We had the opportunity to speak with Brittany Gray, the Founder and CEO of Fancy Face about her path to becoming an internationally recognized and trusted source of beauty expertise, empowering women of all ages to put their best face forward by equipping them with the skills and providing them with a variety of beauty services. In this interview, Brittany deep dives into how she transformed her talent as a makeup artist into a business that brings in more than $1 million annually, her inspiration for launching The Rosé Room before the pandemic, and the challenging circumstances that motivated her to launch her business.
An internationally renowned and trusted source of beauty expertise, Brittany Gray empowers people to amplify the beauty within through her respected and much-loved brand Fancy Face. Established over 16 years ago, Fancy Face was inspired by Gray’s boundless passion for the transformative power of makeup, which she discovered while working in film/television as an actress/singer/dancer on some of the most highly coveted Hollywood films today, including Oscar Award Winning ‘Chicago’ (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and ‘Amelia’ (Hilary Swank). Gray’s focus on inclusivity, approachable luxury, and timeless, yet also stylish beauty has resonated with people around the globe. As a contributor to GMA, Cityline, The Social, ET Canada, and more, Gray shares tips, techniques, inspiration, and beauty products that help viewers feel empowered, gorgeous, and the best version of themselves—both inside and out. Gray’s work can be seen in Vanity Fair, FASHION, Hello! Canada, Wedluxe Magazine, and Grace Ormonde, and on some of the most influential faces including Candace Bushnell (Sex In The City), Jillian Harris, Melissa Grelo, Dina Pugliese, Sangita Patel, and more, further cementing her reputation as Canada’s most trusted beauty guru. As a testament to her expertise and talent, Gray’s Fancy Face product line has also been featured in the iconic British Vogue. Gray has also created beauty looks for icon brands, including Maison Birks and Greta Constantine. Over the past 16 years, Gray has built a renowned and coveted beauty team that has worked with thousands of brides, providing them with timeless bridal glamour on their special day. In 2019, just before the pandemic, she also opened The Rosé Room, the Fancy Face storefront offering clients the chance to shop her signature beauty line while also being pampered by amazing artists for their weddings or special event. Gray’s passion and knowledge for beauty and business extend into her natural ability to inspire and lead other entrepreneurs to success. In 2022, Gray was the keynote speaker at the First Sundays event, hosted by the Run the World Summit, where she shared her knowledge to educate and inspire aspiring female entrepreneurs. As a philanthropist and champion for women, Gray partners with charitable events and organizations, including Mamas for Mamas Toronto for which she is the community ambassador.
When did you start your career? And how does it feel to become an internationally renowned trusted source of expertise for faces across the nation, and empower women of all ages to develop these skills and tactics to put their best face forward through your diverse beauty offerings?
I officially started my company in 2006, but my career and passion for makeup began long before that at the age of fifteen. For the next eleven years, until I was about twenty-six years old, I developed my makeup skills and gained an immense amount of professional experience in the beauty field while I was working in the performing arts and entertainment industry. It was during this time that an idea came to me, and I decided to open Fancy Face when I was twenty. I knew I wanted to provide hair and makeup services for women so that they could feel like celebrities and so they wouldn’t have to travel to the salon to get their makeup done. I wanted every woman to have an all-inclusive, luxury experience in the comfort of their own home.
Fast forward to right before the COVID-19 pandemic and our company was in a place where we had almost over 500 weddings booked a year. Things were growing steadily for our business and the future was bright. Around this time, I began noticing just how many women expressed feeling “lost” when they went into large beauty department stores. There were just so many product options of a wide range of prices and on top of this, many women felt like they lacked the time to even spend on a beauty routine for themselves. This is when I realized that I wanted to do more in my career and in my community of women.
I could relate to these women and how they were feeling, especially because I was also going through the different phases of being engaged, married, having kids and becoming a mother, as well as being an entrepreneur and a working mother. I really started to connect with these women and wanted to see us get ready and feel good in a very short amount of time. So we launched a cosmetic line at Fancy Face that was not overwhelming and it included only the key components in each makeup and skincare category to help women look and feel fantastic, quickly.
It feels fantastic to be in a place where I can encourage women to put their best face forward! At Fancy Face, we always say that “fancy is a feeling” and it’s a feeling that comes from within. But sometimes when people are going through trying times, they don’t feel great on the inside. And in those times, one thing that can actually be helpful is caring for yourself from the outside in. Taking time for a relaxing skincare routine or putting on a gorgeous new lip color can really lift your spirits, even on a bad day. And I love inspiring people, both when it comes to entrepreneurship and their beauty routine. It’s an honor to be able to empower these women and I don’t take it lightly. I do my best every day to wear my different hats with grace and ensure I add a little fancy to my every day while helping teach women to do the same.
What do you have to say about turning your skill as a makeup artist into a company that brings in more than $1 million annually?
I think when I started my company, no one would have believed that it would have been possible to grow Fancy Face to a company that earns more than $1 million annually. I didn’t even know it was going to be possible! I always had a ton of drive growing up, but it just wasn’t something that I thought necessarily would grow to this point. And this is why I encourage people to follow their intuition and to trust their gut.
