South Florida native, Dianna Cohen has slowly made her way back to the Sunshine State. Following 12 years in New York City, Cohen transitioned her life back to her home state, with a new business in hand.

After spending a fair amount of time in Florida amidst the pandemic, Cohen picked up her life and her newly-founded business, planting roots in Miami. After working on the backend of the company since August 2019, Cohen officially launched Crown Affair in January of 2020 and has not looked back. Cohen has worked with the most sought-after companies and startups but decided it was time to tap into her entrepreneurial mindset to start something she was both passionate about but noticed a lack of in the market.

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“I've always been really interested in being in places where I can have a direct impact, I never worked at a big corporate place as amazing and alluring a lot of those names are, I always wanted to be the person on the ground doing the thing and making it happen,” explained Cohen.

As a woman, Cohen has always had a passion for hair care, similar to most women with skincare and makeup. “It was kind of my last accessory when getting ready, my hair just made me feel the most me,” expressed Cohen. All good businesses begin out of passion, so there is no doubt Crown Affair had Cohen’s passion right from the start.

Following many years working in consumer products, Cohen learned the ins and outs of the industry, specifically how to build a movement and community alongside a product. “I would look at other categories in beauty and say, wow, there are brands doing rad stuff, but hair care just was so dated,” Cohen continued. After sending out a document explaining her hair care rituals to her network, Cohen had an ah-ha moment and realized there wasn’t anything in the market that really excited her, “Why is there not a brand that I'm excited about in hair care but is also clean, and modern, aspirational. That was very much like the lightbulb moment for what I wanted to build and the vision for Crown Affair.”

And Cohen has stuck to that vision and created a totally clean, modern and aspirational hair care brand that consumers have quickly grown to love and swear by. Having Crown Affair products in your shower and in your medicine cabinets call for the perfect “shelfie” photo, as the branding, packaging and every little detail has been thoughtfully designed and curated.

Cohen has always had an eye for branding and explained that years before the concept and idea of Crown Affair, the brand had been practically built through her Pinterest boards. Cohen laughed as she said, “My team always used to joke that my personal aesthetic is Star Wars meets Chanel, and I still feel that way.” And once seeing Crown Affair’s branding, you can truly see Cohen’s thoughtful design process across every detail.

Cohen and her team have also been very intentional with Crown Affair’s retail experiences, as a brand that was primarily built on a direct-to-consumer approach. Following the first few months, the brand was available at Gee Beauty, with locations in Miami and Toronto, as well as with industry leaders, Violet Grey and Goop. With a little over two years under the brand's belt, in February 2022, Crown Affair officially launched in Sephora. Over the last two years, working with certain retailers has been extremely strategic for the brand as Cohen explained, “We’ve been really thoughtful leading up to Sephora, to only work with people like the Gee’s and the Violet Grey’s of the world, because they're so intentional about their client relationships and education.”

And now as a Miami resident, Cohen is excited to bring Crown Affair experiences to the Magic City and beyond. With plans for some in-person experiences and activations in Miami throughout the second half of 2022, the Miami community is excited to see what else Cohen and the Crown Affair team have up their sleeve.