We’re speaking on the phone a few days after this photoshoot, discussing the three words that best describe us. “Tired, hungry,” Pippa says, then pauses, searching for a third. We suggest “optimistic,” because she invariably is.
Eternally glass half-full, that’s Pippa.
The day before at the K Club, which is just up the road from her home in Straffan, Co. Kildare, on what was a gloriously sunny day, one of her POCO Beauty colleagues had told us that in business Pippa is brave and decisive. We asked Pippa then how Brian, her business partner and husband of 14 years, would describe her, “a pain in the arse”, she told us, roaring laughing, flashing those pearly whites.
We could tell you lots about this 40-year-old mum-of-three, and not just about how charismatic she is and how savvy in business
she is, but what we love most about Pippa is how much fun she is, how easygoing she is, how she’s such a joy to be around. Take this photoshoot as a case in point as we zipped around on our golf buggy, having the lols, cracking jokes, even changing outfits in the bushes to save any fuss.
No drama for this queen.
She tells us about what has been an excellent first year for POCO Beauty, how working with her husband works out (swimmingly, by all accounts) and why she believes she can do anything, if she puts her mind to it…
Hey gorgeous, how’s life?
Hey VIP! Every time I speak to you guys, I say life is busy, but this is the busiest life has ever been!
Really, why?
Home life, the kids are getting older! I’m at such different stages with the boys; I’ve a pre-teen, a toddler and one in the middle. They’re all on different schedules, Billy still sleeps in the middle of the day, the other two boys are sports mad, there’s golf lessons, soccer, swimming – it’s just mad. And then our POCO team is just growing and growing and I’m trying to do it in a way that we’re not growing too quickly because I know how that can go pear shaped fast.
How do you know that? From the past?
No, I think it’s just from looking at and speaking to other people who have been in business, reading other people’s stories, it’s not a good thing if you grow so rapidly that you have nowhere to go. I’m very conscious of that.
At the same time, it’s amazing to be growing so rapidly.
It is, yeah, but then it’s like the pressure is on even more. We had such a good year last year, we’re going into year two now, but how can we top that? And the year after that has to be better again. It’s all well and good having a really good year but if I was looking to acquire a company, for example, I wouldn’t like to see a company that has a huge spike and then it drops off, drops off, drops off. You want to be going up really steadily.
On the day of the shoot one of your POCO Beauty colleagues told us that in business you are brave and decisive. Do you think you are?
[Thinking] Yeah, I think I am, but I don’t go around saying, ‘Oh, I’m very brave, I’m very decisive’… [laughing]
That would be weird! But do you have a clear vision of what you want?
I’m very clear on how I want a product or a website page to look, how I want a shoot to look. I do have a clear vision, yes. But I’m very easy going – when things are going my way!
What are you like when things aren’t going your way?
I would internally not be happy and would say it to Brian [laughing] and we would just fix it, immediately. If something isn’t happening the way I think it should, I would be quick to change it.
Decisive! You and Brian are a great team, very united, but still, working with your husband, how do you not kill each other?
Again, it’s all I know! I don’t know it any other way, we’re technically working together ten years…how do we not kill each other? [thinking] Sometimes we would have disagreements about how something should be handled, or if a situation is difficult, but he’ll always go with what I say in the end [laughing]!
We’re not printing that! Well, actually we just did!
[Laughing] He does always go with what I say! [Still laughing] Joking aside, do you know what, we have respect for one another outside and inside of work. No one is trying to overpower the other. I want his reassurance and vice versa. He’d say, “I’m about to do so and so, what do you reckon?” We are both each other’s first point of contact.
And do you have boundaries in place for when shop talk is allowed and is not?
No! I’d like to say we do but I’d be lying! You can’t…I don’t think that is possible. I don’t think you can be building something that is great and go home and not talk about it for the rest of the day.
As you’ve said POCO Beauty had a really big year last year and it’s growing at a fast pace, but in all honesty did you expect it to take off at the pace it has?
I knew it was going to be great before we launched but I just thought it would take longer to get there. I’d no doubt in mind that it was going to be really good.
Why? Even in such a saturated beauty market?
I think when you’re very honest with yourself and you don’t listen to any outside noise, and it’s something that is very true to you, you just have the passion, you just know.
You’ve had other businesses before as well so you have something you can compare it with.
Exactly. And that’s not to say anything else we did before was not right or good…but this is just me through and through.
Must have been serious pinch-me moments opening in Brown Thomas and in the airports, Dublin and Cork?
Absolutely massive pinch me moments! I had the Brown Thomas Arnotts group on my vision board for maybe year three, we did it in year one, along with the likes of the airports. They were huge moments, and it’s such a big deal for us because it costs us a lot to put those amazing fixtures in – it’s a lot of investment our end before anyone even sees it or buys a product.
Are the Duty Free’s very profitable? Are beauty brands all chasing that?
Well, yeah, if I was not in there I would want to be, put it that way. The footfall is huge. And you know what it’s like when you go on holidays you want to treat yourself and you want convenience, people want to buy beauty going through the airport so yeah, it’s going great, we’re absolutely thrilled.
Are there plans for more?
Absolutely we’d love to do more. I go through Heathrow a lot so I’d love to see it there.
And there’ll be lots more product too, the newest is your tan, which you’re wearing today on this shoot and you are glowing, Pippa!
