Michelle Regazzoli Stone has painted the faces of some of the UK and Ireland’s top celebrities.
The Mrs Glam creator is Goss.ie’s latest Spotlight On cover star and in this exclusive interview, she opens up about empowering people through makeup.
The mum-of-four also reveals how she balances her busy family life with such a hectic work schedule, and why she has no plans to step away from her MUA career any time soon.
After studying makeup artistry in college, Michelle landed a job in one of the top beauty brands in the world – MAC Cosmetics.
Ten years later, she decided to become a freelance artist, specialising in bespoke bridal and media makeup.
Michelle is now one of the top makeup artists in the country, best known by her Instagram handle @mrsmakeup_ie.
The Dublin-based beauty has a whopping 169k followers on the social media platform, where she often shares glimpse of her life as a mum, businesswoman, and makeup guru.
Michelle has very loyal celebrity clients, and has worked with stars such as Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Girls Aloud singers Sarah Harding and Nadine Coyle, Geordie Shore’s Vicky Pattison, and influencers Rosanna Davison and Suzanne Jackson – to name but a few.
She has also created her very own makeup brand, called Mrs Glam – which includes bestselling products like the Lash Extravaganza Mascara, the Peachy Elixir Strobe Cream and the Work Your Magic brush set.
Her popularity is undeniable, as she’s won Best Celebrity Makeup Artist at The Gossies multiple times over the past seven years.
Picture Brian McEvoy
As well as being extremely successful in her professional life, Michelle has had a very exciting few years in her personal life.
She met her husband Mark when she was just 17-years-old, and the pair tied the knot in Ibiza back in 2013.
The couple have since welcomed four gorgeous children together, and recently they renewed their wedding vows.
In our exclusive interview with Michelle, she opens up about her “beautiful” relationship with her kids, and reveals the secret to a happy marriage.
She also speaks about dealing with “rude” clients, online trolls and more.
Check out our full chat below:
Let’s take it back to the beginning. How did you discover makeup was your passion?
“I came from a line of very glamorous women. My mother was very glamorous, my aunties always had makeup on – even if they were in a tracksuit it was all about glam hair and makeup. So I suppose that’s where the influence came from. And as a result of having so many aunties, they always gave me bits and pieces of makeup so I accumulated a big bag of goodies.
“I remember on school tours, when life was a little bit looser, I used to sit on the bus and do everybody’s makeup and have a great time. So then when I came out of school, Dun Laoghaire College had started up Theatrical and Media Makeup, and I straight away got in contact with them and hounded them to get my place – which I did, thankfully. And it all just went from there.”
You’ve become a makeup artist to the stars – have you ever been starstruck by one of your clients?
“I think Sarah Harding was one of the most famous faces I painted. I was doing a lot of work at the time with The Wright Venue in Swords, and they always had great nights and great celebs, and I used to go in and do their makeup. Sarah Harding was DJing there one night, and I absolutely love Girls Aloud so she was a dream come true.
“I also got to do Nadine Coyle’s makeup recently, and I was completely starstruck meeting her. I followed Girls Aloud for years, and you know the way there is always one member of the band that is your favourite and you dress like them and do your hair like them? Well Nadine Coyle was that person for me, so I was definitely starstruck by her.
“Both Sarah and Nadine were so lovely and so normal. Nadine was like, ‘Oh my mummy follows you and loves you’, and I was like, ‘What? Me?!’ It was so bizarre.”
Michelle did my makeup before The Goss Countdown Show earlier this year, and I tell her how relaxed, comfortable and confident she made me feel on the night.
“Aw, thanks hunny! There is that vulnerable side of sitting there with no makeup on, and I’m right up in your face. So I always have to be kind and professional, and wait for my client to open up conversation.
“You never go deep with someone unless they want to go there with you. I think that’s why I’ve been relatively successful; I know how to work with celebrities. I don’t ever ask for a photo with them unless they suggest it, and I think that’s why they ask me back. Because I put no pressure on anybody to give me something.”
Have you had any bad encounters with celebrities while doing their makeup?
“I’ve had a few. It’s not that they’ve necessarily been rude to me, but they just mightn’t be my type of people. They’d be a bit arrogant. It’s funny, because they wouldn’t even be that famous, they’d just be well-known in Ireland. And they don’t get off their phones, they just keep their heads down and buried into their phones while I’m trying to work on their faces.
