Next up in my series of inspirational women of instagram is the fabulous Jenni Retourné, the director of Willowberry natural skincare. Jenni, has worked in the beauty industry since 2004 and is passionate about growing a skincare brand with heart, integrity and transparency. Willowberry is an award-winning independent British brand and is much-loved by celebrity make-up artists (think Ruby Hammer and Caroline Barnes), facialists, celebrities, top bloggers and Instagrammers. All of Willowberry products are as natural as possible, using unrefined natural oils and butters to retain maximum nutrients to better enhance skin.
I love the Willowberry range and what I also love about Jenni’s instagram feed is her tips and tricks on how to use them, for example you can use her facial oil in 3 different ways (see this post). Jenni is always full of interesting information.
Tell me a bit about yourself
I’m 37, mummy to my beautiful little lady and owner of Willowberry natural skincare. I’ve worked in the beauty industry for 15 years within journalism and marketing, before going on to launch Willowberry; a long-held ambition of mine.
Where does your love of skincare come from? I absolutely adore all of your products and wonder where you get your inspiration?
Thank you so much! I am very passionate about supporting women’s self-esteem. From a mindset point of view, I encourage women to look at themselves in a better light. From a product point of view, I produce products that help women to achieve their best skin, naturally. Skin is always on show, so how a woman feels about it is paramount to her self-esteem.
My product blueprint comes down to high-performance natural products with nutritionally-rich ingredients and ingredient transparency. Every product has to make a real difference to the skin to make it out of the lab and into the Willowberry range.
Your Instagram is growing fast why do you think this is? Any tips or tricks?
It may appear that way but it has taken a fairly long time to grow – about 1.5 years. I don’t have a huge following, but my community is very engaged and connected to my brand, which is the most important thing. Numbers are meaningless without substance behind them.
One thing that always drives up my follower numbers is when top Instagrammers rave about Willowberry; my products are loved by the likes of The Fashion Lift, Chloe Loves to Shop, Kelly @ The Bee’s Knees, inpolife, to name just a few, plus many celeb make-up artists, such as Caroline Barnes. When these people mention my products on Instagram, my followers increase rapidly.
I think the main thing is to be authentic, engaged, relevant to your brand and offer content that people deem worthwhile to appear on their feed, be it educational, inspirational, beautiful, or whatever. Know your strengths and work to that – for example, my feed will never have the most beautiful photos, so I don’t even try to go down that route and instead I offer content that genuinely informs or inspires my followers.
What do you love/hate about Instagram?
I love Instagram for discovery, being inspired and the community; connecting with people & building relationships. Instagram is also an amazing tool for small businesses to be discovered and to communicate their brand values; it makes it much easier for independent brands to be found and to succeed.
I personally don’t hate anything about Instagram because I don’t allow it to have a negative effect on me. If something on there makes me feel rubbish about myself – even if the person/account is lovely but just doesn’t make me feel positive for whatever reason – then I just unfollow or mute it. You can’t be affected by something on Instagram if you can’t see it.
I’m intrigued by peoples morning routines and how they set themselves up for the day. What is your breakfast/morning routine?
I tend to wake up between 6-7am, either on my own accord or by my daughter calling for me! The first thing I do is have a cup of tea – don’t you find that the first cup of the day always tastes so darned good? Then I get myself and my daughter ready, take her to nursery and get straight into my working day. Running and growing a brand takes a huge amount of work so I have to be very focused during my working hours.
In the last 5 years what new belief, habit or behaviour has most improved your life?
Oooo, interesting question! I find it hard to say what’s ‘most improved my life’ because that suggests that my life wasn’t as good as 5 years ago, which it was – it was just hugely different. 5 years ago I didn’t have my child or Willowberry, both of which have changed my life and fulfilled me to a whole new level.
So if you don’t mind (!) I will answer on what one thing has most ‘changed’ my life, and that’s learning that the only real barrier to what you can achieve is your own self-belief. So you need to work out; what do I want to achieve? Okay, so that’s the goal (no matter how big and bold, or no matter how small). And then you need to work out; what do I need to do to get there? And I don’t mean you have to work all the hours of the day to achieve it (I categorically believe you don’t have to do that). You just need to work out what you want, truly believe you can achieve it and start working towards it.
If you could put one book in the high school curriculum what would it be and why?
Blimey, these are good questions! Powerful! Well, I did a talk recently to 120 high school students, about being an entrepreneur. I talked about self-belief, confidence, being happy, being brave, knowing that we are all good at something (even if it’s not the traditional academic stuff) and knowing that you need to work to achieve your dreams; it won’t just fall in your lap. This all applies whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not. So, how do I sum that up in a book? Something along the lines of: Believe in yourself, follow your own version of happy and work hard.
Actually I’ve just re-read your question and realised you probably meant an existing book – so that shows my own confidence that I chose to put my own self-imagined book into the school curriculum, haha
What impact do you want to have on the world?
I want to help make positive change to how women feel about themselves, inside and out. I want people to know that they are ‘enough’, that true beauty will shine through confidence, a smile, being kind to yourself. It won’t come from buying the latest trends, or the latest ‘miracle’ cream. And it certainly won’t come from comparing yourself to others – one thing you will never be is someone else.
As you can see, my ambitions are lofty!
What do you wish you could tell your younger self?
I’d tell her to give her mum extra-big cuddles.
Before you go, I urge you to watch Jenni’s latest ‘Change Your View Campaign’. I couldn’t make it to the end without shedding a tear, I wonder if you can?
Shelley x
