Perfumer entrepreneur Jo Malone is one of the most successful people in the beauty products business. She’s the woman who brought lime, basil and mandarin scents to the mainstream and has made millions from her business ventures.
And her story of overcoming humble beginnings and severe dyslexia is simply remarkable.
Malone was raised on a council estate in Kent, and she struggled academically from a young age due to her reading difficulties. She left school at 15 to help care for the family after her mother had a stroke.
“I taught myself how to make face cream in a council estate kitchen. I’d go up to London on the train, sell the product to my mum’s clients and come back with money for food.”
She used to experiment with grating soap in a cheese grater to melt it down into candles… and the next day the cheese dish they ate for dinner would taste a little off!
Her scented soaps, candles, and perfumes became so popular that she soon was able to open her own store in London. The business grew into multiple locations around the world before being sold to Estée Lauder for millions of pounds in 1999.
Her
dyslexia has been a part of her creative journey for as long as she can recall.
“I can’t remember a point when I wasn’t governed by my sense of smell,” she says. “Because I am
dyslexic I have always used it to remember things by. When I look at that [red scarf] I see pomegranates and grapefruits. I see fragrance. It’s like having a paint brush for a nose; I get these ideas in my head and translate them through my nose into colour and texture.”
She has recently dived back into entrepreneurship after a few years off and has opened a new fragrance business called Jo Loves. She often speaks about encouraging women into business, and dyslexics into creative entrepreneurship.
“I have zero qualifications, so I really shouldn’t be in life where I am. But I am. Business isn’t rocket science. It’s courage, creativity, and having the faith to believe you can take that one step.”
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Sarah Forrest is a Literacy Specialist for the Easyread System, an online program for children struggling with reading, spelling, dyslexia, auditory processing issues and more. Get a free 10-lesson trial at www.oxfordlearningsolutions.com
Malone was raised on a council estate in Kent, and she struggled academically from a young age due to her reading difficulties. She left school at 15 to help care for the family after her mother had a stroke.