Photo Courtesy of face2faceafrica.com

Pat McGrath was raised in England by a Jamaican-born single mother in a town called Northampton. Her father was not a world-famous Olympian and her mother was not a reality TV tycoon. Pat did not grow up in extreme wealth with Ryan Seacrest executive producing every moment of her childhood. Pat’s roots were decidedly more humble.

Pat grew a passion for makeup and fashion while watching classic movies with her mother. Pat’s mother would quiz her on all the different types of makeup, shades of eye-shadow, patterns and type of fabrics. And it wasn’t just for fun. The game was partly out of necessity because, as black women, their makeup options were nonexistent. The typical commercial makeup at the time was not made with black women’s skin tone in mind. So they were constantly mixing and experimenting to create their own concoctions.

This passion grew into a career. Though Pat didn’t formally study fashion or makeup in school, she diligently pursued a career as a makeup artist. She moved to London in the early 80s where she worked as a receptionist during the day while launching her makeup artist side-hustle at night.

Her big break came when she worked with a fashion editor named Edward Enniful. Edward praised Pat’s talents and credited her with helping put his magazine, i-D, on the map.

From there, Pat landed gigs working for some of the biggest designers in the world, including John Galliano and Alexander McQueen and some of the biggest photographers like Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh. Her work was featured in ads for Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Miu Miu and many more.

In 1999, Armani hired Pat to design their new cosmetics line. From there she was off to the races.

Over the years, her work has graced countless magazine covers and fashion shows. She orchestrated the makeup for every Vogue Italia cover shoot for a decade.

In 2004 she was hired by Procter & Gamble to run all of their cosmetics brands, most notably Max Factor and Cover Girl.

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has referred to Pat as “the most influential makeup artist in the world.”

Following advice from her mother, in October 2015 Pat launched her own make up line, Pat McGrath Labs. Her first product, Gold 001, retailed for $40. She produced 1000 units and sold them exclusively through her own website. She sold out in six minutes.

Pat slowly expanded the line with additions like Phantom 002, Skin Fetish 003 and Lust 004. Her most recent product is called Lip Fetish Astrals.

By releasing in such limited quantities, online only in “drops”, the products created a fever-pitched frenzy. It wasn’t long before major retail outlets came calling. Today Pat McGrath Labs has dedicated displays at more than 50 Sephora locations with plans to be in 90 be the end of the year.

Pat McGrath Labs has expanded into other ventures including apparel where her tshirts, jackets and hoodies have become extremely hot commodities if you can get your hands on one.

https://youtu.be/_4nqvQ_rNw8

Earlier this week it was revealed that Pat sold a 5-8% stake to a company called Eurazeo for a price that values her company at $1 billion.

She had previously sold a minority stake at a lesser valuation to a company called One Luxury Group. In total, Pat has raised $88 million from external investors.

We don’t know exactly what percentage of her company she still owns after these investment rounds, but let’s be conservative and say 70% (though it sounds like it could still be closer to 80-85%). At a $1 billion valuation, that would give Pat McGrath a pre-tax paper net worth of $700 million.