Beauty and wellness are becoming increasingly personal.
The most interesting women-led brands in the space are moving beyond one-size-fits-all routines and quick fixes, creating products, services and experiences that reflect how people actually live. That can mean skincare designed for a screen-heavy world, beauty products created with sensitive consumers in mind, tools for emotional well-being or new ways to make health information and self-care more accessible.
For National Women’s Business Month, we’re spotlighting female founders who are bringing fresh ideas to beauty, wellness and modern self-care while building businesses shaped by personal experience, professional expertise and a desire to do things differently.
From luxury skincare and clean beauty to emotional healing and personal growth, these are the women redefining what taking care of ourselves can look like now.
Juliet Tierney | Meta Skincare
For Juliet Tierney, skincare was never simply a passing business opportunity. It had fascinated her since she was 12 years old.
Before entering the beauty industry, Tierney spent more than 30 years as a producer in film, television and music, developing the creativity, leadership and vision she would eventually bring to an entirely different field.
In 2024, she acquired Meta Skincare, a professional aesthetic skincare brand originally founded in 2019, and began evolving it into a modern luxury skin-longevity company.
Meta combines bioactive botanicals with clinically proven active ingredients in concentrated, professional-grade formulas designed to support the skin barrier and help build healthier, more resilient skin over time.
The brand takes a “fewer, better products” approach rather than encouraging increasingly complicated routines. Its philosophy is especially relevant for people navigating sensitive or hormonally changing skin, focusing on how skin functions and what it needs to thrive over the long term.
For Tierney, building the company has also reinforced one of entrepreneurship's most enduring lessons: founders are always learning.
Her perspective is that you never truly “arrive.” Building a business means continuing to adapt, evolve and remain curious as both the company and the market change.
Website: Metaskincare.com
Kerri Hofmann | Skin & Vine™
Our lifestyles have changed dramatically. Skin & Vine™ founder Kerri Hofmann believes skincare should acknowledge that reality.
Skin & Vine is a prestige skincare brand created for what the company describes as a screen-driven world.
Its Digital Defense™ approach was developed around the idea that modern skin is exposed to more than traditional environmental stressors. Between screen use, visible light, pollution, stress and limited recovery time, Hofmann saw an opportunity to create skincare that reflected the way people actually live today.
The brand's formulas are designed to support the skin barrier while addressing visible signs of premature aging associated with contemporary lifestyles.
Products include the Veil™ Screen Savior Serum and the Tri-Defense™ Core Collection, featuring Rise™, Balance™, Veil™, Quench™, Whip™ and Sculpt™. Skin & Vine is also developing Digital Reset™, a seven-day intensive recovery treatment.
What makes the concept particularly interesting is its shift in perspective. Instead of creating skincare simply around traditional skin types, Hofmann is considering lifestyle itself as part of the conversation.
Website: Skinandvine.com
Kristi Sabo | Temptation Aromas
Kristi Sabo’s entry into clean beauty began with something she could no longer comfortably use.
Traditional perfumes were triggering severe migraines and skin sensitivities, prompting her to question whether fragrance could still feel luxurious without compromising comfort.
That search became Temptation Aromas, Sabo's small-batch, female-led clean beauty studio in the Pacific Northwest.
The brand combines fragrance with body care while emphasizing ingredient integrity, organic botanicals, eco-conscious packaging and formulas created with sensitive consumers in mind.
One of its featured products is the Temptation Radiant Conditioning Body Oil, a nutrient-rich formula made with 95%+ organic botanicals and designed to moisturize dry skin while leaving a velvety, non-greasy finish.
“I founded Temptation Aromas out of personal necessity when traditional perfumes began triggering severe migraines and skin sensitivities. Driven to prove that luxury fragrance doesn't have to compromise our health, I engineered a line of 100% phthalate-free, headache-safe formulas infused with 95%+ organic botanicals that deeply feed and heal the skin barrier. As a female founder in the Pacific Northwest, building a brand grounded in ingredient integrity, eco-conscious packaging, and community giving has been deeply rewarding. We are proud to show that women-led innovation can redefine clean beauty without losing an ounce of romance or luxury.”
For Sabo, the brand is proof that clean beauty and indulgence do not need to exist at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Website: Temptationaromas.com
Monique Kaminski | Jeuneora
Jeuneora began in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2016 with a single collagen product and a belief that beauty and wellness products could feel more modern, relevant and transparent.
Founder Monique Kaminski came to the industry from a design background, including work with clients in the supplement space. Looking at the category from the outside, she saw an opportunity to create products that felt better aligned with what contemporary women actually wanted from their daily routines.
