Welcome to wellness [Katie's Version]
Mostly opinions with a sprinkling of facts.
Hey.
If you’re here, congrats! You subscribed to yet another Substack. With content inundating us from all angles, I feel honored that you chose to have my musings being amongst the deluge.
ICYMI: wellness is now a $5.6 Trillion global industry so whether you like it or not, people are getting rich off our desire to live a healthier life. Or our desperate obsession with staying on-trend. Either way, this staunch capitalist is not opposed. We’re all going to spend our money on our silly little items (read: random crap), so why not do it under the guise of mental/physical/emotional self-improvement?
Aside from the instant dopamine hit and the ostensible benefits of these creams, gadgets, elixirs, etc…, what’s driving us to purchase these superfluous products? For me, I’ll admit a large part of it is aesthetic. If a brand or product is hanging out in my targeted ads orbit, the final straw that gets me to add it to cart is because of its - please forgive me - vibe.
Having worked so closely with so many of these brands, I can tell you that the ones that have the most success are the ones that create a thorough visual + vocal identity. To me, brands are a sort of celebrity, something I study from afar for quite a while and when I see it in public, I get excited. Not my best analogy, but you get it. I’m into brands, the way they exist as cultural capital, and our consumption as a (sub)conscious method of self-identifying.
Stepping down from my limited edition, $120 soap box in a sec.
At the end of the day, not all of this stuff is as efficacious as its marketing claims it is. But I’m probably going to try it myself to find out first hand. That’s where this Substack comes in. Yep, I’m taking my egregiously expensive journalism degree and giving you some hard-hitting reporting on which wellness items are worth the hype, along with some other random opinions or guest features that spark my curiosity.
If you have products you want me to try or random ideas that come to mind, feel free to respond to this email. I’m always down to talk about my new Oura ring and whether it’s changed my sleep routine (stay tuned: I’m still testing it).
No review this time, but enjoy these tidbits that are top-of-mind:
Predicting a decrease in AirPods and a return to phone-to-ear convos because of this genius invention.
I wonder what Seed Oil Scout has to say about “the mother of all oils” with a heaping dose of Omega-9s.
My (and everyone else on the Internet’s) favorite eye patches are now in Sephora.
Sakara Life has a new CEO, and I’m curious to see what that means for the future of DTC e-commerce in the fridge…
That’s all for now!
Stay well,
Katie