PODCAST: Season 3, Episode 7: Caroline Hirons of Skin Rocks

Work Rest Slay is a monthly podcast hosted by IMAGE Contributing Editor Melanie Morris, who speaks to some of the most compelling Irish and international people in business, spilling the truth on the real secret sauce for a successful career.

Our next episode in the series launches on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, and features Caroline Hirons, founder and CEO of award-winning skincare brand Skin Rocks.

Work Rest Slay: In this episode…

In this episode of Work Rest Slay, straight-talking Caroline shares her decades-long career journey from a salesperson on the Aveda shop floor to qualifying as a beauty therapist and starting her own skincare blog, all of which led her to build her own beauty brand and skincare app – Skin Rocks.

Dubbed “The Queen of Skincare” by many, it’s a title that’s well deserved. “She’s a walking encyclopaedia of what’s out there, what works, why it works, and most interestingly for us, how to talk about it,” opens Melanie.

“In 2022, Caroline launched her own independent skincare brand – also called Skin Rocks – that was long in the making, and lovingly developed, with a stoic focus on ingredients and formulation. It recently launched here in Ireland in Brown Thomas, Arnotts and Planet Beauty.”

Passion before profit

From the get-go, it’s easy to see her passion bubbling over as Caroline talks about skincare, an enthusiasm that hasn’t diminished during her impressive 20+ years in the industry.

“I love what I do. I say I have two lives – I have my family and my work life, but it’s not work. It’s what I do with my life… I’m a mum and a grandmother and a friend and a sister and a daughter, and I’m a business owner and a leader and yeah, an entrepreneur, but I don’t really use the ‘e word’ that much… that’s not why I’m doing it.”

It was never about chasing money, Caroline explains. In fact, building an app is a drain on the finances more than anything as it has such a slow return. For her, it’s all about sharing her passion with the community she’s built – that’s why she’s breaking the corporate mould and drawing on her experience to do things differently.

Shaking things up

For those in the beauty industry, there’s usually a standard process to creating a skincare line: keep ingredients low-cost and create a step-by-step range before launching – both of which Caroline has tactfully tossed aside to bring the people, aka her loyal following, what they need.

Starting with the Skincare Rocks app: “We have to get the message across to new people, [they] think it’s a selling tool. And it’s not. It’s an information dictionary encyclopedia. And it’s not just about Skin Rocks, there’s like 25,000 products on there that are in the industry, all reviewed manually.”

It’s always been important to Caroline to champion other skincare brands, a mantra which hasn’t changed since she launched her own range just a few years ago. “It’s still me, I’m still talking about other brands, I still love the industry, I’ll always champion other brands, but it also means I think doing that gives me the authority to also say when something is BS.”

Bringing this scrutiny to her own brand, Caroline ensures that the highest quality ingredients are used in each product – alongside clinically trialling everything, she’s even given an uncapped budget to her chemists developing the range to ensure high efficacy. She also launched her skincare range with just two products, then eventually added more and more later on.

When choosing which products to develop, Caroline says “It has to be something I would use. Or maybe if it’s not for my skin type, something I would happily give to one of my kids. I always have my kids in my head, because they’ve all got different skin types.”

With plenty more nuggets of wisdom to share, you can listen to the full interview with Caroline in the newest episode of Work Rest Slay below:

 

About Caroline

From the shop floor to CEO, Caroline Hirons has been referred to as “arguably the most important figure in British beauty”. Launching her blog back in 2010, she quickly amassed the adoration of millions across her social network. Caroline has proven that when she recommends a product or collaborates with a brand, sales spike and sell out. She quite literally creates a retail stampede and can change the fortune of a business overnight.

Multi-award winning, Caroline’s success comes from honest and science-backed knowledge, and she’s utilised that to launch her own brand, which includes her limited-edition kits of recommended products which sell out in hours as well as the Skin Rocks brand, which consists of the award-winning skincare line and app.

In an unrivalled position with astonishing business acumen, Caroline has used her company’s £10 million turnover, without any external investment or partners, to create the Skin Rocks App and now, the first-ever Skin Rocks skincare line. Years in the making and made in conjunction with globally leading scientists and world-class laboratories, Caroline Hirons products are the next step in her business plan to take this multi-million business to global empire status.

An ambassador for and advisory board member of the British Beauty Council, ambassador for The Eve Appeal, patron of the Princes Trust, and founder of Beauty Backed Trust, Caroline uses her profile and business acumen to help support women both in and outside of her industry. Since 2020, Caroline’s fundraising and direct donations have raised more than £1 million for charity.

Watch the full episode

This season of Work Rest Slay is in partnership with Range Rover. Every Range Rover leads by example with modernist design, connected, refined interiors and electrified performance driving unrivalled luxury – inspired by exemplary design since 1970. As part of a sustainability-rich vision of modern luxury by design, every Range Rover is available as an electric hybrid. A fully electric Range Rover will arrive in 2025 and a fully electric Range Rover Sport in 2026.