Austinite Laurie Spellman set out to learn what a woman, a business owner and a fashionista need to get by. Her answer was a professional cosmetics line that was versatile, fun, sexy and of course, classy.

The self-described Southern belle has a passion for fashion, beauty and business. She poured that passion into Ultimate Face Cosmetics, a professional cosmetics line she launched almost 10 years ago. The cosmetics are distributed from Austin throughout the United States and Eastern Europe. It is the preferred vendor to Paul Mitchell the School, and it is distributed by professional beauty suppliers like Armstrong McCall and Salon Centric. The cosmetics are also sold to salon professionals who use makeup in their salon portfolio and online through her website.

The line contains 18 custom formulas and everything from lip gloss to creamy blushes in a range of shades to create flawless skin, dazzling lips and spectacular eyes.

Women create lifelong bonds with specific shades of lipstick or eye shadow. Shades become part of their personality. They define them. Think Marilyn Monroe’s red lips or Cleopatra’s eyeliner.

“That is our goal: to create customers for life and always have the same product they need,” she said. “If you go out and buy quality products that you fall in love with, you want to be able to return to that product and that color time and time again.”

Her shades range from classic to fresh, fun shades. A popular item on her website is palette containing 15 eye shadows with names like Howdy Stranger, 6th Street, Texas Blue and SoCo. A lip and blush palette mixes classic colors inspired by the Texas Hill Country with fresh colors inspired by Austin’s SoCo District. For girls’ night out on 6th Street, the website encourages women to “have fun, be beautiful, be sexy.”

Spellman has been in the beauty industry all her life. The New Orleans native grew up next to a beauty shop. She and her two older sisters would frequently stop by to help the owner clean up, but not before having some fun.

“The lady who owned it would let us play shop,” she said. “We shampooed each other’s hair and did each other’s hair. We would have a great time.”

From there, she took a part-time job as a receptionist in a salon during college. At that salon, she was paid commission for products sold. “I was up front and quickly realized how easy it was to sell products,” she said.

She began a relationship with Paul Mitchell that would help shape her career. After graduating with a B.A. in Marketing and Public Relations from Loyola University, she began a job as a salon consultant for Paul Mitchell Hair Care. About three years later, in 1990, she won a Paul Mitchell national sales competition and was offered the opportunity to take over the distribution territory in South Texas. That was when she started calling Austin home.

In 1997, Spellman met her future husband, Gary Spellman, at a Paul Mitchell conference in Hawaii. Spellman and her husband describe it as love at first sight. Gary was a brand manager and salon consultant for Paul Mitchell in Upstate New York. Less than a year after they met, the two were married back in Hawaii in the same spot they met.

“She is like Scarlett O’ Hara and Coco Chanel wrapped into one,” Gary said. “She is a super tough, smart businesswoman on one side, but super ‘girly girly’ on the other.”

While working in the hair care industry, Spellman noticed a trend taking over salons. During most of the 20th century, salons were solely concerned with hair, but in the past 20 years, salons have started paying more attention to cosmetics. Women in the latest generation want to learn about makeup and apply it in their practices. This trend has only gotten stronger, and today, the market is hungry for a professional cosmetics line.

So in 2002, after two years of research and development, Spellman launched her own cosmetics line.

“It was designed to spark artistry in everyone who wears makeup,” she said. “Our products should make the user feel sexy and beautiful. Makeup should be fun and evolving. The transformation of beauty is why we created our line.”

As the 10th anniversary of her company approaches, Spellman is excited about the future. She wants to expand her line, as well as the educational side of her company. Ultimate Face Cosmetics already offers several workshops and classes to cosmetics professionals covering everything from the basics to Hollywood makeup secrets.

“This new generation expects to learn this as a major part of the professional beauty curriculum,” she said.

As for the summer season, Spellman says it is all about the brides. This season is inspired by the Art Deco movement that blossomed in Paris in the 1920s. Art Deco embodied elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity, according to Spellman.

For brides, makeup is romantic and elegant with a touch of glamour. Eyes are defined with “mega-liner” in matte and metallic like her new Pewter and Gold Liquid or Raven and Sable Liquid. Lips will be very shiny and glossy, with soft, muted colors like her new Pale Orchid and high-intensity bold colors like her Newport Sunset orange lip color, made as a shout-out to the University of Texas Longhorns and New Porto Lip Gloss.

For more information about Ultimate Face Cosmetics, call 512-469-9580, email info@ultimatefacecosmetics.com or visit www.ultimatefacecosmetics.com.