A decade later, Jeuneora is a certified B Corp and proudly female-led, with a portfolio spanning cruelty-free skincare and natural functional supplements.
The company has also expanded beyond New Zealand, with products exported internationally, including to Costco in the United States and Mexico.
Despite that growth, Kaminski's original vision remains centered on the everyday ritual: products should be enjoyable to use, thoughtfully formulated and useful enough to earn a lasting place in a routine.
“I started Jeuneora in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2016 with a single collagen product. Before that I worked as a designer, including for clients in the supplement industry, and from the outside looking in I could see a real gap for products that felt more relevant, modern and transparent for women. Ten years later, Jeuneora is a certified B Corp, proudly female-led, with a loyal and growing community, and our products have been exported internationally, including to Costco in the US and Mexico. We love creating products that are a pleasure to use, deliver results you can see and feel, and earn their place in your daily routine.”
Website: Jeuneora.co.nz
Sandra Lopez Savard | The White Heart Journey
Sandra Lopez Savard approaches wellness from a different direction: the relationship between emotional healing, mindset, leadership and the life a person ultimately creates.
Born in Trinidad as one of 14 children, Savard says she was fascinated from an early age by people, their stories and the differences between those who seemed to thrive and those who struggled.
Her own life has included entrepreneurship, franchising, business success, business failure and seven years of severe PTSD following three serious car accidents.
Those experiences became part of the foundation for The White Heart Academy and the White Heart Journey™, an approach designed to help people address emotional hurt, limiting beliefs and patterns that may influence their relationships, leadership and overall sense of purpose.
For more than four decades, Savard has worked with people ranging from entrepreneurs and CEOs to parents, pastors and prisoners.
Her work now includes the Heart Healers Program, Equipped to Win, White Heart Leadership and Santé Wellness Retreat in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
The philosophy behind it all is captured in a simple idea:
“The life you want is waiting on the other side of a healed heart.”
Website: sandralopezsavard.com | santewellnessretreat.com
Women Expanding the Wellness Conversation
Beauty and self-care are only part of today's wellness landscape. Women are also building businesses around hair health, fertility support, mental well-being, personal reflection, preventive home health and even better ways to understand the health of our pets.
Maria McCool | Calista
Celebrity hairstylist and salon owner Maria McCool founded Calista around a challenge familiar to many women: recreating professional-looking hair at home without making the process unnecessarily complicated.
Calista creates professional-quality hair styling tools and haircare products designed to simplify at-home styling while supporting healthier-looking hair.
The brand combines styling technology with nourishing formulas, giving consumers tools intended to make salon-inspired results more achievable within their everyday routines.
McCool's approach reflects a broader evolution in beauty, where convenience does not necessarily need to mean compromising the experience or the result.
Website: Calistatools.com
Dr. Peace Engel | Floverbs™
For Dr. Peace Engel, also known as Doc Peace, wellness and encouragement are closely connected.
A first-generation Nigerian American, Engel grew up listening to her mother use Nigerian euphemisms filled with wisdom, humor and life lessons. As she developed her own modern expressions rooted in encouragement and possibility, she eventually gave them a name: Floverbs™, or “proverbs that flow.”
Years later, while working as a pharmacist and becoming a mother, Engel began thinking more deeply about the effects of stress, self-doubt and negative self-talk on emotional and physical well-being.
At the same time, she noticed how frequently meaningful greeting cards were read once and discarded. Floverbs™ grew from the intersection of those observations.
Instead of traditional disposable greeting cards, the woman-owned brand creates frame-worthy keepsakes intended to be displayed and revisited. The collection has expanded into keepsake ornaments, with additional home and gift products planned.
The mission is as much about the words as the object: creating encouragement designed to last beyond the occasion when it was given.
Website: Letsflowgold.io
Elana Frank | Jewish Fertility Foundation
Elana Frank's work in fertility support grew from an experience that changed her own family.
Frank is an embryo donation recipient, and her son was born through the process. That deeply personal connection now informs her work as CEO and Founder of the Jewish Fertility Foundation.
The organization supports people navigating fertility and IVF while addressing issues including access, affordability, community support and the stigma that can surround infertility and embryo donation.
Among its initiatives is an informal embryo donation program connecting families within the Jewish community. According to the organization's submission, JFF has helped facilitate approximately 75 informal embryo donation matches, with nine babies born through the community-driven process.
The program itself is free, with donors and recipients responsible for completing their own medical and legal screening.
For Frank, the work is inseparable from what embryo donation meant in her own life.
“Embryo donation gave me my son. It was a sacred gift from one family to mine. Every match we’ve helped facilitate at JFF carries that same weight.”
Her broader point is an important one: reproductive science has advanced rapidly, while emotional, financial and community support has not always kept pace.
