Tributes have been paid to a much-loved Fenwick make-up artist who 'always had time to make you feel special'. Irene Roozbayani sadly died aged just 41 on Thursday November 7, after a battle with stage four bowel cancer. Irene was born in Scotland to Iranian parents, but moved to South Shields when she was five.
At a young age, she was described be her friends as the 'Persian Cheryl Cole', to the point where people would ask come over and ask for her autograph, mistaking her for the Girls Aloud singer. She first started working in make-up when she got a job with MAC, where she built up an incredible reputation for her skills, eventually specialising in the wedding industry. She left MAC to join Charlotte Tilbury at Fenwick in Newcastle just as the now world-renowned brand was on the ascendancy, and brought many UK customers over with her in the process.
Helena Ganley, a friend of Irene's for over 15 years, said: "Irene always had time to make you feel special, and she always treated you like you were the only person in the room. She loved children so much, giving them attention and putting some lip gloss on the little girls, and she was loved and adored by everyone. "Her name was a brand, she was very highly regarded and when people booked her, they weren't just getting make-up, they were getting her as a whole person.
She did so much to make people feel comfortable, and she was kind and funny which put people at ease on their big day." Irene also did make-up for high-end fas.