Meet the luxury Irish seaweed brand that is conquering the global market

Irish Examiner

10-05-2025

'You can see Slieve League from here,' says Voya head harvester John Devins as he gestures across the Co Sligo beach on which we're standing. Sure enough, beyond the white horses of the North Atlantic waves, I can see the Donegal cliffs peeping through the horizon's haze.
This stretch of seaweed-strewn shoreline is Devins's office for the afternoon — he swapped bartending for seaweed over a decade ago — and he's in his element, in every sense, as he whips out his knife to begin hand-harvesting the luxe beauty brand's star ingredient.
He can fill 25 barrels in jig time, but the crop is always cut with care. For Devins and for Voya, sustainability is sacrosanct. Their yearly harvest is a fraction of what's offshore; a 2021 independent study found that they were taking 'between 0.1pc and 0.4pc of the seaweeds on offer in our zones', he tells me.
In a world where tech is taking over, it's a tonic to see Devins at work, moving methodically from one plant to the next, filling his big barrel with the glossy greeny-brown strips of Laminaria, which, back at the factory, will become body wraps, facial strips, or eye masks.
Seaweed and its use in beauty products is a small but ever more significant contributor to Ireland's blue economy, while the growing demand for 'clean' beauty products that don't impact the planet in their manufacture or disposal looks set to sustain that growth into the future.
CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB
John Devins can fill 25 barrels in jig time, but the crop is always cut with care. Picture: Karen Cox
Voya (an abbreviation of 'voyage') were ahead of the curve, innovating for almost 20 years now with a resource that's inextricably tied to the history and heritage of the western seaboard. Coastal communities have used seaweed as medicine, food and fertiliser for centuries, but increasingly, the intersection of seaweed, science and skincare is where it's at.
'We had no fear,' says Mark Walton. We're in the airy boardroom of Voya's HQ in Sligo, and the skincare brand's co-founders, husband and wife team Mark and Kira Walton, are telling me how they took their brand from a tiny start-up —'we were literally making stuff in the kitchen' — to one that's recognised globally and stocked in the world's swankiest spas.
Along with seaweed, 'an unbelievable ingredient' that's the most nutrient-dense plant on the planet, key factors in their success have been self-belief, a can-do attitude and an ability to think big from day one. The duo targeted prestigious properties early on, pitching their then-fledgling brand to Dubai's Burj Al Arab — at the time, the 'most important hotel in the world'.
'We got in there,' Mark recalls now, 'because we said, 'this is who we are. We make amazing products. We will solve any of your problems. We'll make it work in your spa'. And they said, 'Ok, let's go for it'. That happened in Dubai. That happened in London and in properties all around the world, like the Ritz-Carlton, the Four Seasons. We went after them and while we were not always successful, we were successful enough times that it created traction and awareness of the brand globally.' Hotels now comprise 70pc of their business.
Mark and Kira Walton: Hotels now comprise 70pc of Voya's business. Picture: Karen Cox
Before starting Voya, the Waltons had been working and living in Dublin, but the pull of a life by the sea in Mark's home county of Sligo proved impossible to resist, so in the early Noughties they upped sticks and moved to Strandhill, and now live just a stone's throw from the Atlantic with their seven-year-old son Avery.
They both have that particular glow that comes from living by the sea. It's an 'instant reset button' for Mark and he surfs, sea swims — which helped him lose 'nearly 80lbs' during the pandemic — and is a three-time prone paddleboarding world champion, with an as yet unbeaten record for the fastest crossing of the English Channel.
Kira spent several years of her childhood in the Bahamas and Curacao — her father worked in the airline industry — so returning to live by the ocean was a natural fit.
Their previous careers — Mark had studied law and worked as a business strategist at a prestigious finance firm, while Kira had expertise in graphic design and project management from her role at tech company Riverdeep — gave them a solid skillset on which to base their start-up, but they didn't hit upon creating a seaweed-based brand by accident; they were building on a family legacy and a local tradition of using seaweed as a therapeutic resource.
The pull of a life by the sea in Mark's home county of Sligo proved impossible to resist. Picture: Karen Cox
In 2000, Mark's brother, Neil, revived the seaweed baths in Strandhill — the 1912 iteration had been destroyed by Hurricane Debbie in 1961 — with the support of his organic horticulturist dad, Mick, who was a trailblazer for organic methods when such a stance was neither cool nor profitable. Sunderland native Mick, who moved to Sligo in 1972, acquired a licence to harvest seaweed, which he then used on his farm to produce prize-winning vegetables.
In 2006, Mark and Kira saw an opening for a premium seaweed-based skincare range and there was never any question that their brand — which has been carbon neutral for a decade — would be based on organic and sustainable principles. They don't compromise on those values, ever, and as a result are currently 'sailing through' the prestigious B Corp certification process.
