Cork beauty entrepreneur reveals the secret to his multi-million euro collaborations
Mr Walsh, who owns and operates the massively profitable beauty distribution company National Beauty Distribution, from his hometown of Cork, has told Extra.ie that a late-night tete-e-tete with firm friend Vogue Williams, was to prove the beginning of a beautiful business relationship.
'So Vogue and I knew each other for years from press stuff,' Mr Walsh told Extra. Vogue Williams with Kieran Walsh. Pic: Instagram
'And we kind of had this casual friendship where we would chat about different things in the industry,' he continued.
A self-made entrepreneur with his finger on the pulse of the beauty sphere, Mr Walsh had the inklings of an idea of launching a new tan brand into the beauty market. Kieran Walsh. Pic: Instagram
'So I had been thinking about the tan category myself for a long time. I always thought that it's kind of broken,' he said
'I owned an apartment, and I was renting out at the time to two women, and I used to listen to them talking about tan, and how it stank, destroying bed sheets, so that just got me thinking about those two main kinds of problems with tan.'
And a random Sunday evening casual chit-chat with Vogue Williams was to bring his idea to fruition in the form of Bare by Vogue. Kieran Walsh with Vogue Williams. Pic: Instagram
'So then Vogue and I were chatting one Sunday evening. I just messaged her on Instagram, and I said, 'like, we're talking about doing a tan.' So she rang me and she said, 'this is so weird. I was going to the office tomorrow to sign a contract for a two-year deal with a tan brand'.'
'So I said, 'don't do anything. I'll be over on Tuesday'. So I flew over and we agreed a deal that day,' recalled Mr Walsh.
Bare by Vogue is now one of the biggest selling tan brands in Ireland and across the pond in the U.K, netting millions for the business-minded pair of Mr Walsh and Vogue.
And as well as Vogue, Cork born Kieran also collaborated with his former school friend and fellow Corkonian Lisa Jordan. Kieran Walsh with Lisa Jordan. Pic: Instagram
'So with Lisa Jordan, I had been talking about doing makeup back as far as 2015,' Mr Walsh told Extra. 'So in 2017, we finally came to the market with the Luna by Lisa brand, and we launched four lip glosses.'
In the past eight years, Luna by Lisa has grown exponentially, with her beauty range now a multi-million euro earner for Walsh and Influencer Lisa Jordan.
From Apprentice to Master – check out the next edition of Business Plus Magazine to read the full story of Kieran Walsh's journey to success.
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