Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star: Episode 3 (S4EP3 BBC Three Wed 25 May 2022)

The MUAs try their hand at SFX, creating looks inspired by the iconic science fiction series Doctor Who, and create monstrous transformations in Glow Up Studios.

This week, the MUAs enter the world of special effects for BBC’s Bafta Award-winning sci-fi show, Doctor Who. Assisting the show’s Prosthetic Designer, Danny Marie Elias, the MUAs must create alien characters inspired by the Doctor’s recent nemeses Swarm and Azure.

Danny Marie wants to test the MUAs’ prosthetics skills, so after a short demonstration she gives each MUA a model and their prosthetic pieces. In two and half hours the MUAs must apply three prosthetic pieces, ensuring it looks vibrant, bold, and intricately detailed. To impress Danny Marie, the prosthetics must have flawless application and perfect blending, creating an authentic looking alien. The MUA who stands out will win the chance to join Danny Marie on set for a day, whereas those that fail to deliver run the risk of starting the Creative Brief in the red Face Off chairs.

While some MUAs bring to life their alien characters by expertly adding the prosthetics and being imaginative with their concepts, some run out of time whilst others fail to blend, colour match and even go over the top with embellishments. The MUAs who impress the least fortunately don’t face extermination, but they could be in danger of heading into one of the red seats at the start of the next day.

This week’s Creative Brief is to create a character that is based on the idea of an extreme experiment gone wrong. The MUAs are encouraged to use their imagination and the skills they learnt the day before, as each final look must contain a minimum of two prosthetic pieces. Two MUAs monstrous mutations explore what would happen if human DNA was mixed with plant cells, while another idea showcases a dystopian sewer rat that has survived a toxic explosion, and one MUA focuses on their love of science and reveals the results of someone becoming humanly spaghettified after falling into the hadron collider.

The judges give their feedback and deliberate over which two MUAs produced the weakest looks, before revealing who will go head to head in the Face-Off elimination, a make-up skill drill under intense time pressure. The MUAs are tasked with replicating a floating pearl eyeliner. The identical twins already have one eye completed that the MUAs must copy exactly, focusing on symmetry, balance, precision and clean application. One MUA packs their kit and leaves the competition.

Airdate: Wed 25 May 2022 at 20:00 on BBC Three

Season 4 Episode 3

Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star is a competition to look for the next big make-up star of tomorrow. Tapping into the huge online passion for extreme make-up transformations, the series will see a talented cast of hopefuls live and work together as they attempt to prove their potential to industry professionals from a multitude of worlds from fashion to film. With regular eliminations, the challenges will not only test their skills under pressure but also give them the opportunity to unleash their creative vision with jaw-dropping results.