'It sounds arrogant, but it's not, because that philosophy was there as a company from the very beginning,' Mark says, noting they were the first company in Ireland to use recycled plastic, although 'at the time, nobody cared'. Today, they partner with a social enterprise that stops plastic from entering the ocean.
'There's an easy solution and then there's the right solution,' Mark says. 'My dad was a fan of the organic, he was one of the original board directors of the Organic Trust.'
Organic and sustainable were not always the buzzwords they are today, and in Voya's early days, Mark and Kira were met with some bewilderment when outlining the merit of those standards to business consultants, frequently fielding questions like 'what's organic?' or being asked if they 'get naked and go out and hug trees and stuff'.
The success of their original product — a seaweed bath called Lazy Days — inspired their skincare. While their newer products are more sophisticated, the simple (compostable) box of dried Fucus Serratus remains a best-seller.
There was never any question that their premium seaweed-based skincare brand would be based on organic and sustainable principles. Picture: Karen Cox
They're constantly innovating, and their latest success, an eye mask, is incredibly clever in its simplicity. Unlike the plastic or silicone eye masks sported by influencers on social media, Voya's version is made from cut-out crescents of seaweed which, when rehydrated and applied to the undereye, hydrates, fights free radical damage and boosts collagen production by a staggering 202pc. They can also be re-used multiple times.
John Devins has punched out thousands of the kidney-shaped eye masks in the course of a work day.
'You need a podcast for that,' he says with a grin, as he shows me around Voya's production facility. 'It's very time-consuming. It's also the best form of quality control that you can ask for because there are no machines. You constantly have human eyes on the product. From the minute you take it out of the sea to the minute it gets put into a box, someone's looking at the product.'
Voya started simply, with seaweed, but skincare has undergone a sea change since those early days.
'In America, the sustainable side is a much bigger message, whereas in Asia it's all about the results,' Mark says. 'Consumers are extremely educated.'
Delivering results requires research and to that end they've just kicked off a €1m project, part-funded by Enterprise Ireland, that's doing a deep dive into the benefits of seaweed as an ingredient. They've always invested in research, though, creating their own seaweed-based functional ingredients based on scientific data.
Voya started simply, with seaweed, but skincare has undergone a sea change since those early days. Picture: Karen Cox
Now, Mark says, the aim is to develop 'more refined, higher-efficacy extracts' from seaweed and in the process develop 'a centre of excellence'.
'We're looking at really investing a lot of money, and we do invest a lot of money, in technology and growing the brand out. And that will have a filter effect on other companies,' he says, explaining that research they've done with Munster Technological University on seaweed extracts is there for other brands to access in the future. 'We like that momentum.'
'Other companies learn from that [research] and that's great,' Kira says.
Knowledge is power, and we always say surround yourself with people who have more knowledge than you, who know their section of industry way better than you do, because it makes you and your company a better place.
They have staff in six countries — the US, Malta, UK, Ireland, Middle East and Cyprus — and their products are stocked in a whopping 54, but they could be 'three, four times bigger than we are right now' if they wanted, they say, but they won't compromise on their values to get there. If it doesn't 'feel right', they say no. They turned down a huge deal with US retail giant Whole Foods as it wasn't the right fit.
'Sometimes it's hard because we're going, 'we could be making a lot of money with these people right now',' Mark says.
'But we're lucky. We own the company. We don't have external shareholders. No one's saying over our shoulder, 'you need to do X, Y, and Z'. We just make the move into whatever — a product, customer base, market — when we want to do it.'
It's an outlier stance in a world where greenwashing is rife and everything is for sale if the price is right. Boundaries are important to the Waltons, in business and in life, and you won't find them sharing their personal lives on social media in the hope of shifting a few more units of product.
'As brands and owners, you are the face of the brand, and we struggle with that personally. Don't get me wrong, we know that if you want to make X amount of million more, you are really active on social media, and you are putting out all of this content. We don't, we're personal people,' Mark says.
'Some brands are becoming really successful becoming the brand in themselves. We made a decision to focus on the quality of our products and that's it.'
Boundaries are important to the Waltons, in business and in life. Picture: Karen Cox
They don't talk about work after office hours, having learned the hard way — Voya pillow talk proved incompatible with getting to sleep — that to get any kind of work-life balance a line had to be drawn.
'A work-life balance is challenging. And it was very challenging when we started off the business. We had to develop some rules.' Mark says.
'After 5.30pm, there's no talk about work,' Kira says, although with business dealings in several other time zones, the emails don't stop, she says, and Mark continues to work after their 'no shop talk' deadline. When we speak, Trump is talking up his tariffs and while Mark is 'a little bit worried', he's also able to contextualise.
