Laser Skin Clinic owner Ashley Cahill on how her beauty range took over her life

The beauty industry is notoriously dominated by global multi-billion pound giants, with household names and often eye-watering price tags.

But when Ashley Cahill was looking for products to use in her Laser Skin Clinics in Liverpool, she wasn’t convinced by their claims or their ingredients.

So she set about creating her own skin care range, quizzing dermatologists and doctors around the world to combine their expertise with her instinct.

“I basically became a bit of a stalker,” she laughs. “I rang everyone I’d dealt with in the industry and asked them what they thought would be good. I even heard there was a really good dermatologist from the States who was in London for a conference so I jumped on a train to talk to him.

“Then I worked with manufacturers from Britain to Paris, New York, LA and Florida and told them what I thought should be in products and what I’d like to see in mine.”

After 12 months of what Ashley describes as an emotional rollercoaster ride she finally saw the product line bearing her own name arrive on the shelves.

Now, a year later, she has picked up a UK beauty award ahead of her national competitors and she is in the process of adding teenage and pregnancy ranges to her launch collection.

It is, she says, down to sheer determination. “And being like a dog with a bone,” she jokes.

She also credits her previous business ventures for giving her the confidence to take a chance when she saw it.

Now 45, and a mum of two daughters aged 13 and six, Ashley began her entrepreneurial adventure eight years ago when, having graduated with a degree in E-business, she spotted her first commercial opening.

With the then owners retiring, she bought Roberts Edward & Worrall estate agents – with offices in Allerton, West Derby and Woolton – despite having no experience of house selling.

“I was looking for opportunities, they wanted to sell, so I thought I’d do it,” she recalls. “But I found it frustrating because the business of estate agency is a man’s world, and there were times when I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously.

“On top of that, the nature of the industry changed. The footfall just disappeared and it went from us not being able to fit enough staff to deal with all the enquiries, to often not seeing a single person all day.”

Although her husband Mike is still at the helm of REW, former Holly Lodge girl Ashley decided it was time to look for her next challenge. That came first with a nail bar in Wirral, which she bought on ebay, then she turned her attentions to skin care.

“I started to research how lasers can help people with problems such as pigmentation, rosacea and acne scarring, and the thought of being able to help people look better and feel better about themselves really inspired me.”

In early 2012, with the estate agency increasingly moving off the high street and online, she converted their West Derby office into her first Laser Skin Clinic, followed a few months later by the Woolton Village branch.

“At that point we didn’t have our own products, but our treatment beds are like psychiatrist’s couches and clients would come in and tell us all about their lives and also the problems they were having with their skin.

“They always end up by saying ‘what do you recommend I use at home with this treatment?’ and honestly I didn’t know.”

Ashley’s decision to create her own line was confirmed when she had a visit from a national beauty company representative. “She said for £15,000 she would put a stand up in the clinic and supply us with products to sell. First of all, I didn’t have £15,000 to give her, but secondly I wasn’t confident about what they were offering. I went through everything in their range and I asked about what went into them and it was 0.001% active ingredients!

“She explained they had to take into account that they had millions of customers so had to try and suit everyone, but I don’t agree with that. I think everyone’s skin is individual.”

Ashley admits that bringing her own ideas together wasn’t easy. “I worked on it 24/7, there were times when I’d sit with my head in my hands and think I can’t do it, and I didn’t even tell my friends in case they thought I was mad. But eventually it fell into place because I broke it down into simple areas: fresh for youthful skin, fight for problematic and firm for anti-ageing.”

She started with around eight products in each range, but the response since its launch means she’s now expanding and looking to find outlets beyond her own clinics.

“I didn’t start out trying to take on the big boys in this industry,” she smiles, “I just wanted to get what I understood into the bottles, it was as simple as that. Now it’s taken on a life of its own.”