School Daze with Tracey Ryan: 'I thought I was invincible!'

Tracey Ryan of Codex Beauty on how a love of learning led her to found one of Ireland's most successful beauty lines

Tracey Ryan is Managing Director and Master Formulator of Codex Beauty Europe.

I went to school in the Presentation Convent both for primary and secondary school at home in Thurles, Co. Tipperary.

I loved learning and really enjoyed school. I have always been curious. My mother would buy the schoolbooks during the summer and I would have them read cover to cover before school started in September. I suppose that might have been one of the reasons I couldn’t keep quiet in class. I was a bit of a messer in school, but I balanced that with working hard and getting involved with lots of activities like gymnastics and drama.

My most vivid memory in both primary and secondary school is of being told to stop talking! I was an absolute chatterbox at school. As much as I loved learning and enjoyed school, I could never keep quiet. Looking back on it now I must have driven the teachers crazy. I had so much to say all the time and trying to keep quiet was such a struggle for me.

Going to secondary school was a big change for me. I can remember feeling so grown up that I was getting to go across to the big school and get started on studying all these new subjects. I wish I had half the confidence I had as a teenager, I’m sure I thought I was invincible!

I loved English and History most of all. I enjoyed poetry and trying to decipher the meaning. I loved the story telling aspect of history and would be captivated and unusually quiet during class! I was pretty good at things like Biology and Geography because I have always loved nature, animals, and plants. I struggled with maths because I wouldn’t concentrate or apply myself to it. I also massively struggled with Home Economics because as a very vocal teenage feminist I felt it was all beneath me and had no interest. Now I love to cook!

The love of learning that I developed through school has always stuck with me. Once I discovered my interest in plant science I have continued learning and taking courses. I studied Organic Horticulture, did a degree in Herbal Science and am currently doing a part time diploma in Cosmetic Chemistry. On a practical level the science and biology and even maths classes have stood to me in my career as a cosmetic formulator even though at the time I’m pretty sure I said things like when am I ever going to use these maths lessons!!

We had a history teacher in secondary school Mrs Cahill who really brought the subject to life. She had a way of telling us the most interesting and usually gruesome parts of the story which of course kept us all totally engrossed. She would close the book and just ad lib much more interesting accounts of the time that we were studying – what the people were like, little side stories and things like that.

From her, I learned the importance of storytelling and how to keep an audience interested. That has been so important in my career. Selling a product is all about the story and allowing people to come in and be part of the story too. I would thank Mrs Cahill for being one of the teachers who actually got me to be quiet and listen!

If I met my school-age self today, I would tell her to slow down! I would say, ‘you don’t know it all and you have a lot to learn yet’. I was pretty sure at 16 that I had it all figured out and I’m sure I was insufferable at times. 

So, I would tell younger me to 'slow down, listen to the advice of your parents and teachers and take the time to figure out where you wanted to go in life'.

I think looking back, my school days definitely influenced my career path, but it took me a little longer to figure that out! I had an interest and talent for natural sciences, things like biology and geography but when choosing what career to take at first, I didn’t pursue this. The advice at the time if you were unsure about a career was to do an Arts Degree which I did but quickly discovered it was not for me.

As soon as I got on the path of plant science everything clicked into place for me and led to me setting up my own natural skincare business. I would also say that our school was also a very nurturing place, we were encouraged to take part in competitions and push ourselves forward and that background has been helpful for pushing myself forward in the business world.

Codex Beauty is a collective of global skin care lines built on science, natural ingredients, plant-based preservatives, pharmaceutical-grade processes, safety and efficacy trials, sustainability, and consumer transparency.  

You'll find it online from www.codexbeauty.com, as well as instore at Meadows and Byrne, McCauley Chemists, Cara Pharmacy, Lloyds Pharmacy, The Clean Beauty Edit, Kilkenny Stores, O’Sullivan’s Pharmacies and Dublin Airport.