‘The prai root has been used as a skin treatment for thousands of years. Thai women use the prai root to reduce stretch marks before and after childbirth but this incredible root was not being used to benefit women in the west.’

PRAI products, based on the prai root of Thailand. TOP LEFT: PRAI shampoo, conditioner and gloss. ABOVE: PRAI Overnight Equalizer. BELOW: PRAI Silk Serum.

ATHY KANGAS is a visionary within the beauty industry. With her wide experience and global awareness, she has been able to bring to women the best natural products that the world can offer. Always looking to take on a new challenge, a few years ago Cathy seized the opportunity to start her own cosmetics company, one challenge she had not yet conquered. Proving that prestigious cosmetics can be marketed successfully on television networks, Cathy led her PRAI line of beauty products to the number one spot on ShopNBC in a mere fourteen months.
   Cathy spent many enjoyable years working is bustling New York City but decided to siutate her own headquarters in her charming New England neighborhood. Over a pot of tea, Cathy told us how success came to her and gave us beauty tips for 2003.
   Having graduated with a law degree at the young age of 19, Cathy decided to leave her family in Surrey, England and moved to New York, where she was to start a paralegal internship at Revlon. However, when she arrived at Revlon she never actually had the chance to use her degree in law. Instead, she was given a position in marketing and sales and has never looked back. ‘When I arrived at the Revlon headquarters, they felt I belonged in front of the customer and not behind a desk.’
   Early on Cathy spent some time working at the Revlon counter at Macy’s. This came easily to Cathy because she had spent many summers during her school holidays working as a sales girl at Selfridges in London, where she experienced the thrill of making a sale first hand. ‘My time at Revlon was the best cosmetics education I could have had.’
   After 11 years at Revlon, Cathy decided she needed a change and a new adventure. She wanted to build on her experience so she decided to take a position that was offered to her at Cartier Jewelers on Fifth Avenue. Her three years with Cartier were far from routine. When she was not hosting cocktail parties, training Cartier sales people or giving speeches, she was jetsetting across the globe with a bodyguard to show Cartier’s jewels to royalty. ‘There was never a dull day at the office.’
   After spending most of her career working in marketing and sales, Cathy decided that putting her skills to the test in her own company would be the ultimate challenge. ‘When I realized I had stumbled into a completely new area for the beauty industry I knew I had to embrace the opportunity.’ The big cosmetic houses rarely used Thailand’s incredible palette of ingredients in their products yet the healing powers of these botanicals have been known for centuries in Thailand. ‘The prai root has been used as a skin treatment for thousands of years. Thai women use the prai root to reduce stretch marks before and after childbirth but this incredible root was not being used to benefit women in the west.’
   Cathy started the Hide Away Spa, Inc. in 1999 and launched her own beauty line called PRAI, after the phenomenal properties in the prai root. Before starting the Hide Away, Cathy had worked for Tova, who sold a beauty line on QVC, a popular home shopping network. For the three years Cathy was with Tova she learnt the “ins and outs” of selling high-end beauty products on shopping networks and knew this would be the perfect marketing channel for her new beauty range.
   There is always a possibility that the avenue one chooses to sell a new product might not be successful but Cathy never doubted herself. ‘I have never been afraid to take risks. The positive attitude one adopts in facing a challenge ultimately defines one’s success. There are always going to be bumps along the way, but you need to confront every challenge with confidence that you will succeed. That is exactly what I did when I started the Hide Away.’

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