Come January, new year, new you is often the mantra for millions of consumers. And after 2020, that can mean a lot more than weight loss. Today’s consumers are much more in tune with their overall wellness, which encompasses mental health, too.   
 
The Essence One Self Care Club is answering the call; it is a mental health and beauty subscription service, developed by Essence One Founder Lauren VanScoy, to bring awareness to mental health and wellness through aromatherapy products.
 
“I started Essence One after being diagnosed with anxiety and depression,” VanScoy told Happi about her Minneapolis, MN-based brand. “Knowing that aromatherapy was one of the things that helped my anxiety, I decided to study aromatherapy and get my certification so I could educate people on the science behind it. Using natural products also became a priority so I was teaching people how to make their own. Eventually, people started saying they didn’t have time to make their own products and blends and wanted to buy them from me. So, I started Essence One’s product line and it’s grown larger by the year!  Because of my experience with mental health, I wanted mental health to be the forefront of our message and mission from day one.”
 
Morning Calm is Essence One’s signature blend of spearmint, bergamot mint and patchouli essential oils.  
 
Launching a subscription service came about from seeing success with its own auto renew options and VanScoy’s own enjoyment with other subscriptions boxes, married with the idea that consumers could use some guidance.
 
“What we wanted to do with the Essence One Self Care Club box was for it to serve the purpose of self care with everyday products that people could use with ease. Unless you have someone to sit down and educate you on aromatherapy, it can be very overwhelming,” VanScoy said. “Our Self Care Club Box provides people with safe, natural, aromatherapy products, all centered around stress and anxiety relief, with a simplified education at an affordable price. We all need stress relief and self care but we don’t take enough time to intentionally do it.”
 
With the Essence One Self Care Club, consumers receive some of the brand’s most popular products, every other month, that can be used during a daily routine. The box themes follow the seven elements of wellness—physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental and occupational.  

Being caught off-guard by anxiety and depression in her mid-30s, VanScoy’s search for help led to her interest and eventual certification in aromatherapy. As such, each product and scent in her brand has been formulated to support an inspired and less-stressed life.  
 
Products in the Essence One range include candles, hand soap, lotion, body oil, essential oils, rollerball and more. One of the newest SKUs is a hand and body scrub that debuted late last year.
 
“It’s like frosting your skin with the perfect combination of exfoliating and moisturizing goodness,” said VanScoy.  

The connection between wellness, beauty and self care right has never been more blurred or more in need, insists VanScoy.  
 
“[2020] was a doozy, plus all of the ‘normal’ stressors of a year, and it has beaten most of us down!  We all need something to refresh us, to uplift us, something to look forward to. Self care and wellness habits are imperative for our health —both mentally and physically,” she told Happi. 
 
Forming a routine is critical to wellness, she said.
 
“Developing habits that help relieve stress is key— exercising, sleep, eating better, using more natural products, aromatherapy, less alcohol and caffeine, are all great places to start. Finding your own picture of health takes a little time and it can be made more simple by choosing one area of your life, improving it, and then moving onto another. You don’t have to do it all at once and when you start improving these areas you will slowly see that good habits make you feel better.  
 
VanScoy said that when she gets “lazy” and neglects some of her good habits, she feels the stress creeping in. 
 
“It’s always a good reminder to kick those good habits back into gear,” she said. “Establishing routines in your day to experience self care and stress relief is the perfect way to start. Aromatherapy is the easiest to put in place and experience if you use natural products scented only by essential oils or herbs, products that you use daily as part of your routine. Aromatherapy is effective because when inhaled, it goes directly to the limbic system which directs our body to relax, slows down the heart rate and brings calm.”
 
With Essence One Self Care Club there’s also a means to bring some of that calm to others. Each box includes a duplicate of one product so that the subscriber can gift some stress relief to a friend, too.
 
In addition, all purchases at Essence One contribute to donations to Bring Change to Mind, a national organization started by Glenn Close that provides mental health clubs in high schools around the country.
 
“When I started Essence One, I had planned to choose an organization to donate to each year because I wanted to keep the mental health conversation as part of our ethos and mission. We love that our partnership with Bring Change to mind allows us to support mental health clubs at the high school level,” said VanScoy. “High school is a crucial time for us when it comes to mental health. Our partnership allows us to help students start mental health clubs that allow them to be open about their mental health, or someone that they love, and gives them the resources to healthy approaches and habits to navigate mental health at a young age.”