“And then afterwards they might look at their makeup and be like, ‘Oh that’s not really right, my brows are a bit off’ or whatever, but they literally keep their chin down the whole time so I can’t work on them properly! And then when I ask them to lift their chin, they’ll roll their eyes up to heaven. And they’re not even that famous! So yeah, there has been a few that have been a bit soul-destroying.”
If you didn’t get into makeup, what career path do you think you would have gone down?
“I always thought I’d be a Formula 1 driver, that was the dream job. I always thought getting to drive fast cars would be so cool, so that was a dream. But in reality, I would have loved to have done some type of psychology, mainly child psychology. I just find things like that so interesting, and I like the idea of discovering why people are a certain way, and if childhood trauma caused that. I probably will get into psychology one day. I’d love to go back and study it, I’d say it’s so interesting.”
Who would be your dream face to paint?
“I really like Nicole Scherzinger. I find her aesthetic really beautiful, and she seems to really look after and maintain herself coming into an older age. The same with Jennifer Lopez. I know their ethnicities help keep them youthful looking, but I would love to see if there is much texture on the face. They are both really glam girls, and I’m really glam, so I’d love to do their makeup.”
What do you love the most about doing peoples makeup?
“I love the confidence that you can see instantly coming onto the person’s face when you hand them a mirror after doing their makeup. And the happiness. Once I know that I make people look like themselves, but a really beautiful version of themselves… Seeing that smile then when they look in the mirror, it’s everything. It’s all about empowerment and confidence.
“Makeup is all about empowerment and confidence…”
“Some people go through a really tough time in their lives, and makeup can give them a lift. Like I remember a few years ago I was doing makeup at a wedding and after I did the mother’s makeup, the husband came in and shouted at her and told her to take it off. There was obviously a controlling element there, and she had to fight to keep it on. Makeup is so personal, and it can give people so much passion. It can make people feel amazing about themselves, and feel confident. So that’s what I love about my job: How good I can make someone feel. I want to remind people of who they are, and make them feel happy and gorgeous.
“It’s so rewarding. I absolutely adore my job, and that’s why I’ll always work on clients. No matter how the business goes, not matter how things go with MRS Glam, I’ll always work on clients because I always want to keep in touch with the reality of my job.”
Being a makeup artist is a very intense and time-consuming jobs, that can take up your weekends and evenings. It’s amazing that you’re still finding the time to do it while running your business and raising your four young children.
“Well to be honest, this year I massively pulled back on working on clients. But I had to because I had to prioritise my family and my children, and I’m so glad that I did because I have the most beautiful relationship with all four of my kids because I can really give them my time.
“I have the most beautiful relationship with all four of my kids…”
“I’ll always keep up working on faces, because I’ve built up a really good client base here in Ireland. Like I’ve been working with Rosanna Davison for over 10 years. There’s loyalty there. Doing makeup keeps me in tune with what’s going on, with what people like and don’t like, with the trends. But I’ve definitely pulled back on clients. I used to do like 120-150 weddings a year, working morning, noon and night. Whereas this year, I have 20.”
Let’s chat a bit more about your personal life. You and your husband Mark recently renewed your wedding vows after 10 years of marriage. Can you tell us a bit about your love story?
“I met Mark when I was 17 in my local pub. He dropped me home that evening, and I knew I was going to be killed because it was very late. So I invited him in for a cup of tea, thinking he’d say no, and he said yes. He came into my house and I introduced him as his brother Dave, and he was like ‘My name is Mark’. So we were off to a bit of a rocky start there! Four days later, after spending the weekend together on little dates, he asked me to be his girlfriend and we’ve been together for 20 years now.
“We’ve been through everything together. Breaking up when we were younger, all that drama… And he had an accident a few years ago in work with his hand, and I sat by his bed in the hospital every day and he said: ‘I’ll never forget that.’ That situation didn’t make us, but it was certainly something that was so catastrophic that it made us really just how much we love each other. That was one part of our journey that made us even more solidified.
“We were 22, 23 when it happened and the recession was coming so it was a strange time in Ireland. And then this poor fella has an accident where he cuts off a bit of his hand in work. It makes you reevaluate everything and prioritise things, and that’s what we did.”
