'Make-up helped connect me to my Indian heritage'

14 May 2025

Jasmine Sandhar

BBC Midlands Today

Rahual Das likes to draw on his Indian heritage when creating make-up looks

Rahual Das Rahual is wearing black kohl eyeliner and has a red sindoor mark on his forehead between his eyebrows. He has a white turban on his head with a matching white suit and is wearing silver and red jewellery on his ears and neck. He also has a silver septum piercing in his nose. Rahual has a black beard with a matching moustache and long black hair in ringlets. He is holding two lit incense sticks in his hand and looking at the camera. The background is black with branches of red autumn leaves hanging down in the top section of the photograph. — Rahual Das likes to draw on his Indian heritage when creating make-up looks

A make-up artist from Birmingham is hoping to win the latest season of the reality competition Glow Up by using his Indian heritage as inspiration.

Rahual Das is among 10 contestants on the BBC Three programme battling to become the country's next make-up star.

Although he is proud to be the first British Indian man on the show, the 31-year-old from Handsworth Wood said he grew up with some backlash from his community.

"I experienced a little bit of oppression or feeling like I wasn't fitting into societal norms or standards," he said. "A lot of that did transmute into limiting me and stalling my journey."

Das created the make-up look called The Light Within, for the first creative brief on Glow Up

Rahual Das Rahual has a full-face make-up look and is looking into the camera. His entire face and shoulders have been painted in different hues of blue. There are white highlights and accents, such as paint splatters on one side of the face that look like a cluster of stars. His eyelashes, eyebrows and beard are painted white. In between his brows is a sparkly bindi. — Das created the make-up look called The Light Within, for the first creative brief on Glow Up

Now Das, who travels the world as part of his job, often goes to India for projects and has learnt more about his ancestral homeland.

"A lot of ancient history fuels my artistry and how I apply my techniques," he said. "The kings and maharajas were wearing eyeliner before it was even a thing."

He said Indian culture inspired him as an artist.

"For me it was the magic I felt through the art of make-up and also the connection it gave me to my ancestry and to my heritage," he explained.

On the first episode of Glow Up, Das also spoke about the importance of spirituality in his culture, which influenced his make-up look called The Light Within.

While abroad, he saw men were the lead make-up artists behind the scenes in Bollywood and asked himself: "Why has that been lost in translation in Britain":[]}