BUSINESS PROFILE
Samuel Douek
Founder of Howl
Words Markus Bidaux
L ockdown has been unique for all of us. Some of us binged TV, others took up knitting, while I spent days training my lockdown puppy to behave. Filmmaker and event organiser Samuel Douek used his downtime to launch a positively queer sexual wellness brand, Howl. Their first product, a CBD-infused anal lubricant, hit the digital shelves in December. CBD, or cannabidiol, is derived from the marijuana plant, but does not contain the illegal THC compound that gets you high. Here, Samuel gives us the lowdown on why we should be using CBD for our bedroom antics, the importance of breaking down sexual taboos and how he has learned to be his unashamed queer self in the workplace.
When did you decide to launch your lube brand?
It began as a queer techno and performing arts festival, which we hosted in August 2019. This was the birthchild of two other live projects that I’ve been running; one of them is BUM.P, which is a bi-monthly club night at the Dalston Superstore, and the other is CAMPerVAN, a travelling performance space in the shape of a caravan which we’ve toured around the UK and Europe. The idea was to combine these events and have a little mini festival, and it was an amazing event. But obviously the pandemic happened and live events stopped, and the future was a bit uncertain. I got approached by some friends of mine who are in the cannabis industry and we decided to launch Howl, a disruptive sexual wellness brand. The reason why lube and CBD was our first port of call is because my experience with lubes was just nothing remarkable, I didn’t have a brand that I really liked. I found a lot of brands very dated, boring or uninspiring — nothing really mirrored the liberal society that we live in today.