Why did you choose your career?
I chose my career because I suffered with my own skin and it’s led me to have an absolute obsession/ passion and huge interest and intrigue into all things skincare. The connection between skincare & science, not just on a clinical level, but with emotion and how it can impact how you literally feel within your own skin and how that can affect your confidence. I do feel everyone deserves to feel ROCKSTAR ready within their own skin. But ultimately it was from experiencing it and then having that empathy myself.
What is the most fulfilling part of what you do?
The most fulfilling part of what I do is ultimately educating people and demystifying what is quite a saturated marketing skincare world. And there’s social media which I love and, equally at times, loathe because it can cause havoc with misinformation being spread with ease and by many that aren’t qualified or in a position to share information. So to have people come back time and time again and to have the retention rate of 80% plus in Skingredients means that people just love the product. Skincare is a huge commitment for people financially, time-wise, emotionally and so when they keep coming back and then tell us,
I feel like your product is magic, I feel transformed, I have confidence in my skin like never before. I don’t hide behind makeup, I feel better in my skin and it impacts every part of my life….
THAT is the biggest why and purpose that can drive you beyond anything in a bank balance.
What is your favourite thing about Viva La Vulva?
The energy in the room creates a safe space, although in a large room, for predominantly women to talk at ease, having conversations that are often taboo or kept in WhatsApp groups or might only be discussed after a glass of wine with a very close friend. Viva La Vulva allows people to realise that these are stages in parts of our lives that we need to embrace, we need to be educated on, even on a personal level, learning how I can prevent and be proactive about my upcoming stages of life. Then listening to other women that are slightly older than I, hearing the woes that they’ve gone through and how slightly frustrated, yet liberated, they are to know that their grandchildren and children will not have that reality. That is pretty magic. There are stories shared in that room that I don’t believe any event I’ve ever been at, at any stage of my life in my career outside of Ireland have I ever, ever witnessed. It’s something unique and raw, and that’s down to Laura Dowling.
Was there anything you learned at VLV that you didn’t already know?
There is so much I learned at Viva La Vulva that I didn’t know already, to be honest. Aoife Harvey is a source of entertainment but more importantly a source of information. And as two adult women who live in this house, we’ve learned so much about menopause and perimenopause and female anatomy in terms of how to prevent prolapse and so on and so forth. Also from the supplement perspective, being inspired by people who love Laura’s supplements and hearing how they got their sex drive & themselves back, just feeling more liberated, more upbeat. Honestly listening to the sex shop conversations allows it to be more liberating. These are conversations that I’m confident that people just don’t really have day to day post twenties where you share all your intimate realities with your close best, usually same-sex friend. Then when you enter into a long term monogamous relationship, by and large, you tend to keep it quite private between the two of you. But we all need a space to understand what else exists, what other opportunities do we have within our relationship to explore, be that in a physical or a toy sense. So I’ve learned so much. I am truly personally grateful for it and professionally inspired by it. To have Skingredients there, I know Laura will laugh at this, to have our skincare featured alongside that Inside Out/ Outside In philosophy of Viva La Vulva, allowing people to feel the best version of themselves in their skin is honestly something I’m extremely proud of. It’s one of the most rewarding events we’ve been at for so many reasons.
