Sleep beautifully with KISS THE MOON

Born in Sunderland, Jo’s first home was in the pub that the family ran near Durham. At that time it was a well-known music venue in North East – with bands playing every weekend.  It was busy and it was loud. Not a conventional place for a baby to be in the middle of. Led Zeppelin played there. They were, at the time, the loudest band on earth. So even at a very young age, Jo knew sleep was precious!

The family moved to Richmond in North Yorkshire to run a hotel in the middle of the market town. This offered a quieter way of life and a great place to grow up. Just think surround-sound green spaces and a wide river to splash about in throughout the summer.  A love of nature was born.  She started working in the family business from the age of 13. This gave Jo  a clear sense that when you work hard and understand what made people tick, good stuff could happen.

UNIVERSITY BECKONED

Driven by a need to explore and live in a ‘proper city’, university beckoned. Liverpool fit the bill perfectly. Three years and a psychology degree later, Jo jumped at the offer of a job in advertising and headed off to London. Her first role was as a media planner at lead agency J Walter Thompson. From JWT to Saatchi & Saatchi and then to WCRS – life in 1990’s London ad-land gave Jo and first hand view of how brands were built. It also showed her how the other half lived, and she saw that city life was exciting and busy.

Next came the call to go and head up Saatchi’s media department in Sydney. Flights, a lot of them and a lot of long ones were to become a recurring theme in her life from now on. After two successful years in Sydney she got the urge to be closer to home and family. She headed back to another media job in London before changing tack slightly to join innovation agency, ?What If! Ltd.

JET-SETTING

She was charged with flying the world to help some of the globe’s biggest companies create new products and better brands. She gained  insights  into the health and wellness category with companies such as Boots, Unilever and Philips. In what might be described as a ‘35,000 feet above sea level’ lifestyle, Jo helped the company she was now a shareholder and director of to open their offices in China and landed business from Sao Paulo to South Korea.  Exciting – yes.  Exhausting – definitely.

“It was a whirlwind and I loved it, but I soon noticed that this type of lifestyle took its toll. When you are 20 you can do anything; but in your 30’s you need the weekends to recover.  By 40 you really start to feel it.”

In a nutshell, Jo realised from her experience that unless you look after yourself and give your body the down time it needs, you are going to hit trouble. For Jo, the key was realising exactly how messed up this way of life was affecting her sleep.  “Without decent sleep everything else started to creak – from my mood to my skin.

YORKSHIRE

Leaving London behind and heading back to the Yorkshire countryside gave Jo space to think. But running her own innovation consultancy business from there meant the busy lifestyle and constant travel continued.  So she started the hunt for a solution for herself and for everyone else who she saw was facing the same dilemma. This was how to help busy people take back control of their sleep patterns and stay feeling and looking their best?

Jo set about understanding sleep and how to influence it.

“The motivation came from my busy London life and from the need to manage jetlag. The route to the answer came from the type of environment I grew up in – the countryside. I realised that the key to understanding sleep was to tune in to nature and the way our body responds to fundamentals such as light; temperature and aromas.”

Essential oils became the key because of their ability to change the way you feel and the fact they can nourish skin while it repairs itself overnight. Kiss the Moon was born.

THE FIRST BATCHES

From the first few batches, tested and developed with input from a stream of friends and family, the four signature blends and the first products were created.  Using this encouragement and the business gene she had inherited from her family, Jo made the leap and launched Kiss The Moon to the world in October 2014. She started with the heart of the range – a set of 100% natural night-time bath and face oils. Now with a small core team working alongside, and in collaboration with some handpicked experts – Kiss the Moon is building a growing fan club.

As Jo herself says, “Good sleep is fundamental to a successful beauty regime. It is while we are asleep that the most active cell renewal takes place. That’s why poor sleep so often results in poor skin. Our products not only help you get to sleep but also give your skin the nourishment it needs overnight as it repairs and regenerates.”