Yes! I’m wearing our new POCO Beauty skincare infused tanning range. So we have a mousse, a gradual moisturiser, a face tanning serum and an exfoliator. This is a dream come true for me. I’m a huge fake tan lover, personally. I have tried and worn every brand I’ve ever come across. I’m naturally really fair so I always opt for false tan. I’d never try to get a real tan. I’ve thought about bringing a tanning range to the market for a very long time. I’m really thrilled with this collection. It’s skincare first, like all of our products. I love how much my tan empowers me, I feel great wearing it – it gives me such a confidence boost all year round. I can’t wait for others to feel the same.
So, if you had to choose one POCO Beauty product to take with you to a desert island, which would it be?
Oh, that’s so hard! But I would say Universal Glow because it was the first product we brought to market, it’s my hero product, my baby and to bring it to a desert island would be perfect because you’d be protected with the SPF and you’d be glowing, you wouldn’t need anything else!
What is the most exciting part of your job?
I think for me I just feel so excited and lucky that we can basically create what we want. Like how cool is that? To be able to say, do you know what, I want to try and create a skin-like foundation with an SPF 50 – let’s go out to our manufacturers and see what we can do. The most exciting part is an idea coming to fruition.
So, we know the POCO Beauty product you’d take to a desert island but what about if you had to have one beauty treatment for the rest of your life, what would that be?
Oh god, I couldn’t pick just one!
For the sake of this interview, you have to! Botox?!
No! If I could get only one treatment, I’d pick a proper lymphatic drainage for the face because yeah Botox, and polynucleotides and Profhilo, they’re all great and I love them, but to me they’re little add-ons. So, if I never could get them again, I’d say the basics are more important for me.
You Gua Sha at home yourself, don’t you?
I do! People say, “How do you get your skin looking well?”, I do everything, I have to! There’s no point in just getting a bit of Botox, sure that’s not going to do anything other than freeze your muscle, it’s not going to make your skin great. All the injectables are little sprinkles on top. I need to be doing the lasers, the massages, the lymphatic drainage, the Moxi, the BBL, I need to be doing it all, there’s no point in saying otherwise.
It’s like an extra job, the maintenance!
I’m not doing all that, all the time! But I’d make the time to schedule it in. And I’d do one thing one month, one thing another month.
And it’s also self-care.
And I’m also 41 this summer and I need to keep on top of it! [laughing] You do though, you have to do it all [laughing] and you have to walk your 10,000 steps a day and you have to drink your water. And I need to sleep. If I don’t sleep and I don’t drink water, I will look wrecked.
We’ve never seen you look wrecked.
I am wrecked plenty of the time but I really notice it if I burn the candle at both ends and don’t do all the easy stuff, as in water, sleep, good food, I could get all the treatments I like done and I’d still look wrecked.
But are you good at consistency, at staying on the wagon?
I’m 80/20. 80 per cent of the time I’m an angel, 20 per cent of the time I’m a divil! [laughing] But that’s my personality, I’m all or nothing. If I go away with my friends that’s it, I’ll eat what I want, drink what I want, I won’t care about overindulging, I’m not one of those people who goes to the gym on holidays.
And then you go home and are straight into the calorie deficit!
Straight into the calorie deficit! But I’m okay with that!
It’s your form of balance!
I would never deny myself anything, but I know when I have to cop on and rein it in.
Speaking of reining things in, we all have, in our heads, a negativity bias. How do you silence your negative self-talk?
I am a very glass-half-full person, but I do still have negative thoughts, of course. Sometimes it’s scary if you’ve bitten off too much, or you think, this is a big obstacle I need to overcome, which happens all the time in business. But I probably say to myself without realising, if anyone else can do it, I can too. I genuinely believe no one else knows more than me or is better than me. It’s all experience and you learn by doing. I suppose I think I can do whatever I want if I put my mind to it. I just kind of think I’m capable of doing whatever I want to and I say that to my boys as well, you are capable of doing whatever you want in life, and I really mean that. You are capable of anything, anyone is.
And by building a business you are, for your boys, leading by example.
And they are so interested in it. They want to come to the factories and see how product gets made.
How’s Brian? Happy in business, happy in life?
Brian is great! He came with me on my walk this morning! He was like, ‘This is doing nothing for me, I need to get a sweat on and go play padel or go spinning!’ He laughs at me trying to get the steps in! He did no exercise yesterday, he was just in the office and around the house, getting the bouncy castle up for Louis’ birthday, and I was only on 4,000 steps because I was doing the shoot, and he was on 13,000 without even trying! Brian cannot sit still; he’s always on the go.
Have you holidays planned?
We’re going away with the kids when they finish school and before then Brian and I are going to Mykonos on our own for a couple of days!
Like the sound of that!
I know! We decided a couple of years ago to try on our anniversary, which is in June, to go away for a couple of nights on our own. And we’ve kept it up for the last couple of years. We have it in the diary ages and if it’s in the diary we will make it happen, if it’s not, it won’t happen because life just gets too busy.
Are you good at minding your marriage?
We make a conscious effort, we do. I also like spending time with him too! [laughing]
Describe yourself in three words.
Oh god, I should say tired and hungry…!
Say it!
Tired, hungry and I’m trying to think of a third….
Optimistic, upbeat, happy?
Optimistic, I am always optimistic!
How would Brian describe you?
Pain in the arse! [laughing] Ah no, Brian is obsessed with me… [laughing] he is! I’m the apple of Brian’s eye! But he’s the apple of mine!
Cute! Pippa as always, the pleasure is all ours! Thank you.
And thank you VIP – always!
