Charlotte Tilbury’s beauty brand has makeup appointments at Formula 1 races

Now she’s one of the sponsors pushing forward Formula 1’s new image of a brand that is youthful, sophisticated, and, perhaps most importantly, flush with female fans. 

“There’s something otherworldly about F1,” Tilbury said in a Financial Times interview. “It’s euphoric. It’s exciting. It’s adrenaline. It’s like everyone’s buzzing. It’s kind of chaotic.”

Tilbury’s eponymous cosmetics company, which she founded in 2013 and in which she retains a stake (having sold the rest for $1.2 billion), is the first beauty brand and the first female-founded brand to sponsor Formula 1’s all-female division, called Formula 1 Academy. Formula 1’s decision to add Charlotte Tilbury Cosmetics as a brand sponsor is even more bold considering the edginess Tilbury cultivates with products like a perfume called More Sex and a makeup palette dubbed Glowgasm. 

“I love breaking rules, breaking the status quo,” Tilbury said. “The world still isn’t where it should be in terms of supporting women… Just because things have been done a certain way forever, why do they have to be that way? Why can more women not be represented in sport?” 

There are good commercial reasons for Formula 1 to pay close attention to women fans. Approximately 40% of Formula 1’s fans are women, the competition’s chief executive Stefano Domenicali told Reuters in December. That’s a huge increase compared to just a few years ago—in 2017, 8% of fans were women. Under current corporate owner Liberty Media, the holding company belonging to the larger-than-life media investor John Malone, Formula 1 has been reshaping its image beyond just the sponsorship it brings on. It’s investing in new markets—namely the U.S. and Asia—and considering leaving behind those most closely associated with its glamour, like Monaco. Formula 1’s popularity has soared across the U.S. ever since a Netflix series called Formula One: Drive to Survive chronicled the lives of several of the sport’s top drivers. All that attention helped push the franchise to a global valuation of $16 billion. Charlotte Tilbury Cosmetics and Formula 1 did not respond to a request for comment.

A ‘complete adrenaline junkie’ turned makeup impresario

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