Charlotte Tilbury made CBE as Beauty Banks founders receive MBEs in King's Birthday Honours
Charlotte Tilbury has been awarded a CBE for services to the beauty and cosmetics industry, while Beauty Banks co-founders Sali Hughes and Jo Jones have each received MBEs for services to the alleviation of hygiene poverty, in the King's Birthday Honours 2026.
The honours, published this weekend, recognise the commercial scale and social impact of the UK beauty sector.
Charlotte Tilbury, CBE
Tilbury, who is President, Chair, Chief Creative Officer and Sole Founder of Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, previously received an MBE in 2018. The upgrade to CBE reflects the growth of a brand that launched in 2013 and now operates across 57 markets with more than 5,500 distribution points worldwide.
The business employs more than 3,000 people and is one of the UK's largest and most recognised prestige beauty brands. Charlotte Tilbury Beauty became part of Spanish premium beauty group Puig in 2020, when a controlling stake was acquired in a deal that valued the brand at a reported $1 billion.
Tilbury, who was a leading make-up artist for 20 years before she established her brand, also serves as Global Ambassador for Enterprise for The King's Trust and Co-Chair of the charity's Global Gala.
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Sali Hughes and Jo Jones, MBEs
Journalist and broadcaster Sali Hughes and beauty public relations expert Jo Jones were both made Members of the Order of the British Empire for co-founding Beauty Banks, a charity registered in 2018 that now provides hygiene and beauty products to more than 2,000 charities across the UK.
"We're stunned. We're absolutely stunned," Hughes told BBC News. "We had no idea we were in discussion. We had no idea we were in the running until we got our letters."
The charity began after Hughes visited a Cardiff homeless shelter in 2017 while preparing a current affairs report. She recalled finding a cardboard box under a desk containing single tampons and small shower gels, brought in by volunteers for clients to use when they had a job interview, a housing meeting or their period. She sent a photo to Jones with the message: "What the hell is this?"
Jones replied: "I reckon we could do something about this."
Hughes said she wrote a column the next day, and within a week, the pair had "accidentally launched a charity." Jones, who lives in Surrey, described the honours as "quite an unreal moment, like a pinch me moment."
