JoAnne’s Story
Meet JoAnne
Some women are shaped by a single place. JoAnne was shaped by a family table.
Co-Founder
A life shaped by family, heritage, and care.
She grew up in Chicago, in her Italian family’s food business, where work and love were often the same thing. She went on to build a national food manufacturing company alongside her brother, and in 2017, they sold it. Along the way, she raised her children as a single mother and held her family close.
Today, she is co-founder and President of Esther & Ruth.
Heritage & Roots
What is passed down becomes part of us.
Every family keeps something that is passed down quietly. A recipe. A remedy. A way of caring for yourself that no one wrote down.
For JoAnne, it began in the Italian countryside, among olive groves, citrus orchards, and wild Mediterranean hillsides. Those roots became The Heritage Line, a collection of whole-body ritual care made with olive oil, Sicilian lemon, prickly pear seed oil, and other Mediterranean botanicals. It was inspired by her heritage, and by her mother.
It’s an invitation to slow down. To care for your skin, your hands, your hair, the way the women before us did. Old country roots, new season rituals.
Her Role
The work behind the ritual.
JoAnne is the one who turns a formula into something you can hold in your hands. As President, she guides manufacturing and finance, the careful, unseen work that brings each product to your shelf.
Together with co-founder Janice Taylor, she shares the heart of the brand and the joy of meeting the women it was made for.
Why She Does This
A new season, held with care.
When Janice Taylor shared her vision for a natural hair care line made for women in perimenopause and beyond, JoAnne believed in it right away. Now she stands behind it with her name, her experience, and her whole heart, so more women can feel beautiful, confident, and cared for in this new season.
A portion of every purchase supports local women’s charities, because the women who came before us, and the ones beside us, are part of the story too.
New season, same roots.
The system
This is how the system fits together.
Esther & Ruth is designed as a considered hair-care system for this season.
Explore individual product pages for approved product directions and warnings.