Shelley Barrett

Shelley Barrett (born 13 July 1973) is the CEO and Founder of Australian beauty and cosmetics company, ModelCo.

Early life

Growing up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Barrett has lived in Sydney her whole life. After finishing her HSC, then completing a diploma in business management and psychology, Shelley wanted to start her own business and founded her first company at 21, which was a modelling agency called, Shelley's Management Group

Career

Barrett launched the first ModelCo innovation, Turbo Lashwand Heated Eyelash Curler in 2002. Off the success of Turbo Lashwand, Barrett saw a gap in the market for dual-purpose, smart beauty solutions and next launched the world’s first aerosol self-tanner Tan Airbrush in a Can. An international sell out, Tan in a Can drew interest from some of the world’s most premium stockists and was soon available in Myer and David Jones Australia, Collette in Paris, beauty mecca SpaceNK in London and Henri Bendel and Sephora in the USA.

More than a decade on, Shelley Barrett is as much a household name as ModelCo. Her brand is stocked in over 3000 stores internationally and draws attention from celebrities, makeup artists and industry experts alike.

Shelley has enlisted several international celebrity signings throughout the brand’s history. From 2006-2007, Elle Macpherson was named as ModelCo’s first official ambassador followed by Dannii Minogue in 2011 who was named the global face of Fibre Lash Brush on False Lashes. In 2012 Minogue, alongside international model and singer, Cheyenne Tozzi were ambassadors for ModelCo Super Tan.

In May 2013, Barrett signed international model and actress, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as the face of the 2013/14 summer campaign. The former Victoria’s Secret model and Vogue cover girl visited Australia in July 2013 to shoot the summer campaign on Hayman Island and stars as the face of ModelCo to date. Huntington-Whiteley made a return trip to Australia in August, 2014 to promote the company's new natural skincare range.

Awards