Over the next few weeks, you can expect to see Britain's celebrities boasting bigger lips, shinier skin and brighter eyes - one of Hollywood's favourite make-up brands is finally being launched here in London.

DuWop is used by everyone from Brooke Shields to Jennifer Lopez. Founders Cristina Bartolucci and Laura Deluisa find this easy to explain. "We devised the products to deal with problems that celebrities have," they reveal. "In fact, on the packaging it says, 'Not tested on animals, only on actors', and that's the truth. We would experiment on the people we were filming with.

" Like so many of today's make-up moguls, Cristina and Laura were formerly Hollywood hair and make-up artists (working on Pulp Fiction, 12 Monkeys and Die Hard). However, one day after sitting in a dingy back-lot for 14 hours, the pair decided they wanted out. "We spent two hours trying to think of something to get us off cold movie sets," says Cristina. The result was i gels (£20) - little gel pads, made from calming chamomile, yarrow and lavender, which, when placed on puffy celebrity eyes, would shrink the swelling fast. "We had this problem time and time again," says Cristina. "Stars would go out late, eat too much Chinese food, drink too much alcohol and arrive on set at 5am with slits for eyes, then expect us to make them look beautiful. We wanted something that would help us do that."

After much experimentation, production started in 1997 from Laura's kitchen. Within months, they were filling orders from their make-up trailer on the set of the hit TV show, Felicity. "The UPS truck would arrive and we'd start flinging parcels out of the back," says Laura. "I think we only stayed calm because we reeked of lavender the whole time."

In 1999, they left make-up work and officially set up DuWop (the name means two Italian girls, in deference to their continental heritage). Their next product was Lip Venom (£15), a gloss that causes lips to swell and tingle, creating a plumping pout. "Actresses tend to want their mouths to look bigger and sexier, so I was always drawing lines on their skin to make lips fuller. We decided to make something that could do the job naturally," says Laura. They sent Courteney Cox, Heather Graham and Bridget Fonda complimentary gift baskets containing the miracle product, the stars became instant fans and DuWop had arrived.

Today, Laura and Cristina employ four staff and have three manufacturing plants dealing with orders. Renee Zellweger even sent them a thank-you note for creating i gels. Their latest product, Fleshtone (£20), is a tinted body moisturiser that's beloved of the Hollywood body, Jennifer Lopez. It could be their biggest seller yet as it offers everyone a touch of Tinseltown. "People think stars have amazing skin, but what the public doesn't realise is that an actress won't go out in a revealing dress without some kind of body make-up. By bringing this out, we're trying to tell people that, and put a stop to the myth that all stars are perfect."

Or at least, if they are, it's only thanks to DuWop.

DuWop products will be sold at the new make-up emporium, Pout, when it opens at 32 Shelton Street, London WC2, on 14 June tel: 020 7462 7830