I’m an advocate of continuing my education, even if that’s just within myself. Making time to read books, attend seminars and join entrepreneurial business groups provide opportunities for continual growth. I didn’t pursue the traditional method of going to university but I always made personal development a priority. And so, it has been encouraging to see that even without having a university degree, I’ve been able to build a business that has reached such a high level of success. It’s for this reason that I want to remind people that with enough drive and passion, any dream is truly possible.
How did your company, which is a service-based enterprise, easily incorporate a product line during COVID that ultimately matched the previous sales levels of your enterprise?
It took a lot of grit and perseverance to move from being a solely service-based enterprise to creating a product line during COVID. When the pandemic began our service side of the business had completely dried up and it was a scary time for us. I had to enter into a sort of fight or flight mode, pouring myself into learning everything about e-commerce and retail—and that was not something I was trained in! But I had a knack for sales and I also just loved teaching women about beauty. We recognized there was a gap in the market with a lot of confusion around makeup and skincare. And so, to be a voice of reason for women, and to show them how to simplify their beauty routine was really what helped us pull through.
The other piece of the puzzle for me is that you have to be really good at something. For example, when it comes to my skill set, I’m really good at knowing what products will work. I like things to be effective. I like them to provide results. I will never sell something if I don’t believe in it. So I think people can see that genuine passion and feel like they can then trust your recommendations because it’s not just about making money; it’s about helping women feel great. And if that converts to having a successful business, that’s wonderful, but the intent is to do something good for them.
What inspired you to launch The Rosé Room prior to the pandemic? And what services does it provide to customers?
When I first started my company, from the years 2006 to 2019, I had an office and a small studio space in my house. It was pretty crazy having people come and go at our house, especially when I was engaged, getting married, and having babies, and it was really out of a dire need to open a storefront that we opened The Rosé Room. We had grown to the point where we needed to do multiple services, and we were 30 women working on the team so we needed to be more efficient when it came to utilizing our time.
I was also always dreaming of creating a space that best told the world our story and who we were. And so, as soon as I found the perfect storefront space we went through with the renovations. We took what was then a 70s pharmacy and transformed it entirely. I worked with an amazing designer to help my vision come to life and we built it from the ground up in terms of the aesthetic of how the company would look when it came to a brick-and-mortar space.
Today, in the Rosé Room we provide hairstyling and makeup services for special events and weddings. We also have makeup lessons, both private and group lessons. We also offer virtual lessons. I’ve always been a big believer that being a master of one thing is better than being a jack or jill of all trades. I really think it’s important to stay true to who we are which is why at Fancy Face we don’t offer nail services and facials and tanning or other beauty services. We do makeup and hairstyling, and we do it extremely well.
What difficulties did you experience because you were a woman business owner? What strategies did you employ to overcome those difficulties?
I think the difficulty for the most part has been finding my way through the business world. I was just twenty years old when I started my company and lacked a lot of experience. Also, I’m self-funded and my company is self-financed, so it has been a continuing struggle for me as an entrepreneur who had to balance wanting to grow quickly but also realizing that bootstrapping a business is about the long game. When you’re self-funded, you can’t just make massive moves quickly as if you were VC-funded. But I almost like that in the sense that we’ve grown at a comfortable enough pace that we can manage each growth phase as opposed to growing at an exponential rate and having the customer service and quality drop.
And then there’s this other side of growing the business outside of Ontario that I would say has been challenging. Originally when we started the company, we were able to grow our reach through word of mouth and social media. Now with all of the algorithm changes, it’s hard to stay on top of different social media trends and expand our reach beyond the following we originally grew. And so a real challenge for us has been breaking out of Ontario. We have a huge following across the province but we also ship within North America and so we’re still working to break down those barriers of where we’re popular and get our name out in new regions.
I feel lucky to say that I’ve never really faced difficulties because I’m a woman business owner. I never let that hinder me. I also think that because I didn’t take the corporate route and was able to be my own boss, I never felt any limitations. I always saw myself as capable as anybody else. And when I see men succeeding in business, I always think to myself, “well, women can do it too!” And I’ve had enough female role models that I look up to who have been trailblazers when it comes to being a female entrepreneur. So I really didn’t see a ceiling. I just knew it was our time as women to go after whatever it was that we feel called to do. And luckily, I have a very supportive husband and parents who always cheer me on.
What are the strategic tips you would like to offer to women entrepreneurs that will help them thrive in the business industry?
Surround yourself with people who are more experienced than you, whether that’s getting yourself into an entrepreneurial group or networking–and lean in to that experience! Make sure that you’re not the smartest person in the room and whenever you notice that happening, it’s your sign to change things up.
I would also really spend some time finding people in your industry (or even outside your industry) that you admire so that you have a guiding light when you’re feeling lost. Read their stories, learn about what they’ve done and try to find people that are doing it similar to you. For example, I wouldn’t necessarily admire a company that has raised a lot of outside funding. Rather, I want to learn about Sara Blakely from Spanx who’s done it all herself. That’s an example of trying to find people that are building a business similar to how you want to do it and then looking up to them and using their experiences as a guide.
My last piece of advice would be to trust your gut, follow your heart, and do something that you are deeply passionate about. Doing what you love makes the hard days easier because you can look back and remind yourself of why you started in the first place.
I hope that these tips will help you follow your passions to start and scale the business of your dreams.
