When your skincare company is based on your family suckler farm, you never know when you might be called upon to help out.
Indeed, Elaine Kennedy tells Irish Country Living that earlier this morning, she was out monitoring cattle carefully for any signs of Redwater; a disease that is transmitted by ticks and is a risk at this time of year.
There can’t be many other beauty entrepreneurs who start their day this way; but for Elaine, it’s an essential part of her identify, and of her brand: Hawthorn Handmade Skincare.
“I guess that was my original inspiration,” she reflects. “I’ve always been mindful of trying to preserve this lovely landscape around me and I just want to show people where I am and why I’m so passionate about what I do.”
Home grown
Home for Elaine is Kilkeeran, Co Mayo, close to the shores of Lough Carra; a special area of conservation (SAC), where her family have lived and farmed for generations. She explains that her parents, Seamus and Kathleen, instilled in her a respect for the land and its biodiversity; values that she has brought to her own business.
Growing up, she always had “a creative flair”.
“But I never really knew how to make use of it, so I ended up working in retail,” she says, explaining that she initially went down the route of visual merchandising and in her mid-20s, moved to London, where she got a job with Jigsaw: a luxury British fashion and accessories brand.
However, she was soon approached by head-office to work in their e-commerce team in customer service, which gave her an invaluable insight into the mechanics of the business.
You have to work so hard, and commuting to work, tube strikes and just the stress of it
“I had a relationship with everybody in the company, from the social media and web training team to the buyers, so it was a great way to see all the relationships in the business and how things worked,” she explains.
While it was great experience, London life did not suit this country girl.
“You have to work so hard, and commuting to work, tube strikes and just the stress of it,” says Elaine, who made the decision to return home in 2015; but was asked to continue working remotely by Jigsaw, which helped to ease the transition.
Elaine Kennedy of Hawthorn Handmade Skincare on her family farm. \ Brendan Ryan
By then, however, the seed had been planted for setting up her own beauty brand. While in London, Elaine had completed a number of workshops, as well as a mentoring course with Melinda Coss on how to set up your own skincare business. She also did a “Start Your Own Business” course with her local enterprise board shortly after her return, followed by the “Empower Her” female entrepreneur programme in 2017. This programme is run by the GMIT Innovation Hubs, specifically for female entrepreneurs in the west.
Starting in the spare room
Starting in her spare room at home and funded with her own savings, Elaine’s initial plan was to make soap.
“But I found that customers are very quick to tell you what they actually wanted,” she says of how her range gradually developed to include products like her rejuvenating face balm with shea butter and rose geranium, protective hand balm with mango butter and lavender and facial oil with frankincense and myrrh.
However, the development of the brand took most of 2016 and 2017 to fine-tune, with Elaine launching Hawthorn Handmade Skincare as a limited company in 2018. By this stage, she had moved her workshop into a new Steeltech shed on the farm, and estimates that she spent the guts of €10,000 to get to market.
A key moment was identifying her target audience. Elaine initially thought that her customer would be somebody with sensitive skin or a condition like eczema in the younger age bracket, but that “wasn’t the case at all”.
“She was 55 plus, she has an interest in her health and wellbeing, she’s looking for natural ingredients, so she’s reading the label and she’s actively looking to see what ingredients are in her products,” says Elaine, adding that her mother is probably her “best salesperson”.
Ingredients wise, Elaine has avoided products like palm oil in favour of more sustainable plant-based oil and butters, sourced from suppliers who have as “short a chain as possible” connecting them with growers and producers.
“Ultimately, what we put onto our skin is going to get washed into our waterways eventually, so I don’t use synthetic ingredients,” says Elaine, though she explains that unfortunately, the local climate is not conducive to producing what she needs.
Packaging wise, she has also opted for recyclable glass jars and decided against using outer boxes; even though some buyers initially advised against this when she was doing her market research.
“I had one or two comments where they would have said, ‘You need to add an outer box that will push up your price point,’” she recalls.
“I knew myself it was going against my instincts, so I stuck to my guns, I didn’t go down the route of an outer box and those same buyers, I went back to them a few months later and they said, ‘I’m so glad you’re not going with the outer box, we’re going eco-friendly!’”
Retail to online
But Elaine was fortunate to have good support from retailers from the start, with Foxford Woollen Mills first to come on board, and Ashford Castle, Shannon Duty Free, Standún and more following suit. Indeed, wholesale accounted for 80% of her business; so when the COVID-19 lockdown came, she admits: “I had to think on my feet.”
My online is now my main source of income
Fortunately, she had engaged a local photographer, Brendan Ryan, to take professional photos in early March and was able to fast-track her new website on 1 April, allowing her to sell direct.
“My online is now my main source of income and I’d say I’m as busy, if not busier, than I was pre-COVID,” says Elaine, who believes that there has been “a shift in mentality” in terms of people willing to buy online, especially in terms of products like the hand balm, given the increased hand washing.
Though it seems that it’s not just women who are trying it; she’s even converted a few men in the process.
“They mightn’t buy it themselves or they mightn’t admit to it,” laughs Elaine, “but the amount of women who tell me, ‘I have to hide it!’”
For further information, visit
www.hawthornhandmadeskincare.com
Read more
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When your skincare company is based on your family suckler farm, you never know when you might be called upon to help out.
