discovery.

Despite her love of makeup, Hilary studied and worked in agriculture. In 2009 the recession hit, and after being made redundant, Hilary relocated to London where her sister was living. She soon found a job on a cosmetics counter, and so her career in beauty was born.

After returning to Australia and building up her freelance business, Hilary opened the first Hilary Holmes Makeup location in 2016 and a second only four years later. It was from within these spaces that Hilary’s now-iconic Masterclasses were born- classes designed to empower women to back their own beauty, rather than following a formula they’d grown up with in women’s magazines.

In 2021, following years of product development and a truly serendipitous encounter with her now-manufacturer, Hilary launched Holme Beauty. The brand launched with a single SKU, and over the last 12 months Hilary has carefully and consciously expanded that range to an edit of four, with a fifth product set to launch only a fortnight from now.

In this conversation, Hilary shares the importance of finding the right people to help you grow your business, the links she’s discovered between beauty and her own mental health, and the story behind the man she calls her “$30,000 husband.”