Caroline Hirons, 56, founder of SkinRocks, is the outspoken queen of skincare, dubbed “the most powerful voice in the British beauty industry”. Born in Liverpool, she trained as an aesthetician in Paris and went on to found her eponymous beauty blog in 2010, at the age of 40.
In her fortnightly column for The i Paper, Caroline reveals how her life has changed since becoming a grandmother.
Before I became a nana, I just had one hope: that I would love my grandchildren as much as I loved my grandparents. I had fantastic grandmothers, they were second mums. Loving and caring, almost like your secret friend. Strong women, who made it clear just how much they adored me at any opportunity. That’s what I’ve tried to do with my grandchildren. It takes a village, and I’m so happy to be a major part of that village.
At the same time, you have to make sure you respect the way that the children’s parents want them raised. I am the grandmother, not the mother. If I think it’s not a big deal, I’ll contradict the parents and be cheeky, and give the kids what they want. But I don’t contradict them in terms of the big stuff, like what TV they can watch and what they can eat. The rules are no iPads and not giving them too much sugar – on that sort of thing, I always defer to my daughter-in-law. Even when my son and daughter-in-law are there, the kids will say: “Nanny, can I have a treat?” and I say: “You have to ask mummy and daddy.”