'We always have a number of fires to put out. So whether it's Trump or product entry into China or changes in regulations in the Middle East, or changes in regulations in the product formulations, there's always something to deal with. If you let these things consume you, you'll get nothing done.'
Voya have staff in six countries — the US, Malta, UK, Ireland, Middle East and Cyprus — and their products are stocked in a whopping 54
Stormy seas don't faze them. They know the worth of their brand and what it stands for.
'There'll be brands which have better marketing, there'll be brands with products that maybe look even more glamorous, there will be brands that have the best influencer in the world,' Mark says.
'But when it comes to the quality of the formulation, we'll go toe to toe with anyone in the world, no problem. We've never compromised on amazing products with amazing ingredients and that's it.'
'We're always evolving,' adds Kira.
The voyage continues.
voya.ie
'The ocean is our pharmacy'
Helena McMahon is the co-founder of Seabody, a cutting-edge Irish beauty and wellness brand that's broken new ground when it comes to the science behind seaweed.
'The ocean is our pharmacy,' says cellular bio-chemist Helena McMahon — and she should know.
The pioneering entrepreneur is the co-founder of Seabody, a cutting-edge Irish beauty and wellness brand that's broken new ground when it comes to the science behind seaweed.
The Tralee native had long been aware of seaweed's skin-health properties, so when NutraMara — her marine biotech company — developed functional marine ingredients that showed impressive results in the lab, a seaweed-based skincare brand was a no-brainer next step.
'The ingredients themselves told us what products we could create because we're results-driven,' McMahon says.
These days, results are what consumers demand from their skincare.
High-potency, high-efficacy, high-performing actives are now the norm, and McMahon's luxe brand delivers all of that. Trend-led she is not – it's innovation that interests her. She's long been on a mission to harness the bounty of seaweed's bioactives and upscale in a way that fits with her non-negotiables of sustainability and circularity.
Seabody's Hydrogel mask cleanser
Back in 2011, long before sustainability hit the zeitgeist, McMahon had been working with companies 'in the natural product area' that wanted to create global brands.
'I felt, OK, if we're going to go to nature to utilise these amazing bioactive ingredients that are locked up in these wonderful plants, we have to be very cognisant of the potential impact that can have on ecosystems,' she says. 'We need to do it in a way that is sensitive and respectful of the environment.'
That principled stance continues to be her north star. Seabody hand-harvests its seaweed — although sustainable seaweed farming is being considered — working with harvesters 'from Donegal, right down along the West coast'. Some of whom, McMahon says, 'have been harvesting seaweed for generations within their family'.
'They've inherited the licences, and the know how in terms of how to harvest the seaweed in a way that leaves sufficient plant behind so that it can regenerate within approximately two years. They know how to rotate through the specific locations and also very cleverly identify the different types of seaweed that you need'.
Helena McMahon: While Seabody is only three years old, it's already seeing significant growth
Kerry to her core — 'I'm green and gold on the inside' — it's been important to her to base the businesses she's cofounded in her homeplace of Tralee, helping to halt the 'brain drain' that affects rural and coastal communities.
'Supporting local economies, creating high-quality jobs, jobs that would pay well, jobs that embrace people who have good technical skills and knowledge is hugely important.'
She set up NutraMara in 2017 and, while Seabody is only three years old, it's already seeing significant growth. In the past 20 years, the global seaweed
market has tripled and, with the industry set to be worth €22bn by 2028, the recent establishment of an Irish Seaweed Association seems timely.
'I think it's wonderful to see that an association has been formed,' says McMahon.
She's very clued in on the growing global awareness around seaweed farming, utilisation, and how algae cultivation is uniquely placed to potentially mitigate climate change.
Seaweed has a low ecological footprint, not needing fresh water, fertiliser or land to grow, and crucially, she says, the renewable resource captures carbon, acts as a biofilter, removing pollutants from its environment, and 'can provide beautiful habitats and support biodiversity within the ocean'.
Seabody Beauty capsules
Sustainable seaweed farming 'really ties in with this whole concept of regenerative agriculture and linking the land and sea, which I think is really powerful'.
In the past, 'green' equalled homespun, but McMahon's brand is super sophisticated, from the elegant minimalism of its packaging, to the 'green chemistry' that enables its creation, to Maraderm — the 'hero ingredient' bio-retinol that is a pillar of Seabody's efficacy and unique to the brand.
'We are constantly discovering,' she says, explaining that while the plant's biomolecules are a known quantity, the key to future innovations lies in the 'isolation methods and the combination of the different types of ingredients'.
That ocean pharmacy is only getting going.
seabody.com
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