APPRENTICE semi-finalist Grainne McCoy has opened the doors to her own store in her home city Newry - four years to the day after her debut on the hit BBC One show.
Give Us Beauty launched initially as an online make-up store in March, but following its success and a further cash investment, it has opened a bricks and mortar outlet creating seven jobs.
The all-encompassing beauty emporium provides not only cosmetics but a blow-dry bar, make-up studio and beauty clinic, and customers can avail of services including make-up applications, one-to-one lessons, facials, massages, hair styling and spray tanning.
Grainne said: “I'm thrilled to finally be opening my own store, which has been four years in the making.
“It was in my initial business plan to Lord Alan Sugar to have a retail store for cosmetics that could survive online and also physically be a one-stop-shop for all your beauty needs.
“We launched GiveUsBeauty.com back in March and the response has been phenomenal. We were planning to launch the retail store at the same time but obviously things were delayed due to the pandemic.”
She added: “Covid has presented huge difficulties for our industry, but I'm confident now is the right time to introduce the retail store. I've worked with and supported local designers to create an innovative space for the city with quirky features throughout to establish an ‘Instagramable’ destination for Newry.”
Grainne’s career has seen her work as a make-up artist for global stars at Cannes Film Festival as well as being the in-house artist at Youtube for its Google Hangouts series.
Following her stint on the BBC Apprentice in 2016, in which she finished fifth, she launched her own company, Grainne McCoy Cosmetics, and her latest venture Give Us Beauty acts an extension to her own personal brand.
The Newry store is the first in a franchise, with plans for further stores across Ireland already in place and locations due to be revealed later.
