Boys, Beauty and Billionaires
Our series of interviews for the autumn starts with Stefano Modica Ragusa, one part of the team that have created Modica Beauty.
My name is Stefano and I am 31 years old. I love the arts and I worked for many years in the cultural sector in Italy and in the UK. Along with my brother Gabriele and my cousin Jules I recently launched my own business, Modica Beauty, the first online boutique in the UK to offer premium Italian natural and organic cosmetics to the UK market.
I live every day thinking that life is one and is too precious to let it pass without exploiting all the opportunities that life offers. Challenges are what make me feel alive. It is only by deciding to do something new, to create something different, to pushing the boundaries of what is considered common or established that I feel I am exploiting new opportunities and fully living my life.
My work is all about constantly looking for new Italian natural beauty products and creating content for our online store. Certainly my job enables me to discover new Italian ingredients, traditions and places, which I did not know before or of which I have just heard people talk about. My job enables me to travel and visit small and medium Italian manufacturers and brands in various Italian regions, often even in places not very easy to reach, as it is important for me to see closely where the natural ingredients and extracts come from and assist the manufacturing process and the final realisation of the products.
All this work will soon enable Modica Beauty to constantly offer new unique natural and organic beauty products Made in Italy, of which we will tell the provenance and the story including the work of small and medium manufacturers that, thanks to their great passion and daily efforts, are able to produce cosmetics of the highest quality.
If you ran a £billion business from Scotland how would you like to change the world you live in?
Scotland is an extraordinary place. I fell in love with this country as soon as I arrived and I immediately perceived the warm and welcoming attitude of people. As I now have a Scottish partner, I feel I have found my second home and can appreciate much more this wonderful culture and its traditions.
What leaves me speechless every day are all the people who struggle to live in decent conditions and do not have a place to come back in the evening. I cannot get used to this. Many of them are young guys and girls to whom life did not give the same opportunities that I had. I would offer the opportunities that life offered me to the people who did not receive them or simply did not manage to grab and exploit them. Everyone of us should have a second, third or forth chance and everyone of us should do something more to relieve the suffering of the people around us.
Pick a theme song for your life
This song has always been part of my life since I was young and my parents where playing the LP every Sunday morning.
Boys are not known for buying beauty products; do you have a recommendation?
First of all it is important to live a healthy life and try to find some time every day for those activities which help us feeling well, physically and psychologically. Men use beauty products more and more as they have learnt to look after themselves and their appearance much more than before and the use of skin care products is becoming more and more common. Certainly the balance between a healthy lifestyle and the care of the body improve the wellbeing of women as much as men, and I am sure that men will look after themselves and their wellbeing more and more.
Interview by Colin Gilchrist, Social Tailor from the series Boys, Beauty and Billionaires