Kylie Jenner, Kate Moss and Botox with Rodial founder Maria Hatzistefanis

It was only after an MBA and a brief career in investment banking – Hatzistefanis was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in New York and then worked in finance at Solomon Brothers – that she realized the impact of the times.

“I love fashion, but beauty has always been more of a home for me,” she laughs from Dublin, where she is on a press trip for Rodial.

Beauty and business, it seems, considering Hatzistefanis’ global beauty brands Rodial and Nip + Fab have been the toast of the town since 1999, with everyone from Sienna Miller to Kate Middleton hooked.

“The entire royal family uses Rodial, I believe,” she says, bewildered. “Even Camilla – and that’s the case from very early on.”

Hatzistefanis launched Rodial in 1999, a brand perhaps best known for its thick, cylindrical highlighters and serums with names like Snake Serum (which contains a neuropeptide that mimics the paralyzing effects of Templar’s venom).

Completely self-funded (“I tried to get financing of course, but that didn’t happen, so I moved on”) and knew its unique business strategy from the start: high-quality ingredients that offered a natural alternative to plastic surgery.

“We started with body care,” she says. “But it wasn’t until we released Snake Serum that we really created a splash.

Back then, all the common product names were everywhere; anti-aging, moisturizing etc. So we wanted to create a shock factor, which we did with the name and photo shoot where we had snakes,” she laughs.

“That was before social media, remember. So the only way to get the word out was through the press.”

Rodial is a rarity in beauty as it remains independently and privately owned by Hatzistefanis. Nip + Fab, another Hatzistefanis brand, entered the market in 2010 as a more affordable line to cater to a millennial market. Kylie Jenner was an early adoptee.

“She organically posted about us on Instagram, which caused us a big fuss, so we reached out to (her mom) Kris Jenner, not thinking she would even read the email, but she got back to us right away. Kylie was 16 at the time and we kind of got her on the crest of a wave,” Hatzistefanis says.

“When we worked with her she had very thin lips, and by the time we did the campaign they were much bigger. So everyone was talking about her.”

Other fans came via Oscars goodie bags.

“All the Jennifers – Aniston, JLo, Lawrence – then found us. And we had the Rodial Beauty Awards from 2013 to 2018, where we honored our Women of the Year, but the year Kate Moss won it, she never showed up. Things started to get difficult in recent years because most of these celebrities now have beauty contracts so they can’t talk about our products even if they love them. But many of them still use us. Margot Robbie recently spoke about us.”

Hatzistefanis is known in the industry as one of the early birds in the industry. The day we spoke she woke up at a reasonable 6am, but a 4:30am start is not unusual.

“Just having that hour sets the tone for the day,” she says. “It puts me in the right mindset.”

As for future plans, the beauty entrepreneur has plenty; a fourth book; another series of Dragon’s Den Greece; and more innovation with Rodial and Nip + Fab.

However, I couldn’t leave without asking her opinion on one more thing: we know the lore of Rodial’s Banana Lowlighter (€38.50, Simplybe.ie) and the virality of the Dragon’s Blood Sculpting Gel (€110.45, Look Fantastic ), but what is Rodial’s most underrated product?

“The Bee Venom Eye Cream (€166.75, Space NK),” she says.

“I was one of those people who never used eye cream. But after a certain age you really need it. Even if you do get Botox, it wears off after a while.”