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Ruby Hammer
Interview Phadria Prendergast
Ruby Hammer of namesake award winning beauty brand Ruby Hammer has painted the faces of some of the most sought after supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Niki Taylor. Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex and Dame Helen Mirren can also be found amongst Hammer’s list of dreams. The renowned makeup artist spoke with WOTC about remaining consistent, establishing herself in the industry and picking her core group of people.
Phadria: Who advises you? Do you have a mentor and what is a key piece of advice that this person has given - if any that has stuck with you?
Ruby: To be honest, I don’t have a mentor. I’ve been in the business for a long time. What I do have is people to bounce off like my ex-husband. I’m a very good collaborator. I look to myself and then I sort of bounce off people. I don’t mind sharing my ideas if someone asks me anything. The key advice would be not to be scared to ask because people don’t know do they? Another would be to keep pushing the boundaries. In terms of mentorship, you just need to know ‘I have a lot to learn and I have a lot to share’.
P: Is there anyone that you mentor?
R: It’s not so much mentorship, but anyone that asks me for any guidance or anything that I’m able to do, I do that. With lockdown, you can’t have this formal being together, but I’m open to it. I help without it being a formal ‘I mentor you’
P: How have you managed to stay relevant over the last 2 decades?
R: It’s one in my personality; life doesn’t stand still – it keeps going. Unless you’re a hermit and you go and bury yourself under the sand. As a woman, as a human being, as a business, as a creative person, whatever life holds, unless you really lock the door and never bother to do this or that, you can’t help but be relevant. I want to be relevant. If I don’t know about something, we now have the tools. If you didn’t know what someone was talking about and was wondering ‘what is that’, you could at least find something. I’m not arrogant enough to think I know it all but also, I’m a lot older. So, some of the things are hard like technology which isn’t very easy to me but very relevant so I know I’m going to have to bring myself up to speed without discomfort and I ask people for help in my team, that can help. You have to have the intention to want to stay relevant and then you find your way, don’t you? Sometimes I’m good at, sometimes I’m not but it’s in my nature. I’m a searcher. That’s all it takes is the desire to be relevant that keeps you that way.
P: At what point do you really feel as though you really established yourself in this industry?
R: It’s funny, because I have been in the industry for a long. It’s over a 30-year period now. It’s really hard to know where (laughs). When you get your first bit of money and it was when I was assisting, from there I started thinking ‘oh I’ve been paid properly for something’. Then you take into account when your first editorial comes out, your first big photographer – it’s very hard to say this is the main bit. It takes lots of steps until you could say, ‘okay I’m making a living’.
P: Do you think humility is very important in this industry and if you do think it is, what other traits would you say are key?
R: Humility is very important in life, not just this industry and work is not the whole entire thing of our life. Pressure is always there but humility is important but not fake humility. Not this lip service of ‘I’m so polite and I’m so this’. Genuinely if you’re really humble, you’ll realise you’re part of a team. You don’t work alone. Everything is done, not in a vacuum and not by yourself. These are the traits of being humble. Recognising, you’re not the only one. People are usually taught in life, with family, in just walking across the street, in nature – how powerless you are but also, know your contribution helps. That’s not being arrogant, that’s being realistic. Just knowing you’re part of something.
P:What does the beauty industry look like to you?
R:It is mind boggling. I don’t know. I can’t say. There are so many mixed messages coming out. This industry is scary for us now. We have to be realists. I genuinely don’t know how we will navigate the next 5 years. I think we need to get through the next 6 months first. How is our industry going to stand up and we need to fight for it because at the moment, the hairdressing industry which is not separate for us – but at the moment are looking at us and not taking us seriously. I’m not saying we are rocket scientists or doing brain surgery but look, our industry counts for something. Allow us to take that pride and dignity. It brings money. I don’t know how to navigate the next 5 years, but I would love it to be more inclusive.
P: How do you decide who is your core group of people?
R: I think it is always a decision like that is it? It’s not like okay, I want people that think this way and if you don’t then I don’t want you. No. right now, you’re in my core (referring to the WOTC Editor-in-chief) because we’re having a conversation (laughs). My daughter is in the beauty industry as well – she’s in my core. So, anything beauty related and as women, I bounce off her. My immediate core Lianna is the one I most bounce ideas off. There are wider people in various industries where over the 30 years, we have built relationships. So, your core is tiny now with who you see and who you talk to everyday but it’s also a necessity. Who are you dealing with because of the business? Who are you dealing with because of PR and so on. It might be someone I see once a year and then I go to a press launch and I would. Of course, with lockdown, we are doing Zoom ones, but you know, it’s very hard to decide but it should be who makes you feel comfortable. Who you gain something from and hopefully you are able to give them something back too.
