Ireland is a country known for many things. Pints, potatoes and cead mile fáilte. But skincare? Well, historically it hasn’t been one of them.

In fact, in 2014 when Sonia and Padraic Deasy co-founded their cosmetics brand, Pestle & Mortar, from their home in Co Kildare, people “didn’t think we were Irish,” she says. “Sometimes a lot of Irish brands launch with an Irish name or an Irish slant, and we didn’t. We were one of the very first Irish skincare brands and from the get-go, we got global recognition just based on our aesthetic.”

That aesthetic – minimalist and monochrome – reflects throughout the Pestle & Mortar office in Naas where Irish Country Living meets Sonia Deasy for a chat. The simple and clean surrounds are a mirroring of the brand, with its bottles wrapped in black and white packaging and product labels that say it like it is.

“We called the product what the ingredient was, and we were one of the first people to do that as well,” explains Sonia. “That got people interested. Pure Hyaluronic Serum… Is it an acid? Is it going to kill me? Is it going to burn my face?” she jokes. “The product works straight away. You can feel and see the results straight away. And that’s the main reason why it was a hit.”

Pestle & Mortar launched with one product – Pure Hyaluronic Serum – at a time when hyaluronic acid was increasingly being used as an active ingredient in skincare. A substance naturally occurring in the skin, hyaluronic acid is known for its moisturising and anti-ageing qualities.

Sonia discovered this trending ingredient in the United States when she was attending trade shows with Padraic. They were invited to speak at international conferences about their portrait photography business, which they ran together at the time.

“We photographed families, not models. But in America I met cosmetic photographers and discovered that the makeup artist was prepping the models’ skin with products like hyaluronic serums. Their skin looked really good, so my initial thought was this would be great for me, as I was pregnant with my fifth child and sleep-deprived, as well as all the mums that came into my studio.

“My market research was that I went into all the stores and bought all the serums. I spent thousands on serums and tried them all to see was there anything I liked.” Dissatisfied with what was out there, Sonia decided to launch her own.

Eleven years on, Pestle & Mortar has gone from one product to a suite of skin and body products stocked in over 20 countries. The flagship store in Kildare Village will be open three years this September, and Sonia reveals that a second store is opening in October – although she remains tight-lipped about where exactly it will be.

“It’s been a long process,” Sonia says. “We don’t create anything without intention. We don’t have 50 versions of one product. We still only have one moisturiser in our core range. You see brands now launching two products a month which is crazy. We would tend to launch one product a quarter. That’s four a year.”

One of these product types is a venture into hyaluronic sheet masks. “We didn’t have any facial masks and now we have four, which is a huge deal for us,” says Sonia. Two new masks, Detox Mask and Glow Up Mask, launched recently and the idea behind them is that people can give themselves a facial in their own home.

Sonia’s advice when it comes to skincare is pretty no-nonsense. “There are no quick fixes and consistency is key,” she says. “You have to put the work in to get good skin and that doesn’t mean just good skincare. It means drinking water, sleeping and eating healthy as well.”

Heritage and tradition

As a cosmetics brand, Sonia explains Pestle & Mortar is a natural extension of a life centred around wellbeing, and also, a way of honouring the same Ayurvedic traditions of natural remedies that go back multi-generations in her family.

“The name Pestle & Mortar comes from my heritage,” explains Sonia. “Natural healing goes back in my family for over six generations and my grandfather was a medicine man in India.” The same pestle and mortar that Sonia’s grandfather used to grind ingredients is displayed in the office. “My uncle still practices in the same spot just outside Delhi that my grandfather did.”

Sonia has very happy memories of her childhood in Newbridge, but speaking just a few days after a series of attacks on Indian nationals in Ireland, she says, “the world is different now to when I grew up.”

The attacks, including the alleged racial attack of a young girl while she was playing outside her home in Waterford city, have been condemned by many public figures. President Michael D. Higgins called the attacks “despicable”.

“It is just really sad,” says Sonia.

“We were the only coloured Asian family in the county, and we never got racially abused. Now we employ a couple of Indians, and they’re afraid. It’s terrible.”

A key part of Sonia and Padraig’s childhoods in Kildare was also entrepreneurship. You could say it’s in their DNA, with both their parents running two local businesses in Newbridge. “I never knew any other way,” Sonia succinctly puts it. It doesn’t come as a surprise that her five siblings are also self-employed.

The husband and wife have been married for 22 years and have been business partners for 19 of them. Sat in the couple’s office, shouldered by glossy houseplants and facing two identical desks and two computers (one labelled Padraic, the other Sonia) it feels obvious to ask: what is it like working with your husband?

“Both of us are completely different,” says Sonia. “He’s more operation focused and I am much more front facing. Nobody even knows Padraic exists at this stage, you never see him ever,” she laughs.

A mother of five children [whose ages range from 15 to 20], the Deasy clan have also been inspired by their parents’ career, Sonia says, “It’s funny, I just got back from holidays with four of my kids, and one night I asked them: which one of you would like to set up your own business? They all said, yes! I didn’t know to cry, or laugh,” she jokes.

As a female founder, Sonia is constantly asked the age-old question – how do you balance it all? It is one that her male counterparts never have to answer. “Yes, no one would ever ask Padraic [that],” agrees Sonia.

Being a mother, though, has helped Sonia to put more boundaries in place when it comes to work.

“I’m governed by my children,” she says. “At the end of the day, I am a mother, so it is important that I am there for my children. I tend to work from 8am or 9am to 5pm, but I don’t work late and we don’t work at the weekends, it’s not fair on the children. Every night at home, we have dinner. Every night I cook. Chicken curry, green beans and potatoes is on tonight’s menu,” she adds.

“Children keep you grounded”, jokes Sonia. “You’re going from a big day in the business to ‘did you get my school shirts?’” She laughs. “They bring you right back down to earth!”

Be consistent: keep your routine simple– cleanse, moisturise and once you hit your mid-30s to 40s, you definitely should be using a retinol. If a product works for you, stick with it.

Cleansing: cleansing or double cleansing is the cornerstone to skincare. You go to bed, you’ve sweated, your skin is not clean when you wake up. And if you’re not washing your face, you’re not giving it the best chance then. And don’t forget to remove your make-up before going to bed.

Tips for teens: teenagers don’t need to use skincare with active ingredients like retinol or hyaluronic serum. They are using overactive products on their skin, and they’re completely messing with the pH and skin barrier. Use gentle products with natural ingredients.

See pestleandmortar.com