Indeed, Elaine Kennedy tells Irish Country Living that earlier this morning, she was out monitoring cattle carefully for any signs of Redwater; a disease that is transmitted by ticks and is a risk at this time of year.
There can’t be many other beauty entrepreneurs who start their day this way; but for Elaine, it’s an essential part of her identify, and of her brand: Hawthorn Handmade Skincare.
“I guess that was my original inspiration,” she reflects. “I’ve always been mindful of trying to preserve this lovely landscape around me and I just want to show people where I am and why I’m so passionate about what I do.”
Home grown
Home for Elaine is Kilkeeran, Co Mayo, close to the shores of Lough Carra; a special area of conservation (SAC), where her family have lived and farmed for generations. She explains that her parents, Seamus and Kathleen, instilled in her a respect for the land and its biodiversity; values that she has brought to her own business.
Growing up, she always had “a creative flair”.
“But I never really knew how to make use of it, so I ended up working in retail,” she says, explaining that she initially went down the route of visual merchandising and in her mid-20s, moved to London, where she got a job with Jigsaw: a luxury British fashion and accessories brand.
However, she was soon approached by head-office to work in their e-commerce team in customer service, which gave her an invaluable insight into the mechanics of the business.
You have to work so hard, and commuting to work, tube strikes and just the stress of it
“I had a relationship with everybody in the company, from the social media and web training team to the buyers, so it was a great way to see all the relationships in the business and how things worked,” she explains.
While it was great experience, London life did not suit this country girl.
“You have to work so hard, and commuting to work, tube strikes and just the stress of it,” says Elaine, who made the decision to return home in 2015; but was asked to continue working remotely by Jigsaw, which helped to ease the transition.
Elaine Kennedy of Hawthorn Handmade Skincare on her family farm. \ Brendan Ryan
By then, however, the seed had been planted for setting up her own beauty brand. While in London, Elaine had completed a number of workshops, as well as a mentoring course with Melinda Coss on how to set up your own skincare business. She also did a “Start Your Own Business” course with her local enterprise board shortly after her return, followed by the “Empower Her” female entrepreneur programme in 2017. This programme is run by the GMIT Innovation Hubs, specifically for female entrepreneurs in the west.
Starting in the spare room
Starting in her spare room at home and funded with her own savings, Elaine’s initial plan was to make soap.
“But I found that customers are very quick to tell you what they actually wanted,” she says of how her range gradually developed to include products like her rejuvenating face balm with shea butter and rose geranium, protective hand balm with mango butter and lavender and facial oil with frankincense and myrrh.
However, the development of the brand took most of 2016 and 2017 to fine-tune, with Elaine launching Hawthorn Handmade Skincare as a limited company in 2018. By this stage, she had moved her workshop into a new Steeltech shed on the farm, and estimates that she spent the guts of €10,000 to get to market.
A key moment was identifying her target audience. Elaine initially thought that her customer would be somebody with sensitive skin or a condition like eczema in the younger age bracket, but that “wasn’t the case at all”.
“She was 55 plus, she has an interest in her health and wellbeing, she’s looking for natural ingredients, so she’s reading the label and she’s actively looking to see what ingredients are in her products,” says Elaine, adding that her mother is probably her “best salesperson”.
Ingredients wise, Elaine has avoided products like palm oil in favour of more sustainable plant-based oil and butters, sourced from suppliers who have as “short a chain as possible” connecting them with growers and producers.
“Ultimately, what we put onto our skin is going to get washed into our waterways eventually, so I don’t use synthetic ingredients,” says Elaine, though she explains that unfortunately, the local climate is not conducive to producing what she needs.
Packaging wise, she has also opted for recyclable glass jars and decided against using outer boxes; even though some buyers initially advised against this when she was doing her market research.
“I had one or two comments where they would have said, ‘You need to add an outer box that will push up your price point,’” she recalls.
“I knew myself it was going against my instincts, so I stuck to my guns, I didn’t go down the route of an outer box and those same buyers, I went back to them a few months later and they said, ‘I’m so glad you’re not going with the outer box, we’re going eco-friendly!’”
Retail to online
But Elaine was fortunate to have good support from retailers from the start, with Foxford Woollen Mills first to come on board, and Ashford Castle, Shannon Duty Free, Standún and more following suit. Indeed, wholesale accounted for 80% of her business; so when the COVID-19 lockdown came, she admits: “I had to think on my feet.”
My online is now my main source of income
Fortunately, she had engaged a local photographer, Brendan Ryan, to take professional photos in early March and was able to fast-track her new website on 1 April, allowing her to sell direct.
“My online is now my main source of income and I’d say I’m as busy, if not busier, than I was pre-COVID,” says Elaine, who believes that there has been “a shift in mentality” in terms of people willing to buy online, especially in terms of products like the hand balm, given the increased hand washing.
Though it seems that it’s not just women who are trying it; she’s even converted a few men in the process.
“They mightn’t buy it themselves or they mightn’t admit to it,” laughs Elaine, “but the amount of women who tell me, ‘I have to hide it!’”
For further information, visit
www.hawthornhandmadeskincare.com
Read more
Dolly Buckley: be daring and glam up
Back to beauty basics with Dolly Buckley
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