As a busy mother of five, Pestle & Mortar founder Sonia Deasy needed a simple, effective skincare routine she could count on. And she wasn’t alone. While working alongside her husband, photographer Padraic Deasy, she saw firsthand how dry, dull and patchy his subjects’ skin looked up close. She knew there had to be a better solution. So she began to research one herself, working closely with her sister – who just so happened to hold a degree in biochemistry. Together they began to develop a formula that followed Sonia’s own less-is-more approach to beauty. Always in favor of a natural look over layers of makeup, Sonia was determined to create a line of no-fuss skincare – free of harsh chemicals and worrisome ingredients – that left women looking and feeling their best. Here, she shares her 5 Rules For Life.
1. Buy a good bed.
You spend almost half of your life in it. I’ve read a lot of stuff about CEOs and highly successful people who only need 4/5 hours sleep per night. I am not one of those types of CEO! I need my sleep, I love my sleep and if the world was falling in around me, my bed would still be palatial.
2. Buy good shoes.
You spend the other half of your life in them. When I was a child, my Dad owned a shop which sold shoes. We were allowed one new pair every September. I always hated the shoe he would choose for me – it would be a solid, black, clunky style with maximum support and no fashion features! The ‘comfort over fashion’ premise stayed with me though. You can’t look good if you feel uncomfortable.
3. Life is a juggling act.
Try to keep all the balls in the air. If you drop one, pick it up and start over. Being in business my whole life, this now comes naturally to me. Failures don’t matter as much as your response to them.
4. Eat a bowl of mashed potatoes with real butter if you feel like it.
Deprivation will have the effect of making you look deprived. My memories from childhood, specifically the ones surrounding my mother, are of food. Her food philosophies were Ayurvedic in nature – nutrition goes beyond ‘you are what you eat’ to ‘you are what, when, how and why you eat’. She taught me not to ignore my body when it is telling me what it needs.
5. Hire a professional.
An amateur will cost you more. When I started Pestle and Mortar, I knew that I needed a strong team who shared my motivations and who had the skills and expertise to make things happen. I made mistakes at first, and I learned the cost the hard way!
Thanks, Sonia!
Stay tuned for more Five Rules For Life.
“Five Rules For Life” is a series on Rouge18 in which I ask others to share their five rules for life about anything and everything. You can learn a lot about a person by reading which five things govern their actions, no?
