Truly Gifted: Marissa Carter

While their lives look frantic on Snapchat, exotic on Instagram, and they always seem to be doing something in the public eye, being successful involves more than just an enviable social profile. MELANIE MORRIS meets five of Ireland’s most prolific creative professionals and finds out what makes them tick, starting with CEO of Cocoa Brown, Marissa Carter.?

PORTRAITS BY ANTHONY WOODS

STILL LIFES BY TREVOR HART

MARISSA CARTER, 33

CEO, Cocoa Brown

HOBBIES/INTERESTS? Baking, gardening and travelling.

WHAT DO YOU USE YOUR PHONE FOR MOST? Work, Snapchat and Instagram. I hate emails, so I use WhatsApp group chats for business.

WHAT?S MOST IMPORTANT IN A PHONE, AND WHY?

Loads of storage and a killer camera. I like that you can easily add extra storage to Samsung phones.

ANY APP YOU LOVE THAT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT? Dropbox automatically saves my photos online so that I can delete them from my phone and save a heap of storage space. YOUR

PERFECT WEEKEND? Exploring a country market with the kids, doing some baking with them followed by a dinner date with my husband. Maybe some me-time at a spa too. Just an hour would do.

BEST CHRISTMAS PRESSIE EVER? Santa brought me a Barbie bike when I was seven and I spent years cycling it with the stabilisers still on. I was twelve before becoming brave enough to remove them!

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO FIND UNDER THE TREE THIS YEAR? I’d die if I got one of the Samsung fridges! Ideally, I’d love the three-door one with Twin Cooling Plus.

WHAT WILL YOU REMEMBER 2016 FOR? The year my little boy, Charlie, started big school and I launched Cocoa Brown Rose Gold Goddess Oil.

Instagram: @marissacarter Snapchat: @cartermarissa Twitter: @cartermarissa Website: cocoabrown.ie