For the past 20 years Sinéad O’Keeffe has worked in the beauty industry. She is the founder of the Tiger Academy which offers online beauty courses and, having trained in both cosmetic chemistry and formulation, O’Keeffe has also developed her own range of professional brow products.
Not content to stop there, however, she has now added a third string to her bow with the recent launch of Cork’s Red Clover Farm, a range of skincare products and a herbal tea aimed at the more mature woman.
“When I entered the perimenopause, I was keen to alleviate my symptoms in a natural way so I went down the herbal route,” O’Keeffe says. “I was aware of the medicinal properties of red clover and began making tea from the red clover harvested on our family farm.
“Red clover is very nutritious and used by herbalists to treat hot flushes in perimenopause and menopause. I was drinking it a few times a day and found it very helpful. That got me thinking that it could likely benefit other women too and that there was commercial potential in an Irish-produced red clover tea.
“The idea for the skincare products then came to me because red clover is very nutritious and contains isoflavones, phytoestrogens and protein, all of which benefit ageing and more mature skin. Our products provide hydration and moisture – two things ageing skin really needs – and are 100 per cent natural.
“We use glass packaging and our products, which are vegan and certified, are cold pressed to be more sustainable and make less of a carbon footprint,” O’Keeffe says.
“My family all have their own businesses so entrepreneurship must be in the blood and I wanted to build a business that combined my beauty background with my husband’s farming background,” she adds.
“Growing red clover provides biodiversity, the bees absolutely love it and it’s an alternative to traditional farming. We have plenty of space to grow the clover here in Ballinvuskig in west Mallow and even a small harvest is enough to make the skincare products in volume.”
O’Keeffe and her husband made the move to the farm during Covid and the lockdown also gave O’Keeffe the time to research and formulate her skincare products.
“I had started to make lash and brow products during the pandemic when we were all stuck at home so I had already begun moving into the world of formulation and small-scale manufacturing,” she says. “Then when I started looking into red clover I kind of went down a rabbit hole, delving deeper and deeper into the benefits of its properties as it’s an amazing flower.
“The next step was to start looking into what kind of machinery I’d need to extract the nutrients from the flowers and I had fantastic help from Cork North West LEO [local enterprise board] from the beginning, between early branding advice, mentoring and financial support.”
In total, the investment in Cork’s Red Clover Farm so far is about €30,000.
“Our market is very much the mature lady – a group I felt wasn’t being well catered for – and to begin with we are launching three products for them – two cleansers and a two-in-one serum.”
The skincare products will be sold online initially with the tea to follow in 2025, but O’Keeffe also has plans for wider sales through pharmacies, beauty salons and retail outlets.
“I’m under no illusion that this will be easy,” she says. “I know from my previous experience that it takes time to grow sales and build your brand. However, I recently found out that I will be representing LEO North West at the international Showcase trade fair in January and that could be a huge boost for sales as well as making people aware of the brand both at home and abroad.”
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