Joy Elizabeth Hoover drew on a family tragedy to start a business.
Ten years ago, the murder of Marcia Hoover and her adult son Charles rocked a small community in Michigan–in the 911 call, 62-year-old Hoover was heard screaming “he’s coming after me” before being fatally shot by her husband outside their Newayago County home.
As the elder Charles Hoover also shot himself on the spot, what happened during those final gruesome moments remains not fully known.
But to one member of the Hoover family, the tragedy became an inspiration to start a business with the goal of keeping women who are out alone safer.
Joy Elizabeth Hoover, who is married to Marcia Hoover’s younger son, spent the last 12 months working on a persistent idea. On Friday, she pre-launched a cosmetics product that can help ward off attackers on dates and in other social situations.
“The fact that [my mother-in-law’s] life ended on a 911 call is something that pushed me to want to honor her life and make sure that our kids or the people we love don’t experience something like that,” Hoover said.
Freshening Up One’s Makeup And Calling 911
Called Esoes Cosmetics, the company is pronounced as S.O.S. and sells a lipstick with a panic button pre-programmed to call a trusted contact and authority services like 911.
Each lipstick looks like a regular black tube with different lipstick colors that can be swapped in — the goal is to have it look discreet and not draw attention from a potential attacker.
“When you’re experiencing any sort of threat, you’re in that fight-or-flight mode and don’t know how you’re going to react,” Hoover told TheStreet. “Our goal at Esoes is to equip people with the tools they need to feel safe without doing something that can cause additional harm.”
The base of each lipstick also comes with a set of detachable test strips that someone can pull out and quietly use to test whether one’s drink contains some of the benzodiazepines commonly found in date rape drugs.
The panic button is also connected to an Esoes app and can be programmed to do everything from share one’s location to signal that something is off to a friend without calling the authorities.
“Ideally you want to drink ahead of time but if you don’t and feel off in any way, we always say to just push the button automatically,” Hoover said. She noted statistics that one in four women in experience violence in her life while 78 take their lives daily in the wake of a violent assault. “Our goal is to prevent this.”
A Business Idea Premised On Women’s Safety
Each lipstick sells for $49.95. While Hoover plans to expand to other make-up items in the future, this is currently the main product on the Esoes website.
While orders placed now will be delivered by the spring of 2023, the October 28th launch date coincides with what would have been Hoover’s mother-in-law’s 72nd birthday.
The company is close to 1,000 orders now and expects to reach 5,000 by the holidays. Future plans also include designing a similar chapstick for runners as well as other cosmetics products.
Hoover told TheStreet that their website crashed three days after days after the lipstick launched — a sign, to her, of just how many women feel unsafe in their day-to-day-interactions.
