EXCLUSIVE: UTA Signs Beauty Influencer Meredith Duxbury

Layla Ilchi
·4 min read

United Talent Agency is expanding its roster of content creators with its latest signing.

The agency has signed beauty influencer and TikTok content creator Meredith Duxbury. The goal of the signing is to break Duxbury into new verticals and opportunities.

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“Meredith and her team have already established an incredible foundation in the beauty space,” said digital talent agent Nicole Vincent, one of Duxbury’s UTA representatives. “UTA will help build on her existing fanbase and expand her presence by finding new opportunities in luxury fashion, endorsement deals, hosting, podcasting, TV, film and more. Meredith embodies everything UTA looks for in a client and we are so thrilled to be working with her.”

Duxbury has become one of the most popular beauty influencers on TikTok with a following of more than 15.7 million followers. The influencer first started on the platform in November 2020, initially posting couples videos with her boyfriend before pivoting to beauty content. She started regularly posting videos doing her full glam makeup routine while lip-syncing to Nicki Minaj’s song “I’m Legit,” which helped develop her following.

“I think people love [my videos] because I don’t really have boundaries with my makeup,” Duxbury said. “I’m kind of an open book. I’ll do full glam, I’ll do natural, and I’m not afraid to play around with colors. I’m not afraid to use a lot of makeup and I think if you do it the right way, it can look really beautiful. I think people love learning from me and getting tips and tricks on how to do a full glam makeup look.”

Duxbury’s point of difference with her makeup videos has been her makeup application technique, which has made her go viral. The beauty influencer has become known for applying a liberal amount of foundation on her face and using her hands to blend in the product.

“When I was in college, I was just a broke college student and my foundation was $55,” she explained. “Every time I used a beauty sponge, it would absorb so much of my foundation, so I was like I’ll just use my hands because it’s not going to absorb anything and the warmth of my hands will melt it into my face, and I loved it and I just kept doing it all through college. I did that technique even before I got on TikTok, so I didn’t join TikTok to be like, ‘What can I do to go viral?’ I was just myself and I wanted to show people my passion.”

These videos helped Duxbury generate 1 million TikTok followers in a month by December 2020. The following month, her follower count grew to 7 million, and she’s seen a steady growth since.

As her videos were going viral, Duxbury launched her #thefoundationchallenge, where she challenged other makeup influencer and beauty lovers to try out her foundation application method. The challenge quickly went viral, and now has 252.8 million views under the hashtag on TikTok.

Many beauty brands have looked to Duxbury for partnerships and collaborations since she’s developed her social media following. Duxbury stated her favorite partnership was with Morphe, which tapped the influencer to be the face of its Making You Blush makeup collection in March.

Duxbury has also worked with Halsey to launch their AF94 makeup brand, and has done paid partnerships with brands like Bumble and bumble, Charlotte Tilbury, Lancôme, Clinique, Boxycharm and others.

Through the UTA signing, Duxbury hopes to enter TV and event hosting, specifically doing beauty coverage on red carpets.

“I’ve done so much in beauty and I’m still evolving within beauty, but I always have had a passion for fashion and I do believe that beauty and fashion go hand-in-hand,” she said. “Whenever I’m picking out my outfits, I’m thinking about my makeup and when I’m doing my makeup, I’m making sure it’s matching my outfits. I think it’s the same for most people when they’re going on the red carpet and awards shows. Makeup is such a huge part of the outfit as well.”

Duxbury joins a lengthy roster of content creators represented by UTA. Earlier this year, the agency signed content creators Moti Ankari and Nic Kaufmann, as well as Brother Vellies founder Aurora James. UTA also represents Emma Chamberlain, Bretman Rock and the D’Amelio family.

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