Celebrating the Women Behind the Brands
This International Women's Day, we’re celebrating the inspiring female founders behind brands we proudly stock at John Bell & Croyden. These women have transformed ideas into thriving businesses, leading with passion and purpose.
To honour their journeys, we’ve invited them to reflect on what it means to build something of their own, with lessons learned, challenges overcome, and the experiences that have shaped them along the way. Join us as we recognise some of the wonderful women who are making an impact in beauty and wellness.
Hanover Booth & Jessie Willner, Co-Founders of Discothèque
Hanover Booth and Jessie Willner turned their love of nightlife into a brand that captures the thrill of the party in every scent. Frustrated by fragrances that felt uninspired, they crafted a line of candles and perfumes that are bold, playful, and unapologetically joyful. Discothèque is more than fragrance, but a daily invitation to embrace your most vibrant energy and bring the club to wherever you are.
Can you share a highlight or milestone that you’re particularly proud of in your journey as female founders?
HB: One of our proudest milestones has been launching our Eau de Parfums. We brought them into the world just a year and five months ago, and the response has genuinely surpassed anything I could have imagined!!
Another real pinch-us moment was being selected as the fragrance for British Vogue’s advent calendar. That felt pretty monumental. To be recognised by such an iconic title, especially so early in our journey, was both affirming and wildly exciting. For two women building something from the ground up, it felt like proof that instinct, hard work, and a bit of audacity can pay off!
JW: The biggest highlight has been just getting to make things we love for a living! For me, getting to explore design in ways that feel completely new and build entire worlds around the scents has been the most fulfilling and greatest part. And having our favorite retailers in the world (like John Bell & Croyden!) support us on this journey has been incredible. Watching the scents sell out over and over again still doesn't feel real!
Are there particular women who have inspired or influenced you throughout the brand’s journey?
HB: Absolutely!! It’s very often the women around me every day. I’m constantly inspired by my friends as well as the brilliant women within our own company. We’re lucky here in London to be surrounded by women who are starting businesses, leading teams, and making meaningful change in their industries. Watching them back themselves and build things on their own terms is incredibly motivating.
There are also the cultural icons I’ve always admired — women like Eve Babitz, Diana Ross, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane Birkin. Their writing, music, styleand independence have definitely been very inspirational.
JW: My mom, who taught me photography and encouraged any wild idea I ever had, and my grandma, who was a lifelong artist and inspired me to follow the same path. Both of them were the most free, dream-chasing, alive women I've ever met and they shaped me completely by giving me the delusion (turned reality) that I could pursue the things I loved most in the world. I think about them constantly on this journey and how much they’d love every second of it.
What is your go-to fragrance?
HB: It honestly changes often because I do love wearing them all, but I always seem to come back to layering Call for a Good Time with Heathens, Cowboys, and the Santa Ana Winds. Together they feel balanced, and extremely compliment each other.
JW: My favorite has always been Baise Moi on the Dancefloor! It just puts me in the best mood, and it’s the only perfume I wear to sleep because it makes me so happy. I feel kind of unstoppable when I wear it. It reminds me of running through Paris & staring into the Seine under a full moon. For candles, it’s Remezzo! It feels like like endless summer with the people I love.
Cynthia Cohen, Founder of Nuchu
Cynthia founded Nuchu following a pivotal health realisation in that reshaped her approach to nutrition. After struggling to find effective supplements that weren't packed with artificial fillers, she created her own solution with a line of sophisticated, gut-friendly gummies. Nuchu is more than a supplement, but it’s a commitment to guilt-free wellness and a daily ritual your gut will thank you for.
What advice can you give to women looking for a start in the industry?
My biggest piece of advice is to start before you feel “ready.” So many women wait until everything is perfect, but growth really comes from learning as you go. Don’t be ask questions when you’re still figuring things out. Building a strong network of supportive people, especially other women, also makes a huge difference. Collaboration over comparison is something I truly believe in.
