Founder and CEO of Tropic Skincare, Susie Ma, 35, was born in China and moved to Australia aged six. At 13 she relocated with her mother to London. To help pay the bills she spent her weekends selling homemade body scrub — her grandmother’s recipe — at Greenwich Market, and Tropic Skincare was born. After studying economics at UCL, she began her career at Citigroup working in foreign exchange trading. Realising that finance was not for her, in 2011 she appeared on The Apprentice, finishing third but securing an investment of £200,000 from Lord Sugar in exchange for 50 per cent of her company. She bought the shares back in 2023 and now owns 100 per cent. She lives in London with her partner, Matt, a cinematographer.

Whenever I read an interview with a CEO, I feel embarrassed. They’re up at five, running marathons and simultaneously hosting four Zoom meetings before breakfast. I used to be like that, but I’m better at my job when I’ve had enough sleep, so I wake up when my body tells me to — usually around eight.

That’s doubly important now because I’m halfway through my first pregnancy. It has made me feel quite vulnerable, which I’m not used to. Exercise is just walking the dog and some light yoga, but I have to be careful — I’m hypermobile, so it’s easy for me to dislocate an arm or a leg.

Matt is crazy about exercise and does Ironman triathlons in his spare time. We met six years ago when he was filming me and 14 other CEOs — including Richard Branson — taking part in a charity cycle ride through Sardinia and France. After we started dating he organised a 100-mile cycle ride, thinking that was how I liked to spend my weekends. Sorry, Matt, that was misleading marketing.

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Breakfast is a bowl of porridge while I’m planning the day, then I do a bit of product testing. Most people have bookcases; I have a set of shelves with 400 products for me to try. Some are ours, some from competitors. I might use one body wash on this arm and another on that arm; one sunscreen on this cheek, another on that cheek. I ask myself: what does it smell like? How does it feel? Creating a beauty product is very similar to cooking — too much of this ingredient or that one and the dish is ruined.

Our office is in south London and I like to think of it as a sort of Willy Wonka factory. Part of it is filled with tropical plants, flowers, trees and walls of greenery. In the lab we have huge machines and bubbling vats, with this massive mixer that blends face masks instead of cake batter. And the smell! Everything from coffee beans and frangipani to avocado and fresh vanilla. The best beauty products offer much more than functionality — they take you somewhere, they make that moment special.

Matt used to be a chef, so I often bring in leftovers for my lunch, but we have a staff canteen where everyone can get together. As any CEO will tell you, the team makes the difference. I surround myself with people who can do their job much better than I could. Obviously I’m involved in all the big stuff, but most of the decisions that are made at Tropic are not made by me.

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I give myself some leeway in the afternoon. If I need a nap, I’ll take one, and if I’ve finished all my meetings I might head home or visit my mum. She only lives 20 minutes from our house but she complains — like all mums! — that we’re too far away. I was born in Shanghai in 1988 during the one-child policy, so I have no brothers or sisters. It’s different now, of course. China is desperate for people.

I’m usually home by six and, being an expert delegator, I leave all the cooking to Matt. We do watch TV in the evening, but it has to be something that will expand my mind. If I’m giving a programme an hour of my life, it needs to give me something in return. I’ll make a few phone calls, send a few emails and be in bed by 11.

Words of wisdom

Best advice I was given Always go back to your “why” when making difficult decisions

Advice I’d give The best investment you can ever make is in yourself

What I wish I’d known Nobody has it all figured out

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