Christina P. Kantzavelos | Begin Within Today
Christina P. Kantzavelos created Begin Within Today around a simple belief: healing begins with awareness.
A licensed mental health professional, Kantzavelos developed the brand as a source of resources grounded in psychology, behavior change and whole-person wellness.
Its featured product, the Begin Within Daily Health and Wellness Journal, is designed to help people incorporate intentional reflection into everyday life rather than waiting until they are overwhelmed to pay attention to what they are feeling or experiencing.
The concept sits at the intersection of journaling and mental wellness, using a familiar practice as a structured tool for greater self-awareness.
Website: Beginwithintoday.com
Dr. Alexandra Richmond | Dermhaus
Dr. Alexandra Richmond is a Charleston, South Carolina-based dermatologist and founder of Dermhaus, a modern dermatology practice built around personalized medicine, meaningful patient relationships and individualized care.
The practice reflects an increasingly important shift in beauty and wellness: moving away from treating skincare solely as a cosmetic concern and toward a more comprehensive understanding of skin health.
Richmond's approach emphasizes the patient relationship alongside clinical expertise, bringing a more personalized perspective to dermatologic care.
Inha Ushakova | MoldSentrix
Wellness does not stop at skincare, nutrition or mental health. The environments in which we live can also influence our well-being.
Inha Ushakova founded MoldSentrix around preventive mold-risk monitoring for the home.
Based in Tampa Bay, the service installs small sensors in areas where moisture problems are most likely to occur, including bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms. Conditions across those zones are then analyzed daily.
Rather than waiting until mold becomes visible, the system is designed to alert homeowners when environmental conditions indicate elevated risk.
There is no app or dashboard users are required to monitor. When potential problems are identified, the homeowner receives a message identifying the affected zone and suggested next steps.
The philosophy behind the company is straightforward: mold is fundamentally a water problem, and moisture conditions can often be measured before visible damage appears.
Website: Moldsentrix.com
Captain Kelly Gordon | Yachtie Minds Matter
Captain Kelly Gordon is helping bring an often-overlooked wellness conversation into the superyacht industry.
She founded Yachtie Minds Matter, a nonprofit providing free mental-health resources to yacht crew in need.
Life and work aboard yachts can create a unique set of emotional pressures, yet conversations around mental health within the industry have not always been easy or accessible.
Gordon's work focuses on making support easier to find while encouraging more openness around the mental and emotional well-being of crew members.
By bringing the subject into the broader industry conversation, Yachtie Minds Matter is helping shift mental health from something handled privately to something that can be discussed and supported more openly.
Website: Yachtiemindsmatter.org
JJ Stenhouse & Alexia Leachman | Ladder of Growth
Personal development is filled with books, programs and assessments, but JJ Stenhouse and Alexia Leachman kept returning to a more fundamental question: How do you know whether any of it is actually working?
That question led them to create Ladder of Growth, a measurement tool designed to track personal change over time.
Rather than simply telling users who they are, Ladder of Growth looks at what is shifting across nine areas of life, including focus, emotion, energy and self-worth.
Its Life Ladder is a free five-minute assessment designed to give users a baseline measurement and a starting point for observing change.
The idea brings something often associated with business and performance into personal development: measurement.
Website: Ladderofgrowth.io
Jamie Smith | Innovative Pet Lab
The movement toward more proactive wellness is extending to our pets, too.
Jamie Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Innovative Pet Lab, is building a female-founded pet health company around at-home testing.
The company's tests are designed to help pet parents gain greater insight into areas including gut health, inflammation, digestion, immune function, intestinal permeability and parasites.
Options include the Comprehensive Gut Check for dogs, which examines six functional biomarkers, along with a feline version examining four key gut-health biomarkers. Basic Gut Check options provide a more streamlined snapshot, while the company's At-Home Parasite Test screens for six common intestinal parasites using a stool sample collected at home.
The concept gives pet owners another way to take a more proactive role in understanding what may be happening inside their dogs and cats.
Website: Innovativepetlab.com
The New Meaning of Self-Care
Look across these businesses and it becomes clear just how much the definition of self-care has expanded.
It can be a serum developed for the realities of modern life. A fragrance created because conventional formulas no longer worked for its founder. A journal that encourages reflection. Fertility support rooted in lived experience. Mental-health resources for an overlooked workforce. Technology that helps identify risks inside the home. Even a way to better understand what may be happening inside a beloved pet.
What connects these founders is intention. They are building businesses around the idea that beauty, health and feeling well should be more thoughtful, more personal and better suited to the realities of everyday life.
For National Women’s Business Month, that feels like a particularly powerful kind of innovation to celebrate.
