I didn't grow up with a mum with a vanity full of beauty products but it's thanks to her genes that I have had a low input skincare routine for most of my life.

There was no TikTok in our twenties, we bought Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse from the supermarket (Shiseido Beauty Cake if we were feeling flush) & swore by St Ives Apricot Scrub as the solution to our age appropriate woes.

For a (very, very) special occasion we might find ourselves under the unflattering lights of the MAC counter at Farmers getting our face done, but we didn't own make up brushes or beauty blenders.

I didn't introduce a face serum to my routine until I started sourcing products for my skincare range & needed a face to test them on. For a long time I've struggled with hyper pigmentation & saw great results when using retinol & vitamin C.

I definitely became a skincare convert & was using a hyaluronic acid serum with vitamin C every morning & a retinol serum with vitamin C in the evening. I added a night cream & a face oil & my skin was looking good!

Almost overnight though, I found that the night cream & face oil combo wasn't cutting it. I'd go to sleep looking like a jam donut, but wake up with tight, dry skin. For the first time in my life, I also started experiencing sensitivity.

I was shopping around online for products, everything I tried resulted in flare ups or breakouts - even those that claimed to be suitable for sensitive skin, or promised to help with my latest "skin issue": rosacea.

Then the bakuchiol night balm entered the chat & answered all my prayers...except it meant starting another skincare business, which I'd told myself I'd never do again. I guess the moral of that story: Never say never.

Áine means radiance & that's what this chapter of our skin story is about. 

Pop was born in Australia to Irish immigrants. Although he loved a yarn (& a beer), Pop didn't regale us with tales of his childhood, that was neither amusing nor entertaining, but he remained fiercely proud of his Irish heritage - right up to us carrying his coffin out of the chapel to Danny Boy.

I knew I wanted the brand, to be named after a goddess & I knew I wanted her to be Celtic, as a nod to Pop.

Read more

I’m Renée & this is not my first rodeo.

In 2012, long before online shopping was considered a hobby, I launched my first ecommerce business, an online clothing store. It was… ambitious... and an epic failure.

Undeterred & with the enthusiasm you retrospectively realise you only possess in your twenties, I pivoted, rebranding & relaunching the business now selling chunky, handmade woollen throws.
Read more

I had two geriatric pregnancies & was the mother of two under two, trying to run a business from home in the middle of a global pandemic.

I first saw a GP at 38. The anxiety was bad. The fatigue was bad. The brain fog? Also bad. These could apparently be explained by being the mother of two young children & the GP recommended SSRI's. And exercise. And a healthy diet. And maybe some meditation...
Read more