MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
DAWN MAYNE, 37, is founder of The Clean Beauty Edit. She lives in Galway with her husband, Richard, and two children, Toby, four, and Annabel, two.
LIVING in LA in my 20s sparked my interest in organic, eco-friendly beauty. It was the mid 2000s and everyone there was already mad about yoga and clean living.
I was working between LA, Dublin (where I’m from) and Britain on magazines and art exhibitions, but in 2010 all my travel and work came to an abrupt end when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I was ill for the best part of the year.
By 2011 I had recovered somewhat, moved to Galway to be with my now-husband and joined his company. We got married in 2013 and I came up with the idea of an online store selling freeze-dried rose petals for weddings and events.
After my first child was born I wanted to concentrate on being a mum so I worked on developing Rosepetals.ie from home.
Rosepetals.ie is now Ireland’s leading provider of freeze-dried petals. Our petals are natural, biodegradable and organically grown. They are used as confetti, aisle and table decorations.
Life changed again in 2017 when I was diagnosed with osteopenia and several hormone imbalances. I saw an amazing doctor, Professor Moira O’Brien, who told me that osteopenia can come from several lifestyle factors — not just a lack of exercise or calcium — including hormonal imbalances stemming from toxins in our diets, beauty routines and cleaning products. So I cleared out all my beauty products and all my household cleaners at once. I changed everything to get rid of all the toxins that I could.
When it came to beauty, I found great brands but couldn’t source them in Ireland. I realised that there was a serious gap in the market for luxurious, results-driven clean beauty products. I had a vision of creating an online store that curated all these amazing brands in one place while offering an excellent and personal customer service.
The Clean Beauty Edit is my opportunity to share something positive and good, to make beauty retail that little bit better and more exciting in Ireland.
I set up the company last May and we launched in January this year. It took longer to launch than I thought because I work around the children. I work in the mornings when they’re at preschool and then late into the night. If they are ill, for example, I can’t work as much. But it’s because of my children that I’m working so hard on this. I want the world to be a greener, cleaner place for them.
Most of the work is done by me, so it’s all on my shoulders. But we’ve had a great reaction so far. There’s been so much interest in the products and also in our ethos. We have 15 brands but we are adding to them all the time.