An Irish mum-of-two has told of how she transitioned from working two jobs, struggling to make ends meet, to building an aesthetics empire in Dublin, with more than 25,000 clients on her books.
Over a period of eight years, Kerry Hanaphy progressed from taking seats in local salons and educating people on the magic of filler to now owning one of the most thriving businesses of its kind in Ireland.
Kerry came into the business at a key time when fillers were a new thing in Ireland - because back in 2006 no one really knew what they were - but now when you Google ‘Where to get filler in Ireland’ you’re met with 14 million search results.
Now known as “The Lip Queen”, the mum-of-two has built an incredible reputation as Ireland’s finest aesthetic nurse, a specialist in dermal fillers, and an expert in lips.
On top of this, she spent decades pioneering facial treatments and delivering incredible results, while building her own skincare line, and has now even launched her own lip cosmetics.
Like many successful business owners, things didn’t come easy. Before ‘The Lip Queen’ was born, Kerry was working full-time as a nurse, while working weekends to build on her dream of being her own boss and earning enough to raise her two daughters, Emily and Alannah.
When money was tight, it only encouraged Kerry to take the plunge and give her dream of owning her own business a chance - which meant leaving the security of her PAYE job.
Eight years later, and with soon-to-be five locations thriving across Dublin, Kerry sat down with the Irish Mirror to talk about where it all started.
“The idea came in 2004, I was living in the UK and I was going through a pretty bad separation and was looking for ways of making more money,” Kerry said.
“I was working full-time for a pharmaceutical company, as a respiratory nurse adviser. At the time I had a nice company car and a ‘regular’ income, but I needed something extra to look after my girls.”
One day, when Kerry was in a salon getting a facial, it just so happened that she noticed a nurse coming in to do other treatments on patients.
She said she saw “there was a girl going in every Saturday doing a botox clinic and she was walking out with cash in hand.
“So I went and did a little bit of research around that and thought that would be a nice little nixer.”
Immediately Kerry jumped at the chance to learn something new, and said “I went down and did an introductory into dermal fillers.
“For two years after that, I did the odd clinic in little salons, gyms and I probably did one a month or every two weeks and earned a little extra money.
“At the time, that gave us the nice things outside of the necessities - you know like getting a takeaway, and doing nice things like going to the cinema or getting a bottle of wine.”
A few years later, Kerry returned to Dublin and found herself in a tricky situation financially at a time when she needed to buy a hour for her and her two girls, who were very young at the time.
She said: “I came back to Dublin in 2006 and found myself financially in a situation where I didn’t have a lot, but I needed to buy a house and ensure I had financial security for my two girls - and they were only 12 and 2 at this point”.
“It was very tight financially, but I eventually secured a job within a pharmaceutical company again, and then on a Friday and Saturday morning, I would go off and introduce myself to a number of salons in the area.”
So, not only was the young mum working a seven-day week, here was one other issue - in 2006, nobody in Ireland really knew what filler was.
“The problem was that back in 2006, nobody really knew what it was, so I would talk about lip fillers and dermal fillers and I sat and I waited and I bided my time and I worked in places like Core Beauty in Tallaght, The Glam Pad in Clarehall - they were my main two places.
From this, things began to kick off for Kerry, and “Between 2006 and 2012, I got to the point where I just didn’t have time for my day job - and I thought, I’m onto something here.
“I was beginning to get so many phone calls but still had to do the day job, so I would work all day and then had to go out every evening and on Saturdays.
“Alannah was only five or six and Emily was ten years older, so she was always able to mind her sister, which was great - but it was just so busy.”
After keeping up the incredibly hectic schedule for a number of years, it was in 2014 when Kerry made the decision to take the plunge, leave her job security to set up what is now known as Kerry Hanaphy’s.
Admitting her decision was a big risk, Kerry said: “At a time when you’re a single parent and you have two kids, a mortgage and you know we didn’t have any other income it was just all on me at the time - it was a big risk.
“Money had gotten very tight and I told to my boss at the time in 2014 that I was leaving to try this out, and he just said ‘look, try it and if it doesn’t work we will always give you your job back’.
“So, in 2014 I resigned. Emily was 21 at the time and Alannah was only 11, and business ended up booming that year - it literally took off.
“The phones started getting busier and I literally just worked and worked, like Monday to Sunday kind of thing.
“I knew I’d have to do the hard slog at the beginning and I did - and I still do the hard slog now, I’m still working six days or seven days a week.”
But after a year of working in a premise on Dame Street, the business sky-rocketed further, so in April of 2016, she took a lease on South William Street, had a massive launch for her new room on the first floor of the building - which she has since expanded to the entire floor.
Speaking about the unprecedented boom in the business, she said “we had exponential growth within the business from an accountancy point of view, like 56% growth year-on-year.
“Then in 2019, I decided it was time to venture into a second location, and my dream was always to have somewhere around Terenure and Templeogue so we went for City West and we went into the shopping centre there.”
Covid brought a temporary halt to plans, but the doors finally opened in June and just like her city centre location, things kicked off with a bang.
As things continued to grow, “that was when I decided it was time to head over and look for a space on the Northside of Dublin.
“In December 2021, after expanding during Covid - which was amazing and we were delighted - we opened in a Shopping Centre in Swords (just beside Airside).”
And things don’t look like they’re slowing down either, as Kerry said: “We’re now in a period where we’re kind of stabilising everything and have future plans for another two at the moment and we’re just sitting tight ready for Christmas, and for the next phase.
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