*AKA: Everything You Need to Know About the Booie Beauty Woolworths Tour
If you’ve got a pulse and an Instagram account — or even just the faintest flicker of pop-culture awareness — you already know the Celeste Barber origin story. The Australian satirist who went from spoofing celebrity beauty standards in granny undies to becoming an A-lister in her own right. The woman who has spent years gleefully dismantling fashion’s fantasyland with videos that scream: relatable, ridiculous, and real in a way the rest of Hollywood could never.
She’s the queen of the “I look like an idiot” bit; the patron saint of “makeup is fun”; the unofficial spokesperson for “women who refuse to be told they’re past their prime”. And now? She’s adding a new slash to her already slash-heavy CV: showgirl.
“I just want everyone to refer to me as showgirl moving forward,” she deadpanned at a very glitzy, very glossy press event while draped in feathers, sequins and pure chaos. “Actor, comedian, blah blah blah… showgirl.”
And honestly? If the feather fits…
But beneath the costume and the camp, Celeste is launching something big. Like, Woolworths-aisle-dominance big. Because her beauty brand Booie — born from the simple idea that makeup should be fun, fast, and not make you want to cry into your sink — is officially hitting the shelves at Woolies nationwide.
Which means Celeste is coming to a supermarket near you. Literally. She’s planning a national tour. A Booie Woolworths takeover, to be exact. And yes, she wants a bus.
The Birth of Booie: Makeup for Women Who Are “Older Than Foetuses“
Celeste says the spark came years ago, long before she was rearranging supermarket pineapple displays to secretly insert Booie testers.
“I was thinking about starting a makeup company — not a feather company,” she clarifies, “because I wanted to meet my audience where they are. And I have the greatest audience in the world.”
Like many women, she found makeup unnecessarily complicated. “Even when I’m putting makeup together to get out the door, it’s really complicated. And I know makeup! I used to dance! I did makeup courses! But it’s just… overwhelming.”
She also clocked something irritating: beauty for anyone “older than 12” immediately jumps to anti-ageing. And her response? A very Celeste “absolutely not.”
“We just get better,” she says. “I know I’m getting better. I’m getting so great. And we run economies! We run houses! Why are we being told ‘off you go’ the second we age? No. Not how I roll.”
So she created five products — that’s it — designed for finger application, car-mirror application, school-drop-off-in-traffic application. “Makeup you can’t f* up,**” she summarises.
It’s fast. It’s forgiving. Boy, is it fun. And, it’s very… Booie.
Bananas, Tampons & Excellent Mascara
Here’s where the Woolworths partnership gets delightfully on-brand.
“We were approached by all retailers,” Barber says casually, as if she’s listing the places she’s been banned from for making fun of Kendall Jenner. “All retailers. The big beauty retailers. Everyone.”
But she chose Woolies for accessibility, ubiquity, and the sheer convenience of grabbing a mascarra while restocking fruit snacks.
“That’s where my girls are,” she says. “I want them to get bananas for school lunches, tampons for their 13-year-old daughters, and excellent mascara — all in one go.”
Woolworths’ beauty buying team felt the same. “We wanted to bring fun into the beauty aisle,” they said. “And people are looking for that.”
Cue the collab.
The Booie x Woolworths Tour (Yes, There Will Be a Bus)
“I’m going to every Woolworths in Australia,” Celeste declares. “Dear Woolworths, we need a bus. We need a Booie Woolworths bus.”
Is this a joke? Yes.
Is it also somehow definitely going to happen? Also yes.
“Mildura Woolies? Brace yourselves,” she says. “I’ll wear this.” (For context: “this” = a full feathered showgirl ensemble she absolutely did not think through.)
And if you’re wondering whether she’ll be casually re-merchandising shelves along the way — the answer is also yes.
“I’ve already done it! I made little Booie displays in the pineapples,” she confesses. “When I’m in, I’m all in.”
This Is Not a Celebrity Slap-Your-Name-On-It Brand
One thing Celeste wants zero confusion about: Booie is hers. Really hers.
“This is my baby,” she says. “There’s no big conglomerate funding. It’s all me.”
She funded it through comedy, touring, and years of making women feel less crap about themselves.
“I’m super proud I was able to fund this by making women not hate themselves. Doing shows, telling jokes. Supporting them instead of exploiting them.”
She and business partner Claire Graves (who she affectionately roasted as looking “rich in those earrings”) brainstorm every idea together — including the iconic “snazzy face” range.
“I walked in and said, ‘I have an idea. It’s called snazzy face.’ Claire said, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘No idea. But it’s great.’”
The Booie community feeds into everything too. “They’re like: ‘Are you doing a dark brown mascara?’ and we’re like… should we? Probably!”
So… Why the Avocados?
Because if Celeste Barber is descending on Woolies stores across the country in full-feathered showgirl form, she’s going to need snacks.
And she’s already confessed her favourite Woolies pastime: wandering the aisles, baby in pram, crying over a clock on the wall, thumbing magazines and generally being extremely one of us.
Now she’s doing it for work.
Touring?
Meeting fans?
Re-arranging displays?
Restocking Booie?
Accidentally starting flash mobs in front of the avocados?
Oh, it’s happening.
And next time you’re in Woolies and spot Celeste Barber cackling in the beauty aisle, covered in feathers, clutching a tub of hummus and pointing customers toward the “makeup you can’t f*** up” — don’t be alarmed.
It’s just the Booie x Woolworths tour.
And she’s only just getting started.
