Suzanne Jackson has admitted she feels like she is the most ‘disliked founder’ in Ireland.
Since 2010, the SoSueMe founder has built a multimillion-euro business empire, including beauty, tanning, and skincare lines through her SoSu Cosmetics brand.
But the Dubliner said she feels people have a different perception of her and thinks she’s disliked amongst her peers.
Suzanne Jackson pictured as she celebrated SOSU Cosmetics and Dripping Gold’s Official Beauty Partnership with Ireland Fashion Week at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin. Pic: Brian McEvoy
She said: ‘I think they get a lot wrong. I think they think it happened overnight for me. I think they think that it was easy and that it was luck and that, you know, she’ll never, you know, sell like that again. I will get back there.
‘Trust me, our sales absolutely amazing right now. I have a wonderful team. I have a very supportive husband. I’ve been very supportive family, and at the end of it all, that’s all that really matters to me.
‘You know, we will rise again, trust me, I am coming out of those flames like a phoenix. I’m going to give it my best shot.
‘And I don’t know why I’m focusing in on the negatives now, but there is probably more dislike towards me than I think any other founder in Ireland. I do feel that.
Pic: Suzanne Jackson/Instagram
‘I feel that for many reasons I could be wrong. Maybe it’s just because I’m in it. But on the flip side of that, I do have such wonderful supporters that are with me through thick and thin, and the DMs that I get like, oh my god, there’s days you’d sit there and you’d cry reading them. They’re so supportive, and they feel like family, they feel like friends.’
Suzanne said she never liked showing a vulnerable side, but admits there are days when she would go home and cry after a difficult day at the office.
‘I don’t like to show vulnerability, and I think we saw that in Dancing With The Stars as well. I don’t like to show my softer side and I think as a woman in business, you sometimes need to, or I felt you need to show up as the strong ass woman all the time.
‘But actually, there’s days I just go home and have a cry and I just want to shut the world away. But I feel that sometimes I think maybe people don’t, some people don’t resonate with me, and I don’t know why they don’t. Is it because maybe I don’t have kids. Is it because I’m not similar to them and with their family life. Like I do feel that. I’ll be honest, I do feel that.
Suzanne Jackson pictured as she celebrated SOSU Cosmetics and Dripping Gold’s Official Beauty Partnership with Ireland Fashion Week at the Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin. Pic: Brian McEvoy
‘So I was like, I need to show them the real Suzanne. And I did get a good response on Dancing with the Stars when I showed my true self. So I was like, You know what? We had a blip last year. I need to show up. I need to admit that, and I need to bring people behind the scenes to show them that I’m a human there’s also a lot of people behind this brand.
‘There’s a lot of livelihoods here and that, you know, we’re trying our best. But mistakes do happen. Things do happen out of your control. However, I think it’s how you fix it, how you bounce back and how you learn from that is the most important,’ she added.
Last October, we revealed how Suzanne’s products had to be removed from the shelves of Boots due to ‘safety concerns’.
The pharmacy and beauty emporium had to take the drastic decision to totally remove from their 85 stores nationwide and their website every one of Suzanne’s products, including her tan range Dripping Gold.
Suzanne Jackson pictured at the launch of the SOSU Cosmetics festive gifting suite Pop-UP at Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre, Dublin. Pic: Brian McEvoy
She was hit with a double whammy that same month when she had to remove her eyeshadow palette from shelves due to the presence of arsenic.
Suzanne admitted she had to ‘pull myself back up’ from a ‘very tough’ year last year.
Speaking to Georgie Crawford on The Good Glow podcast, she said: ‘I definitely had to pull myself back up…it was a tough time. I won’t lie, but I think success teaches you how to grow, but struggle teaches you who you are.
‘And I really just kind of discovered how resilient I am. I didn’t know I was this resilient, and I am unbreakable. That’s how I feel. I feel unbreakable, and I know there’s there’s, there’s been times I probably should have broken.
‘Maybe there’s some people out there that wish that I break, but I won’t. I am unbreakable, and I stand over that so you won’t break me. And I get that from my mum, but also because I have worked too damn hard to let anything take it away from me. And you know what I also said to my mum one day, if everything did come crashing down, everything was to be taken away from me, I would build it brick by brick again, and I have that belief in myself, and that’s something that can’t be taken away from me.’