FREE UK SHIPPING ON ORDERS £50+
Caroline, how did you come across Jessica’s work?
A chance encounter browsing gifts online led me directly to Jessica’s DMs. I was looking for Christmas gifts and ended up on a website buying a HUGE poster called Love Actually. I then saw another one that I later discovered was Taylor Swift lyrics. I had no idea, and I'd bought both for a friend of mine, too. I fell in love with the use of colour. I’m not a beige person (I don't know if you've noticed)...colour is everything.
How did the collab evolve?
We wanted to create something special for our Christmas gifting this year by commissioning an artist to do some bespoke packaging designs. When we were having the internal discussions, I was extremely bossy and said, “We only need to speak to one person.” That person was Jessica. Once the ball got rolling, I remember saying to our Creative Lead “Well, she's just had a baby, so I'm not entirely sure she's even looking at her Instagram. But we'll give it a go”. Luckily, Jessica was all in, and the rest as they say, is history.
Jessica, how long have you been an artist and how did you feel about working with Skin Rocks?
I've been painting professionally for seven years. I started in 2019. I was super excited when Caroline contacted me about a collab — our shared love of colour and aversion to anything grey, beige or greige was an instant connection! Caroline contacted me on Instagram literally five days after I'd given birth, and I don't know why I was on my phone at that point, but I'm lucky that I was. For me, it came at a really good time because it was the first painting that I did after giving birth, so was a really creative, expressive and liberating thing to do so soon after having a baby — I loved that.
How did you approach this piece of art? Were there any elements of the Skin Rocks brand or branding that you wanted to include?
In terms of the process, I really wanted to capture the Skin Rocks brand and its personality. To me, that means being unapologetically bold, energetic, fun and inclusive. That was the starting point I took. I was instantly drawn to the colour palette which instinctively made me want to explore that in a very joyful way.
I started with a huge splatter of pink because it's always my first starting point. I love pink, everyone who follows me knows I love pink, so I splatter on some pink, and from there the process is really intuitive. I'll just make marks. I find it's the best way to get over the fear of the blank canvas, because sometimes it can be a bit daunting. I mainly use acrylic paints, but I also use pencil marks and do a lot of mark-making with brushes and pens—different instruments. And then obviously you've got the lovely colour palette from Skin Rocks as well, so the colour combinations were perfect. One of the products I loved for its colour combination was The Cleansing Balm — when you open it, you've got the hot pink jar, and then this zesty orange-yellow inside. I definitely wanted to get that vibrant, energetic mood into the painting — it captures the brand perfectly.
How did the timings work with you being a new mum?
So, Caroline contacted me and it worked out that I had the best part of 3 weeks to complete the piece. Alex took the baby for some little walks, so I managed to get some time in the studio, and it was nice to have a bit of solitude and just throw my paint around. It was fast but fun. I enjoyed it. I took the whole time, going in and out of the studio as I tend to work in small bursts, so too advantage of having 20-minute windows here and there.
What was your favourite part of the creative process?
My favourite part was that the Skin Rocks team were amazing and gave me such creative freedom over the piece. As an artist, collaborating like that is fabulous. They really trusted me to create something that captured the brand. It was such a liberating feeling to use my creativity again, that was so much fun.
How do you want people to feel when they see the artwork? And who was the first person you showed it to?
The first person I showed it to was my baby! And then my husband. I want people to feel empowered and joyful when they see the artwork, like they can take on the world. To me, this piece is about having the confidence to do that. It's vibrant, bold and joyful, and I want it to champion being unapologetically yourself. It’s loud, in the best possible way, and I wanted to celebrate that!
Was it a different process painting post-birth than before?
Definitely, because you change so much when you become a mum. It came at the perfect time to celebrate who I am now.
How does it feel to have your work interpreted across packaging?
I’ll definitely be going into stores and saying, “Oh, look, that's my painting, but on packaging!”. Although I’ve not done anything like this before, funnily enough I used to work as a colour expert for packaging, so It's really a full-circle moment for me. The end result is so beautiful, so cool. I love what Skin Rocks has done with it, and the introduction of metallic gold accents — it works so well. The sets are just gorgeous. I absolutely love them.
Caroline, how do you feel about the finished packaging?
It’s divine. Bold, beautiful, with intense, saturated colour — what’s not to love? The artwork adds such a collectable, giftable element to the Christmas collection with the gorgeous ready-to-give gift bags and mini sets in keepsake boxes with magnetic closures (yes, team I KNOW how expensive they were to make). They’re just chef’s kiss... the sound of that magnet clicking...aah, beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to wake up to that on Christmas morning? I think we've done Jessica proud.
Jessica, if you're going to gift someone a Skin Rocks present and put it under/on the tree, what are you going for?
I think I'm going to go with the Cream Cleanser. It's so good, and that pink! What about you Caroline?
Caroline:
Well, I'm in the unfortunate position of being asked to gift people products all the time with my brand. I obviously love everything, including the Cream Cleanser (which for the record I made for ME...I didn't care what anyone else said, I was like, “It's done. It's finished. None of you are testing it. I've made it for me!”). Although it depends on the person you’re gifting, I think most people actually want a cleanser or a moisturiser as those are the staples people run out of fastest and always want to replace. If I had to pick one, it would probably be The Moisturiser.
Jessica, what are you doing for Christmas?
I haven't even thought about it yet. Probably just cooking a roast dinner at home, watching telly and eating chocolate. The nicest Christmas I’ve ever had was the year I went to Lapland. Reindeer rides, that was so cute.
What's the worst and best Christmas presents you've ever received?
It has to be parcel tape from my husband. I promise I'm not making that up. Being an artist, I do go through a lot of parcel tape, but he didn’t even wrap it. That is such a man thing to do! The best gift I've ever received is not a gift as such, but something I look forward to every year—is a Christmas card my nan cross-stitches. I love it every year. I look forward to that.
What are the worst and best gifts you've ever received Caroline?
The best gift I ever got is going to sound cheesy, but it's absolutely true. I managed to plan perfectly getting pregnant so that I could have Christmas off when I was still working in retail and I had Ava on the 10th of December and my favourite Christmas memory, just for me personally—not once you've got kids and grandkids, because it's different—was lying on the sofa with a new baby asleep on my chest, watching Gone with the Wind. I settled in for five hours while the boys were playing with their dad downstairs. It was a moment where I thought, “Oh, this is well timed, Hirons. Well done”. Let's just watch telly and order a cup of tea and watch Vivian Leigh. And I deserved to chill because we haven't had a chilled one since.
To purchase the limited-edition Skin Rocks X Jessica Slack Christmas Gift Sets, click here.
To explore the work of Jessica Slack, visit https://jessicaslack.com/pages/about
