Caroline Hirons, who has been described as Britain’s most powerful beauty expert, is a bestselling author and entrepreneur who debuted her own brand Skin Rocks in 2022.
I worked in my mum’s clothing shop in Warrington as a 15-year-old during the summer of Live Aid and she wouldn’t let me have a day off to watch it.
I’ve been in retail now for over 40 years and she is the best mentor I’ve had. She was a grafter and there was no special treatment. It was the best training, as she was held in high regard by her staff and there was never a job she asked people to do that she wouldn’t do herself.
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I have always been a beauty shopper. By 1997, I had two small boys and always needed extra money. I phoned a girlfriend I knew and I managed to get a job on the Aveda beauty counter at Harvey Nicholls in 1997 as “a weekend girl” they called it at the time.
I worked my first day on a Saturday, loved it, and found myself working on my own the following day. Sunday was always the quietest day, but I took as much money as the whole team did the previous day.
It was the skincare part that really attracted me and I remember saying I never wanted to work anywhere else bar beauty.
A few months later, the manager left and my youngest started school full-time. After successfully applying for the role, I had gone from being a weekend girl on their No.2 account in the UK to the business manager.
It wasn’t down to my sales alone. I was raised by two strong work ethic parents. I learned from my mum in particular and watched how she managed people, how she had empathy but no problem in pulling people up politely.
I served Liz Taylor, Godlie Hawn and Cher in Harvey Nicholls. It was celeb central but also huge fun and a lot of my colleagues are still in the industry today as “lifers”. It was the glory days of retail well before online shopping.
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We were telling people they didn’t need to buy something which we have carried through to Skin Rocks today. We are the only brand in the world, to my knowledge, that tells people why they don’t need to buy our product on the packaging.
As much as I was aware of being on commission – 5% at the time – I never chased a sale or sold someone a product they didn’t need in order to make a target in my entire career.
Most people don’t think about their skin until they have a problem. A lot of what we do is problem-solving and helping people make sense of skincare as it can be confusing.