What are your goals and aspirations for the future?
With Nuchu, my goal is to build a brand that not only delivers gut-friendly products but also creates a genuine sense of community. I want the brand to grow intentionally, while staying true to its core values and aesthetic. Long term, I hope to see Nuchu expand its reach internationally and continue evolving in ways that inspire confidence in our customers.
Joanna Ellner, Founder of Reome
Joanna turned two decades of beauty expertise into a brand that captures the quiet power of a healing ritual in every drop. Having crafted a line that is both intelligent and restorative, REOME harnesses the power of advanced biotechnology and biofermentation. It is more than just skincare, it’s a daily invitation to de-stress your skin and reclaim your center.
Are there any resources, networks, or communities that have been instrumental in your growth as a female founder?
Since launching REOME in 2023, it’s been the warmth of beauty industry that has propelled me and held me as I sought to bring true, visible results to skincare, a category that has lacked it for so long. The same beauty industry that I’ve been privileged enough to have a voice within for almost two decades. It was the trusted PR reps, press, make-up artists, and retailers, who gave me the confidence to bring this uniquely positioned brand to life.
And heart-warmingly, since then it’s also been female founders that have continued to water the flowers of REOME, and helped me to hold me head up, when the weight of birthing and growing a brand became too heavy.
It is the antithesis to the boy’s club. Men have given each other a leg-up in business since time immemorial. And, while a patriarchy intent on survival would prefer we stepped on each other to get ahead, we do the opposite. We uplift, we bolster, we scaffold, and we nurture each other. Even from those women founders that would ostensibly be ‘competitors’, I’ve found nothing but a kind ear, a helping hand, and support that translates into action: key introductions, legal advice, investment opportunities. We pass learnings around a campfire under the cloak of night. No gatekeeping, no schadenfreude, just the unifying energy of women wanting to see other women succeed.
What is your favourite aspect of being a female founder?
Having a deep kinship with women, our customers. A fingerprint for what they need. What works for them. As a former beauty editor, I lived and breathed make-up and skincare. Then, when I retrained as a Chinese Medicine practitioner, I specialised in women’s health. Women, their identities, their bodies, and their skin, has been the through line of my career. And, in many ways, I see my role as REOME founder and CEO as one which is in service to them. I understand the lived experience of woman, her needs, her desires, her curiosities, because I am one. And through that lens, this work is eternally fascinating and powerful.
Allyse Cirillo, Founder of SAINT Jō
After a decade in corporate fashion and a personal health transformation, Allyse founded SAINT Jō to bridge the gap between non-toxic purity and elite performance. Moving beyond trend-driven beauty, she created a science-backed ritual and a movement for the woman who wants it all... integrity, simplicity, and a glow that starts from within.
What was the inspiration behind starting your brand?
SAINT Jō was born from a personal wellness shift. A few years ago, I made a decision to radically reduce my toxic load both in what I was putting in my body and what I was putting on my skin. As I began paying closer attention to ingredients, I was surprised by how overwhelming and misleading the “clean beauty” space felt. I couldn’t find a brand that felt truly simplified, high-performing, and trustworthy. I wanted a system that treated skin health as part of whole-body wellness, not just something you address on the surface. When I couldn’t find it, I decided to build it. SAINT Jō is the result of that journey, a curated ritual designed to support skin from the outside and within, without overwhelm.
How have you remained motivated and resilient throughout your career?
Resilience for me has come from staying deeply connected to my “why.” Building SAINT Jō hasn’t been easy, it’s required patience, long-term thinking, and a willingness to move through uncertainty, but I’ve learned to see challenges as part of the process, not signs to stop. I stay motivated by remembering who I’m building this for: women who want better, simpler, more intentional wellness rituals they can trust. I also surround myself with people who push me to think bigger and hold me to a high standard, and I’ve learned to protect my energy, my health, and my vision just as fiercely as I protect the brand itself.
