Meet Amelia Slattery, the Dublin beauty entrepreneur working to educate and provide Ireland with the correct sun protection.
Did you know that non-melanoma skin cancer is Ireland’s most commonly diagnosed cancer, with over 11,000 annual cases. According to Irish Cancer Society, the cancer is primarily caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. Wearing SPF on a daily basis can reduce your risk of developing melanoma by about 50% and squamous cell carcinoma by approximately 40%, says National Institutes of Health.
Working to change diagnosis levels in Ireland, we catch up with Amelia Slattery, the founder of new Irish-made SPF brand Solas.
Where did the idea for Solas come from?
My background is in marketing and development and during COVID I moved to London to work on the marketing team for Charlotte Tilbury. There, I was on the skincare team specifically and very involved in my product development and formulation and in ingredients, packaging etc. From there, I moved to Kylie Cosmetics and working for Kylie Skin and again learned so much about consumer needs around skincare and absorbed so much information from my time there. At that time I didn’t think I would launch my own skincare brand, until I was away on holiday one year and my idea for an SPF brand came to life. I was on holidays doing my makeup and my makeup bag was 50% Poco Beauty, 50% Sculpted By Aimee and so many other great Irish brands – in my head I was thinking ‘the Irish girls are doing amazing in the beauty world’. But when it came to putting on SPF, none of the brands I was using were Irish. I knew there must be a gap in the market there – which I want to fill.
How long did it take to develop Solas?
Two and a half years. I’ve been working on this. Two and a half years. So yeah, a while. From the idea in my head to right now. The longest part I suppose is training formulas and making sure it’s exactly what you want. That took about a year. Just because I was so specific on what I wanted. However, we’re an Irish-made brand so what was so handy about working with an Irish manufacturer is I could just get in the car and be in Offaly in an hour and have a face-to-face meeting.
For the packaging, would you believe I did that all myself on Canva with the help of a designer to perfect it. This whole brand is such a labor of love for me, so much of it was produced from my family home. Everybody in my campaign imagery is a friend or family member, the brand really has heart and meaning behind it.
How do you want to change attitudes towards SPF in Ireland?
This is a huge driving force for us. We want to make SPF effortless, created for real skin, real weather and read everyday life. I actually consulted my boyfriend a lot when making our first products because I believe women are a lot more educated on correct sun protection more than men. My boyfriend has a gorgeous little bald patch on his head and when he comes on from golf sometimes he’s scalded. He didn’t want to apply cream SPF to it because he says it makes his hands and clubs sticky so the idea of a spray came to my mind. Now, he uses it and I made sure to keep the packaging unisex so he will bring it with him and not feel embarrassed to take it out in front of his friends. I want Solas to change the narrative and really educate men on how to be sun safe.
Aside from that, Solas is for everybody, everywhere. Suitable for all skin types. It’s been dermatologically tested. It’s non-comedogenic, it’s not gonna break you out or your pores. Like my mom has mature skin, I have sensitive skin, my sister has acne-prone skin. I wanted to make sure that it was suitable for everybody. You can own one bottle and everyone can use it, making sure everybody stays protected.
Take us through your three hero products
The three products we’re launching, which will become our three hero products as we grow and expand are: ‘Solas Sun – SPF 50 and 30 Hydrating Face Cream’, ‘Solas Kiss, SPF 50 Hydrating Lip Balm’, and ‘Solas Spritz, SPF 30 Hydrating Face Mist’.
Sharing more about the unusual SPF face spritz, Amelia explains:
I wear a full face of makeup most days. I do my SPF in the morning but you should be topping up every two hours. But with makeup on, how do you do that? So I made a spray that’s suitable for over makeup. It’s kind of like a setting spray with SPF in it. It resets your makeup. It’s going to keep your skin hydrated as well, it keeps you fresh and protected throughout the day. There’s four hours hydration on that after one use.
What are your plans for the future of Solas?
Down the road we will introduce different flavours and shades of our lip balm. We want to move into body care and create SPFs with Zinc for parents to use on their children. One other thing I’m most excited about is we’re in the works to create a SPF hand cream, which will be particularly useful in salons for gel manicures.
