Stephanie Morimoto, owner and chief executive officer of wellness brand Asutra, bought the corporate in 2018, when the brand was still in its relative infancy. 

Her former work as a consultant at a top firm and tenure as vice chairman of regional development at a nonprofit led her to some extent of utmost burnout, and ultimately served as a catalyst for her interest in self-care and wellness. 

“I used to be working across the clock, traveling across the country and eating like crap. I attempted to vary the culture where I worked, and I used to be shut down,” Morimoto recalled at WWD’s Wellness Forum.  

Seeing a necessity for change in each her own life and the cultural consciousness at large, Morimoto launched into a decade-long journey crammed with yoga, intuitive eating and much-needed rest to be able to reconnect with herself and attain a healthy work-life balance. 

“As I went on this journey, I noticed I wasn’t alone,” Morimoto said, noting how concerningly common it has develop into for people to endure physical and mental aches as they go about their day, often with no reprieve. “I noticed that if I desired to work in a spot that basically valued self-care, well-being and bringing your full self to work, I used to be probably going to need to create it myself.” 

Enter Asutra. 

When Morimoto took the reins at the corporate in 2018, the brand had no retail presence and was garnering 99 percent of its sales through Amazon. Today, Asutra’s assortment of sprays, serums, masks, creams and more designed to handle pain, stress, sleep and energy levels are in over 6,300 doors, including Goal and CVS and more area of interest e-tailers like Grove Collaborative. 

The brand’s range stays affordably priced because, as Morimoto puts it, “Everyone should have the option to handle themselves well, and with good ingredients.”

Venus Williams, who discovered Asutra as a customer herself and has long been vocal in her praise of the brand, signed on as a part-owner and chief brand officer in 2019. 

“We’re a women-led team, we’re 60 percent people of color, and we’re diverse in plenty of other ways,” said Morimoto, noting the importance of getting an inclusive team when searching for to cater to a various consumer. 

Asutra’s hero ingredient, magnesium, advantages over 300 bodily processes, she said, akin to sleep, detoxing, mood and hormone balancing, and may even alleviate symptoms of menopause and perimenopause.

 “Two out of three of us are deficient in magnesium and don’t even understand it. We put [magnesium] in numerous formats — sprays, lotions, soaps — that way you need to use it anywhere you need to in your body, in any format you desire,” said Morimoto, adding that combining the ingredient with other actives akin to menthol provides effective pain relief.

As Asutra grows its reach, it seeks to proceed delivering innovation that emphasizes the facility of lively self-care, a practice Morimoto doesn’t see as a luxury, but quite a necessity for one to thrive. 

“Our foremost goal is to be a catalyst,” she said. “We wish to encourage people so as to add more self-care rituals into their day-to-day. We wish them to experience firsthand that once they find time for self-care, they’ll truly be their best, whatever that’s to them.”