STRATTON perfumers Cathryn Rose and Isabelle Violet are residents who know the joys and challenges of a Swan upbringing and want to uplift the community one perfume at a time.

To this end, the pair have recently been reaching out to women’s prisons across WA as a way to empower inmates to take a different path by first reclaiming their confidence.

Though still a start-up celebrating their second anniversary this year, they’ve been able to collaborate with three prisons, with their latest target being West Swan’s Bandyup women’s prison.

Ms Rose said they have reached out to Bandyup three months ago but establishing the same connection they have with the other prisons remained a challenge.

“We have reached out a number of times, so we’re on their radar but they haven’t quite accepted us yet, but they will,” she said.

“Even if they do have a response, I think because there’s been some changeover of staff.

“The time is coming and that’s why we’ve managed to get into the others while we’re still focusing on Bandyup but that is a mission in itself.

“That is our key prison to get into because it is so close and in our community.”

Ms Violet and Ms Rose founded Kwean & Co during the pandemic, a business idea sparked through conversations shared as their children played together in the same Stratton neighbourhood.

Because the pair discovered they both shared sensitive skin and a passion for fragrances, they found a gap in the market for alcohol-free perfumes which didn’t cause irritation.

This led to a year and a half of formulation to find a way to fill that space, which soon became interwoven with a desire to empower other women and give back to community.

Ms Violet and Ms Rose said giving back to community was important to them because they were products of their environment and had empathy for all walks of life.

“I went to Swan View High School and Middle Swan Primary School — do you know what I mean?” Ms Rose said.

“I did a lot of things before I turned 18, so by the time I turned 18 there was nothing fun left to do.

“I went from truanting from school to smoking cigarettes and all the things that kids do when you’re hanging with your friends at the train station.”

Ms Violet said she shared a similar upbringing and exposure to the lifestyle showed her what she didn’t want for herself.

“For myself, I was raised by a single mother, and she had a drug and alcohol dependency herself which led to a lot of mental health problems,” she said.

“I grew up in the thick of it and was overexposed so as an adult, I’ve seen it all and want to go a different direction.

“I’ve made choices as a product of my environment.

“That’s why I wholeheartedly believe having some confidence in yourself and being able to empower yourself, you make better choices and I’m talking from my own experience.”

Kwean & Co were awarded as finalists in this year’s SHE-com product awards, celebrating women-founded and female-run businesses, taking out an entry for the major award category.

Though they were listed for the Australian made product of the year category, the pair said the journey was fraught with self-doubt.

“We picked a perfume to send from our pre-release range and we entered the competition,” Ms Rose said.

“I said, ‘We’ll just send it. I don’t know. We’re not too sure because it’s our first thing and we’re still very new’.

“We sent it off and we got a finalist (nomination) which was really good and that took us to Brisbane.”

Ms Rose said the panel was amazing to experience and hearing successful businesswomen recount their struggles was validating and encouraging, but doubts did creep in.

“This is another thing coming down to us coming from the City of Swan — sometimes you feel like you’re not worth that,” she said.

“You’re not sure where you fit, because sometimes everything else is so fancy and luxurious.

“Even entering the competition, you have doubts about whether you’re good enough and I suppose that comes from all the things we’ve done in the past.

Ms Violet said she felt the same way but hoped their journey would disprove that for themselves and others.

“We were sitting among all these amazingly talented women all from Australia,” she said.

“It seems like a higher level of social demographic, and you wonder, ‘Where do I fit?’

“I’ve been here, I’ve seen this, I’ve done all of that, and you start to ask, ‘Is my self-confidence still down here and is my worth still quite low?’

“It’s just so mind-blowing to know where we’ve come from and how far we can go and how far we’ve come but still maintaining the roots of our identity and who we are.

“All the trauma doesn’t define us and doesn’t hold you back.

“You can still come back and, again, success is different to everyone.

“It could just be getting out of bed that day and making sure you’ve got food on the table, and we’ve all been there.”

Ms Rose said despite their experiences being the source of their uncertainty, it’s also the driving force that helps them empathise and want to give back.

“We’ve not been in the prison system ourselves, but we could’ve easily been there along the way,” she said.

“We do appreciate all walks of life, and we are all the same but just have different circumstances and being able to reach those people and let them know, ‘Hey, we are thinking of you’.”