FROM starting out as a wild idea dreamed up over a cup of tea by two mothers, male make-up business astonmitchell has exceeded even its founders’ expectations.

Since being set up in October, the online retailer – the first UK business of its type – has established a customer base of hundreds of men from as far afield as Argentina, and is one of only a handful of outlets to stock products by Michelle Probst, personal make-up artist to President Barack Obama.

And now, the business, based in the tiny village of Bowes, near Barnard Castle, is looking to turn over £200,000 within 18 months, an achievement which would elevate it alongside some of the big players in the fast-growing male cosmetics sector.

The business – astonmitchell.com – is the brainchild of friends Kate Jones and Claire Mitchell. Ms Jones, who has a six-year-old son, runs a chain of three nurseries in the North-East, and Ms Mitchell, mother of an 11-month-old daughter, has her own marketing consultancy.

The women decided they wanted to set up a venture together, and it was Ms Jones who came up with the idea of a men’s cosmetic business.

The venture has now become one of two finalists in the If We Can, You Can challenge, run by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum with The Northern Echo, which seeks to find the North-East business leaders of the future.

Astonmitchell will compete against Esther Dingley’s Durham-based PostGrad Room business, a recruitment and training agency for postgraduates.

Ms Mitchell said: “I was at Kate’s house having a cuppa and we decided that it would be a really good idea to set up a business together. We had a list of criteria which had to be met in terms of the business idea.

“It needed to be web-based, fit around our existing busy lives, and deal with small, low-cost high-value products in an emerging market which are easy to store and ship.

Men’s make-up ticked all the boxes.”

Since then, the women admit to being stunned at the growth of the company, and recently received national media attention when Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills accepted their offer of giving him a makeover live on air.

Ms Mitchell said they are now looking to move into the bridegroom market.

“We have customers who buy very obvious make-up products such as eye liner, mascara and blusher, but we also have guys at the other end of the spectrum who want to use make-up to disguise under-eye circles, shiny skin or blemishes and who would hate anyone to realise they are wearing make-up,” she said.

“We have had customers from all over the world. We have repeat customers which is a lovely feeling. Our business is making a difference to people and we love it.

“Kate and I both run very successful businesses in our ‘day jobs’ but we wanted to have a business which would give us a real challenge involving something completely different to our usual work.”

How to vote

TO vote for either Astonmitchell or Esther Dingley to win the If We Can, You Can challenge, text ‘necho’ followed by a space and the full name of the selected finalist to 07624-803199, or email Northern Echo to voting@entrepreneurs forum.net with the full name of their chosen winner.

The public vote will then be combined with the judges’ scores to determine the overall winner, who will be announced on June 11.

Further information on how to vote and the finalists can be found at ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/ challenge