I started this through a sheer determination to get some products that would make a real difference to the quality of my skin. I had far too many products in my bathroom cupboard and was never quite sure which one to apply first. The idea was to created complicated clever skincare in a simple form that would make the pursuit of beauty a virtually effortless experience. Just slap it on the skin and let the ingredients do all the work.

I've never been scared of a challenge, and I've always had more energy than is good for one person, so in my working life to date I've been a fashion model (very tall), a TV presenter (not scared of the limelight, and not inclined to take myself too seriously) , a journalist (inquisitive), a radio presenter (much like TV but without the hassle of worrying what you look like), the landlady of a country house (lots of cleaning and cooking and socializing with guests to pay for a ridiculously large house), and an academic (oh! to go back to sitting between the shelves in a university library). I even worked for a brief spell in politics during the run up to the ‘Good Friday Agreement’! That was fascinating, if ultimately unsustainable at that period of my life.

Before I started this business I had never sold anything. Didn’t have a clue, and worse for someone who had been studying for a PHD, didn’t even know that I didn’t have a clue. I thought that developing a brand with 5 kids in tow would be much less stressful than writing a PHD with 5 kids in tow. Which says a lot about academics!

It took 18 months to bring the first products to market. That is business speak for the myriad of hurdles that must be jumped over, crawled under or simply knocked down to move an idea from inside your head to the shop floor. It helps to have what I call ‘problem dyslexia’. I seem to be incapable of accepting problems, no matter how catastrophic, as events that will stop me getting to where I need to be. I have learned that it is better to be like water than rocks. There is always, always another way to perceive the issue at hand (it’s the philosopher in me!)

We started with 5 core collagen products, and then moved to our self tans, cleansing system and on to a full range of colour cosmetics

My first sales were to beauty salons in Northern Ireland. I just got in the car and went to meet some people. I knew that we had developed great product (we being two very smart bio chemists and myself), and that anyone who tried them would become addicted. What I hadn’t bargained for was how difficult it would be to get customers to give us a try. The beauty markets across Europe, but especially in the UK and Ireland, are dominated by 4 or 5 mega brands and my only hope was that at first they wouldn’t notice that we existed, and so would leave us alone. I was right!

I knew that we were beginning to bite at the big boy’s ankles when I recently went to a professional beauty exhibition and was visited by the MD of a very well known brand who had noticed us taking up some shelf space in Boots. A satisfying but slightly disconcerting encounter!

We now sell our fabulous tans across the top 400 Boots stores in the UK, and our cosmetic and skincare products can be found in almost every premium department store and cosmetics hall across Ireland.

So the company has grown fast and furious (just like my kids) in the last 5 years. My kids have been only marginally easier to feed!

Such growth does not happen without some heartache, much exhaustion and an awfully strong sense of humour that is reflected in the names of many of our products. For instance, Full on Flutter mascara comes in ‘Fat and Long: what every woman wants’ and the Drench Lip gloss range has names that tell a ‘love’ story that moves from Afternoon Delight to Trusted.

Ultimately this is a nerve wracking, rollercoaster of a business that requires tremendous creativity in all aspects of delivery, right through from product development, to packaging, logistics and sales. In bleaker, lonelier moments I've wondered what kind of monster I have created, and whether I should have started this thing at all. But when you have the right team in place, and the support is there to make things happen, it is a truly fantastic work environment. So, although it has taken nearly 5 years of my life to date, and likely to take a lot more of them before the task is complete, perhaps I was right to move from the hallowed halls of the university to this frenetic world of the business? Who knows, but so far it’s been a blast!