When did you set up your business and why?
It all grew out of a small field bought by my husband David Cox back in the 1990s as part of his perfume company, Fragrances of Ireland.
At the time, he was creating various perfumes and wanted to add lavender to the mix.
Later, he developed Inis, a sea-inspired perfume that has since become an international brand.
The lavender grew like topsy every summer and we began to sell it by the bunch from David’s office in Kilmacanogue – an old farmyard that was once part of the Jameson Distillery family estate.
For a while, we had a small shop in Temple Bar called Lavender & Linen, selling vintage linens and lavender cologne.
I loved sourcing the old and new linen on trips to Northern Ireland and built up quite a collection that we now sell alongside all kinds of vintage items at the lavender harvest summer sale.
The 2023 lavender harvest sale opens on 24 June and runs every weekend until the end of July.
The yard sale but has grown into a busy event that runs every weekend from the end of June and throughout July. We’re very lucky to have a lot of regular customers and new visitors every year.
It’s all open air and there’s a wonderful scent of lavender in the air that would put you in a good mood. My father fell ill in 2020 and soon after, I gave up my job as a journalist with The Irish Times.
That was hard, because I had worked there for over 25 years and loved the work and my colleagues, but the constant deadlines didn’t leave a lot of time for family.
I was lucky to be able to spend time with dad in the final months of his life.
After he died, I joined David’s business, mainly concentrating on building a new brand, Lavó, around our lavender products – particularly soap which I had been making as a hobby for several years. We’ve now added a new cologne, lavender floral water, bath salts as well as our original lavender oil.
We bring the dried lavender in from France, but we have also started to harvest and dry our own lavender flowers from the field. Some people want to buy a fully Irish product and we’re proud to be able to show them ours.
It’s bright purple and has an amazing scent and people can’t believe that it’s come from just across the road! Mostly people buy our lavender bags to keep moths at bay as every summer seems to bring even bigger infestations of these fabric-munching creatures.
Can you explain your process?
Soap is made from a carefully calculated mix of oils, lye and fragrance. We use a mix of olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, sustainably produced palm oil and pure essential oils for fragrance. The process takes time and concentration, but it’s a really lovely thing that anyone can do.
I learned by watching a lot of YouTube videos and asking questions in soap-making forums. Soap makers all over the world are very generous with their ideas and advice and you can’t beat trial and error, though mistakes are expensive when you are using essential oils.
I make all the soaps with my colleague Precy Aguas and we start the process around November each year for the following summer sale.
There’s quite a lot of equipment, the most hard-working being our big stainless steel pots, stick blenders and our silicone-lined wooden moulds and piano-wire style soap-cutter, which I got in America.
The oils and butters are melted together, next comes lye, which has been dissolved in distilled water. Then we add the essential oil blends - we use pure lavender oil, as well as lemongrass, rose geranium, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, lemon, rosemary and several more essential oils to create our small range of soaps.
Orna Mulcahy finds making her Lavó soaps very theraputic.
It’s a process that can’t be rushed and you need to watch your mood. If you’re cranky or in a hurry, the soap can come out wrong, much like in baking. Lyric FM is a Godsend!
When everything has been blended to the right consistency, it’s time to pour the soap batter into the moulds, which are then set aside for at least 48 hours.
After that I cut the soap and place it on racks to cure for eight to 10 weeks before it can be trimmed, weighed and wrapped.
Originally, we cut our soap into plain (sometimes very wonky!) slices, with hand-painted labels made by my daughter Amy. Now we have our own packaging, but we still trim and wrap the soap by hand, which takes time, but is very therapeutic.
What is your best seller?
Apart from our bunches of lavender and baby lavender plants, our bestseller is our pure lavender soap made with lavender essential oil and our little linen bags of dried lavender.
People also love the honey we sell from hives in the lavender field and the raspberries from nearby Conroy’s farm are always very popular.
What is it about your business that brings you joy?
The very smell of lavender puts me in a good mood and carries lots of happy memories, such as opening the big sacks of dried lavender that we fill a bath with every summer at the sale and then scoop into our linen and cotton bags.
It’s a very soothing, comforting smell that many associate with their mother or grandmother. Children make a beeline for the bath and we encourage them to dig into it and help us fill the bags. It has a very soothing effect!
What are your hopes for 2023?
I’m hoping for a good crop of lavender this summer and also that our sweet pea drills will produce lots of flowers too, as people love to buy a bunch or two at the harvest sale.
I’m also hoping that customers will like our new cologne and all the other lavender, gift and vintage items that we have been collecting and making for months!
We’re also working to develop online sales, as we now get enquiries for lavender products all year round.
What advice would you give to another start-up business?
I would say that things take a long time to come together, so keep trying and don’t dwell on the negatives if you can help it.
Lightbulb ideas are all very well, but a lot of success is down to dogged hard work and self-belief - something that is true, I think, in any job.
Give yourself time, experiment as much as you can and don’t beat yourself up for making mistakes.
We’ve had plenty of mishaps along the way, whether it’s torrential rain ruining the lavender flowers or blends of essential oils not working out and ruining expensive batches of soap. When things do go right, give yourself a pat on the back, then keep going.
The 2023 lavender harvest sale opens on 24 June and runs every weekend until the end of July. Visit http://lavender.ie/.
Read more
Meet The Maker: Karen Cunneen Bilbow
Meet The Maker: Maria Ryan of Bell Meadow Flowers
When did you set up your business and why?