What would you say is the secret to a happy marriage?
“Respecting each other and being on the same page. We don’t really go off on each other anymore, there’s just so much respect there. We also love spending time together, we’re kind of always together!
“Mark picks up all my pieces…”
“I only said to my mam recently, Mark picks up all my pieces. Most people in relationships will probably get what I’m talking about; I do everything, I do so much in my family life, I work, I bring the kids to school, I do everything. And obviously he goes out to work and does a full day, whereas my job is a little bit looser with time and days. But he picks up all my pieces. He just knows to help me if I’m struggling or I’m tired, or if I need a lift somewhere. He picks up those pieces, and that’s so important. That he is aware that there are certain times I might not be my best, and he can pick me up and help me.”
Michelle and Mark are parents to three sons Hugo, Max, and Gio. In April last year, Michelle became a girl mum for the first time – welcoming a beautiful baby girl named Alessa.
She tells us: “My boys are my everything. They are my best pals, I get into bed with them every night to do a meditation or to read Gio a story. But they want Mark, they want to play and to be in the muck. Whereas Alessa, she’s just obsessed with me. We’re the best of friends and already, she’s picking up makeup brushes and she knows how to put them on her face because she’s watching me. It’s so special.”
How do you balance your busy working life with your busy family life?
“We have help. I have someone in my house that helps me four days a week. I’ve great support with my family if I have to work weekends, they can help me out. There’s no way we’d be able to do it without help. Having such a big family, such a big life, such a big career, you need help. I think asking for help, or being open to help, is massive for you and your husband. Help and support is really big.”
“There’s a duty of care to be real and be honest online…”
You’ve built up a massive online family over the past few years, and are always so open and honest with your followers about the good and the bad days…
“There’s such a duty of care to be real and be honest online, because it’s not easy. There’s nothing in this life that is worth having that is easy. But there’s so many people that show the perfect life and the perfect kitchen, and their perfectly manicured nails, and it can be so dangerous. I come online on when I’m having a bad day, or when I’m tired and overworked, and I just share it because I know I appreciate it when I see other people being honest about the reality of things. Because life is tough.”
Although Michelle is usually inundated with kind and supportive messages, she also receives the occasional nasty message from online trolls. She tells me how she handles this…
“I do get messages from trolls every once in a blue moon, everybody does. But thankfully I get very little. And I don’t go looking for them, I don’t go onto online forums to see what people’s opinions are. I looked once, back in 2020, and people literally can say whatever they want about you on those open forums. They can lie, and other people will believe them.
“Every now and then, I’ll get a snarky comment from someone like ‘Get over yourself’ or whatever. But criticism isn’t always bad. There might be times in my life that I forget myself, or there might be things that I say that I don’t mean. So if someone has genuine criticism, I will take that, that’s absolutely fine. But with the forums, where they say I Photoshop myself and all these other lies, I’ve no time for them so I don’t even waste my time looking.
“People see me as I am. I am so honest on social media. I don’t come on and pretend to be positive, I just am positive. It’s just who I am. So why would I read these lies about me? No way, life is too short.”
Taking it back to your business – your Mrs Glam makeup products are absolutely stunning. Do you plan on releasing any more collections any time soon?
“There’s something very exciting that is hopefully coming in July. It’ll be one of the biggest launches of the year and as a makeup artist, it’s a really, really important part of my kit. As somebody who loves to top their makeup up to make sure it looks perfect throughout the day, this product is such a staple. So stay tuned for that…”
If you could only wear one beauty product for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
“I think it would have to be tan, because you can wear that on your face as well. I love how tan makes me feel. And the Mrs Glam tan is so moisturising as well, so it actually makes my skin look lovely and glowy. I couldn’t live without tan.”
What is your current favourite beauty trend?
“BPerfect have brought out these new tan drops, and I love them for the bronzed, glowy skin trend. For holidays, I’ll definitely be using those drops all over my face to give me a healthy and radiant glow.”
What’s next for you?
“I have different collabs coming up which is nice, it keeps things interesting. I recently moved management company, so things are moving in a really nice direction and thankfully, Mrs Glam seems to be going from strength to strength. My goal is to live happily ever after with my babies, and to continue to work. I’m just living in the moment right now.”
