Developed For Savasana, Natural Skincare Brand Aseede Takes The Healing Benefits Of Yoga Beyond The Mat

As a single mother, a full-time marketing professional and a minority sorting through challenging realities, Tiffany Wilburn sought refuge from anxiety and strain on the yoga mat and with aromatherapy. Now, she’s looking beyond her own mat to provide relief to others through natural skincare brand Aseede and upcoming wellness center Living Lightly Lifestyle.

“Especially as a mom, I realize the amount of stress everyone is taking in is exorbitant. It isn’t healthy. I’ve had family, friends and co-workers come down with emotional and physical ailments,” says Wilburn, a yoga instructor and reiki practitioner. “I referred them to the practice of yoga. Yoga isn’t just about postures or shapes. It’s a practice of managing emotions. It’s about breathing deeply and using tools within you to be comfortable in your environment. During savasana, I offered a vegan aromatherapy product I made at home. It’s relaxing and powerful. I got feedback that the product was amazing, and people asked, ‘What is that? Can I buy that?’”

People can indeed buy it. Wilburn has bottled the formula she incorporated into savasana, the lying pose concluding yoga sessions, and called it Hydration Lock Oil, a product built around a mix of jojoba, sweet almond and avocado oils that can be tapped for meditation support, glow boosting and massage facilitating. It’s available in rosemary and cedar wood, eucalyptus and jasmine, and lavender and sage varieties.

“I use this religiously on my four-year-old at night. I put a few drops on his feet, give him a foot massage, and he’s out like a light,” says Wilburn. “It’s a nice alternative to a traditional massage oil because, a lot of times when you give a massage, you feel you’re on the giving end and they are receiving, but this allows both individuals to benefit from the aromatherapy release. Let’s say you both had a stressful day, and you want to wind down with healing touch time, I would use the rosemary and cedar wood. The rosemary helps with tension and the cedar wood readies the mind for rest.”

Aseede has expanded from the Hydration Lock Oil to three additional products: Aromatherapy Mist, Aroma Roller and Healing Balm, its bestseller. Produced by Wilburn, the products are packaged in frosted glass with recycled labels featuring earthy, muted colors speaking to the natural origins of the products’ contents. Aseede’s prices range from $12 to $20.

“During savasana, I offered a vegan aromatherapy product I made at home. It’s relaxing and powerful. I got feedback that the product was amazing, and people asked, ‘What is that? Can I buy that?’”

The solid Healing Balm contains shea and mango butters, and coconut oil that turns into a thick oil after it is warmed in the hands of the person applying it and delivers a glistening sheen to the body. “The balm is meant to replace a traditional lotion. It’s very concentrated. You only need as much as your thumbnail to cover both of your legs,” says Wilburn, continuing about her decision to launch a balm, “Most people shower every day and moisturize their bodies. I really wanted something to create a self-care moment every day to help you breathe more and worry less.”

The Aromatherapy Mist and Aroma Roller are responses to customer requests for portable items. Sales of the mist have been on the upswing, and Wilburn reasons it could be because it’s a cool reprieve from the hot summer weather. She includes the mist in her beauty routine as a hair refresher, although that wasn’t its original purpose. “The mists were created to be an emotional recharge the minute you need it,” says Wilburn. “If you’re in a really stressful situation or meeting, you can come back to your desk, give yourself a few mists, take a cleansing breath and recenter yourself to return to the moment with a recentering intention.”

Wilburn is adamant about relying on unrefined ingredients for Aseede’s products. “I don’t believe you are going to get the power of the plant if you are stripping out nutrients during a filtration process. You are losing the vitamins and nutrients that make a plant unique and specific,” she says. “I’m not a conformist. A lot of time ingredients are refined to get uniformity. Because I’m using unrefined ingredients, every batch can be slightly different. To me, that is what nature should be. No oak tree or rose blossom is exactly the same.”

Aseede will have a home in a retail space at Living Lightly Lifestyle, an 870-square-foot yoga and health education concept Wilburn is opening in the Cleveland suburb Shaker Heights, Ohio. Living Lightly Lifestyle is named for a blog she started in 2007 at a company where she was an employee and took beyond that company to a general audience from 2008 to 2011. Its content focused on incremental steps to a conscious existence, and that’s the theme of the wellness center, too. The brand name Aseede refers to Wilburn’s mission as a yoga instructor to plant seeds of inspiration in her clients.

“I’m not a conformist. A lot of time ingredients are refined to get uniformity. Because I’m using unrefined ingredients, every batch can be slightly different. To me, that is what nature should be. No oak tree or rose blossom is exactly the same.”

At Living Lightly Lifestyle, Wilburn plans to hold classes and talks tailored to people coping with trauma. “Being an African-American mother of a boy, one passion I have is helping African-American mothers because raising a black son in our country is a traumatizing experience every day,” she says. “I want to create a safe place for the entire community, but we’re especially going to outreach to people on the trauma spectrum and the African-American community, specifically mothers.”

Aseede will stretch outside of the Living Lightly Lifestyle location, and its products are already sold at about 10 yoga studios, clothing boutiques and nail salons. Natural grocers could be a good fit for it as well, according to Wilburn, noting e-commerce websites have expressed interest in carrying Aseede. Currently, most of the brand’s sales are online, but fairs and pop-up events where it’s a frequent participant are also revenue generators. For this year, Wilburn’s goal is for Aseede to break $50,000 in sales.

“I want to make sure I can scale effectively, so I’ve been very strategic about the accounts I take on,” says Wilburn. “I don’t run a lot of promotions, not because I don’t like promotions, but because people who repurchase my product are buying it at full price. I have hundreds of consumers coming back and buying the product three or four times, so the product is proving itself.”