The Unstoppable rise of Glam-Mas

When you think of grandmas, what probably springs to mind are old fashion perms, big hugs, soft cardigans and boiled sweets but definitely not stylish ladies with movie star makeup on. These are the “Glam Mas“, a new generation of grannies made famous and glamorous by beauty experimentalists who post their makeovers on social media.

The Croatian make up artists, Tea Flego was the first one to shake up the social sphere publishing a viral video of her grandma turned into a sort of senior Kim Kardashian on Instagram (over 100k followers liked it). Since then, several MUAs (such as Taylor Trimble) challenged themselves with contouring in order to help mature ladies to sparkle again. Even the British creator, Lisa Eldridge, who has spent the last 20 years as a makeup artist to stars including Kate Moss, Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley and U.K. royalty like Sarah Ferguson and Princess Beatrice, found a new niche thanks to online makeup tutorials for mature women that she posts on her website and YouTube.

But someone has decided to go far beyond this. Callie Ahern, a makeup artist from San Diego, has pushed her ambitions a bit further, transforming the spirit and the soul of Californian seniors with a complimentary makeover and a professional photo shoot. In February 2018, teaming up with a group of photographers and other makeup artists, she launched a volunteer program in memory of her beloved grandma Nita: the “Glama Project“. The plan aims to partner with senior communities providing ladies with a glamour day, to capture their beauty and listen to their stories.

A Glama is a woman who with age, holds the wisdom and life stories that have the ability to inspire – Callie Ahern said to CrunchyTales-. She’s likely to be a mother, grandmother and quite possibly even a great-grandmother and she deserves a day to be reminded that she is beautiful.

A project that is is much more than makeup; it’s about confidence, empowerment, learning and growing. Through her events, Callie hopes to give seniors something to look forward to and deliver on a day that they won’t forget. “Each volunteered photo session is about an hour long and encompasses a full makeup application, a styling (we bring accessories, props and more) and a professional photo shoot – she explains-. Through the images we capture, we hope to remind these seniors that no matter the age. They’ve still got it”.

Callie and her team also love educating women on understanding the right colour palettes to use and showing easy ways to highlight favourite features. “To help bring glam into the days after the photo-shoots, last year – she said- we gifted each Glama a lipstick that was similar to the one they wore during their session. This year, we are gifting a full makeup kit: a goodie bag filled with items they can use and apply what they’ve learned”.

The bottom line is to inspire the younger generation to learn from elders. “As we shoot, we love to learn about the leading lady sitting in front of us, in the hope of hearing their stories and life lessons through our platform”. Thanks to Callie’s Pixie Dust more than 80 ladies have learnt how to fly again. Among them, Glama Celia and Glama Mary Anne with their personal tales of love, resilience and new beginning. Our favourite mantra? Glama Donna’s philosophy: “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive“.

>> Browse the full Glama Project Gallery here

Illustrations featuring Glama Donna and Glama Celia. Freely inspired by Kim Miller Kelly and Justin Mclaughlin ‘s pictures