It all grew out of a small field bought by my husband David Cox back in the 1990s as part of his perfume company, Fragrances of Ireland.
At the time, he was creating various perfumes and wanted to add lavender to the mix.
Later, he developed Inis, a sea-inspired perfume that has since become an international brand.
The lavender grew like topsy every summer and we began to sell it by the bunch from David’s office in Kilmacanogue – an old farmyard that was once part of the Jameson Distillery family estate.
For a while, we had a small shop in Temple Bar called Lavender & Linen, selling vintage linens and lavender cologne.
I loved sourcing the old and new linen on trips to Northern Ireland and built up quite a collection that we now sell alongside all kinds of vintage items at the lavender harvest summer sale.
The 2023 lavender harvest sale opens on 24 June and runs every weekend until the end of July.
The yard sale but has grown into a busy event that runs every weekend from the end of June and throughout July. We’re very lucky to have a lot of regular customers and new visitors every year.
It’s all open air and there’s a wonderful scent of lavender in the air that would put you in a good mood. My father fell ill in 2020 and soon after, I gave up my job as a journalist with The Irish Times.
That was hard, because I had worked there for over 25 years and loved the work and my colleagues, but the constant deadlines didn’t leave a lot of time for family.
I was lucky to be able to spend time with dad in the final months of his life.
After he died, I joined David’s business, mainly concentrating on building a new brand, Lavó, around our lavender products – particularly soap which I had been making as a hobby for several years. We’ve now added a new cologne, lavender floral water, bath salts as well as our original lavender oil.
We bring the dried lavender in from France, but we have also started to harvest and dry our own lavender flowers from the field. Some people want to buy a fully Irish product and we’re proud to be able to show them ours.
It’s bright purple and has an amazing scent and people can’t believe that it’s come from just across the road! Mostly people buy our lavender bags to keep moths at bay as every summer seems to bring even bigger infestations of these fabric-munching creatures.
Can you explain your process?
Soap is made from a carefully calculated mix of oils, lye and fragrance. We use a mix of olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, sustainably produced palm oil and pure essential oils for fragrance. The process takes time and concentration, but it’s a really lovely thing that anyone can do.
I learned by watching a lot of YouTube videos and asking questions in soap-making forums. Soap makers all over the world are very generous with their ideas and advice and you can’t beat trial and error, though mistakes are expensive when you are using essential oils.
I make all the soaps with my colleague Precy Aguas and we start the process around November each year for the following summer sale.
There’s quite a lot of equipment, the most hard-working being our big stainless steel pots, stick blenders and our silicone-lined wooden moulds and piano-wire style soap-cutter, which I got in America.
The oils and butters are melted together, next comes lye, which has been dissolved in distilled water. Then we add the essential oil blends - we use pure lavender oil, as well as lemongrass, rose geranium, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, lemon, rosemary and several more essential oils to create our small range of soaps.
Orna Mulcahy finds making her Lavó soaps very theraputic.
It’s a process that can’t be rushed and you need to watch your mood. If you’re cranky or in a hurry, the soap can come out wrong, much like in baking. Lyric FM is a Godsend!
When everything has been blended to the right consistency, it’s time to pour the soap batter into the moulds, which are then set aside for at least 48 hours.
After that I cut the soap and place it on racks to cure for eight to 10 weeks before it can be trimmed, weighed and wrapped.
Originally, we cut our soap into plain (sometimes very wonky!) slices, with hand-painted labels made by my daughter Amy. Now we have our own packaging, but we still trim and wrap the soap by hand, which takes time, but is very therapeutic.
What is your best seller?
Apart from our bunches of lavender and baby lavender plants, our bestseller is our pure lavender soap made with lavender essential oil and our little linen bags of dried lavender.
People also love the honey we sell from hives in the lavender field and the raspberries from nearby Conroy’s farm are always very popular.
What is it about your business that brings you joy?
The very smell of lavender puts me in a good mood and carries lots of happy memories, such as opening the big sacks of dried lavender that we fill a bath with every summer at the sale and then scoop into our linen and cotton bags.
It’s a very soothing, comforting smell that many associate with their mother or grandmother. Children make a beeline for the bath and we encourage them to dig into it and help us fill the bags. It has a very soothing effect!
What are your hopes for 2023?
I’m hoping for a good crop of lavender this summer and also that our sweet pea drills will produce lots of flowers too, as people love to buy a bunch or two at the harvest sale.
I’m also hoping that customers will like our new cologne and all the other lavender, gift and vintage items that we have been collecting and making for months!
We’re also working to develop online sales, as we now get enquiries for lavender products all year round.
What advice would you give to another start-up business?
I would say that things take a long time to come together, so keep trying and don’t dwell on the negatives if you can help it.
Lightbulb ideas are all very well, but a lot of success is down to dogged hard work and self-belief - something that is true, I think, in any job.
Give yourself time, experiment as much as you can and don’t beat yourself up for making mistakes.
We’ve had plenty of mishaps along the way, whether it’s torrential rain ruining the lavender flowers or blends of essential oils not working out and ruining expensive batches of soap. When things do go right, give yourself a pat on the back, then keep going.
The 2023 lavender harvest sale opens on 24 June and runs every weekend until the end of July. Visit http://lavender.ie/.
Read more
Meet The Maker: Karen Cunneen Bilbow
Meet The Maker: Maria Ryan of Bell Meadow Flowers
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