'I left Real Housewives and now my business is turning over eight-figures'

Reality TV comes with its perks, and Dr Hanna Kinsella has maximised her profile after appearing on The Real Housewives of Cheshire. The dentist, 37, found fame during the eighth season of the ITVBe reality show alongside her friends, Seema Malhotra, Rachel Lugo and Lauren Simon.

But after five and a half years, she decided to bow out during season 16, citing too much drama and her plans to focus on her family and businesses, Kiln Lane Dental Surgery and Icy Bear Dental. Now, it worked in Hanna's favour after she launched the latter while on the show and is now turning over an eight-figure sum after striking up a deal with high-street giant Boots.

Icy Bear was founded in 2019, just before the world entered a global lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, but ever since then, Dr Hanna has found new ways to reach audiences and buyers, including on the video-sharing app, TikTok – something she had never envisioned.

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Nowadays, she sells tooth-whitening products, including strips, toothpaste, and even mouthwash, worldwide and makes a hefty profit. "If you'd have told me, three or four years ago, that we would be doing and achieving what we are now, I would not have believed you," Dr Hanna told the Mirror. The Bolton-native went on to say: "When we started Icy Bear, it was an idea in my head."

She said when she first launched, her husband, aesthetic clinician Dr Martin Kinsella "laughed" questioning who would buy a whitening toothpaste for £17.99. "We've come on such a long way and we're smashing it every single month," she said from her dental surgery.

Dr Hanna continued: "It's unbelievable!" Reflecting on the success she's found on TikTok, the mum-of-two went on to say: "We had no idea about the monetisation side of it for a brand. We've really learned as we've gone on; it's very new, TikTok Shop, TikTok Lives, they're very new.

"We've gone on the journey with TikTok, we're doing 12-hour lives, making insane figures – it's gone from strength to strength. It's the right product, branded right and hits the right demographic there. We always say it's a second business, I've got my main website, and then I've got a TikTok shop, it's a separate entity, it needs its own strategy.

"There's so many different pillars within TikTok for a brand that you've got to get right." Reflecting on getting her head down with the business, Hanna said: "It's really only been since I've left the show that I have had time to really get stuck in and that's why it's just seen incredible growth the last two years.

"We 10x'ed the business, we 10x'ed it again, we're on to do eight figures this financial forecast year, so it's getting bigger and bigger. It's so exciting, but it's because my head's been able to be in it and I've not been distracted with other things." But away from her business, Dr Hanna is a doting wife to her husband, Dr Martin, as well as a mum to their two children, son Maximus and daughter Kimia.

"If my head wasn't glued on, it would be rolling down the street," she laughed, adding: "It's not easy, it's all about juggling everything. I've got two young kids, Martin, my family, doing Icy Bear, running off to Kiln Lane on a Monday. It's very busy – but the main thing for me is that I love it.

"I live, breathe and eat it. Sometimes Martin is like 'You're weirdly obsessed with Icy Bear', if you didn't love it, you couldn't do it, it takes up a lot of my time." When Dr Hanna graduated from the University of Liverpool, having studied dentistry, she had a passion for cosmetic dentistry and later studied a Master's Degree in Cosmetics.

She says a lot of her patients asked for advice on what products they could use, but she struggled to give them an answer as there wasn't a "luxury, premium oral care brand." But she used this to her advantage, so patients didn't have to spend hundreds of pounds; she poured her soul into researching and launching her own brand, which now has ten employees and four offices, which she says is "crazy".

Her work ethic has also seen her sign a huge deal with Boots, who now stock Icy Bear in their stores, which Dr Hanna still struggles to believe to this day. Growing up, she would always look at the dental products on the shelves and "manifest" that she would one day see her own brand on there.

"I nearly cried," she said after seeing Icy Bear on the shelves at Manchester's Market Street branch. She added, "It's one of my biggest dreams, Boots—what an incredible brand to be associated with, a British brand trusted by all of us for our cosmetics, so to now be in Boots is a privilege. I'm absolutely buzzing. They've taken us into 500 stores; it's exciting."

Dr Hanna isn't slowing down, though; instead, she's already set her sights on the next store she wants to see her band in. "Harrods," she said, which had been her first goal but she realised that anything about this would have left her questioning where she could take Icy Bear.

Launching the brand on the Real Housewives gave Dr Hanna the ultimate platform, which she couldn't be more grateful for. "I think the show was great in terms of building a public profile," she said, before adding: "Being part of the Housewives was amazing, in terms of the brand.

"They were so supportive, they allowed me to launch. It was pre-Covid. We were all three meters apart; it wasn't the launch party I dreamt of, but it still got aired. They were always super supportive of that. But it became obvious that you can't rely on a reality TV show to launch a brand; it takes more than that."

Speaking about her decision to walk away, Dr Hanna explained: "That's why I had to make that decision, just under two years ago, 'What do you want to do, Hanna? If you want Icy Bear to be successful, you're going to have to step away from the show now,' and I'd been on there for five and a half, six years, it was the right time to step away and put my eggs in Icy Bear's basket and try and grow it from there."

And she has nothing but positive comments for the show, as it has been such an integral part of her life. "I love the girls, the crew and everyone, everyone that's a part of Housewives," she said, adding: "I'll always be grateful for the opportunity that I had being on there. But since I've left, I've been able to focus on the business, focus on my family and have that time to really put into it.

"When you're on the show, it's so unpredictable, it's up and it's down, you don't know when you're filming. Your life is chaotic when you're filming. It's definitely given me the focus that I needed by stepping away."

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