An Abergavenny-born make-up artist is celebrating after securing her sixth make-up artistry award at this year’s Welsh Wedding Awards.

Carly Clark launched PrettyBow Hair and Make-up in 2017 having previously worked in salons for over 14 years.

This year’s Welsh Wedding Awards were held at the Portland Hotel in Cardiff on Wednesday March 23, with Carly adding to her glowing reputation in the industry by winning Hair and Make-up Artist of the Year.

The award was Carly’s sixth award for make-up artistry in total, having previously won Welsh Hair and Beauty Awards for Freelance Make-up Specialist of the Year in 2018 as well as Freelance Wedding Make-up Artist of the Year for Mid-Wales in 2020.

Along with her awards, Carly – who has two children - had also been nominated as a finalist several times in both the Welsh Wedding Awards and the Official Make-up Awards, prior to winning this year’s award.

Speaking to the Chronicle, Carly said: “I am really grateful to all my clients and brides that have voted for me, being part of a bride’s wedding morning is a special moment. I always feel incredibly lucky to do a job I love so much.”

Born in Abergavenny, Carly attended Crickhowell High School before leaving aged 16 to study at Herefordshire College of Technology. After finishing college, Carly embarked on her career as a make-up artist working in a range of salons before creating launching her own business, PrettyBow Hair and Make-up, in 2017.

Carly and her team of dedicated professional hair and make-up artists travel all over South Wales providing their award-winning services covering areas including Monmouthshire, Herefordshire and Powys, and are renowned for being the best make-up artists in the area.

She added: “I’ve always wanted to be a makeup artist from the age of 8. I just loved beauty and makeup from an earlier age I would cut out pictures from magazines and stick them in a scrapbook.

“When I was 16 I left school to go to Hereford college of technology to do beauty therapy and soon realised I had a passion for makeup and this is what I chose to specialise in.

Like many beauticians and make-up artists the Covid lockdowns were a massive hurdle for Carly’s business with many weddings cancelled due to the pandemic, but Carly took the opportunity to diversify her business model.

She said: “It was particularly hard during the pandemic with the industry and weddings hit hard, but I started offering makeup tutorials on my Instagram page to teach other makeup artists and have since grown a following of 15.7 thousand on Instagram, which I am very proud of.

Carly’s latest award means she has now won six awards in five years since opening her business, with Carly hoping to add to this in the future, saying: “I’m delighted to have won this award and would like to thank all my clients and everyone in the local community for their support.”

For more information on PrettyBow Hair and Make-up please visit the website at https://prettybowmakeup.weebly.com/ or the Facebook page PrettyBow Makeup.