Cor’s Wearable Aromatherapy Concept Clicks At Anthropologie

Cor, producer of pendants with purposes beyond mere decoration, has entered Anthropologie as part of the retailer’s expanded wellness selection.

The Urban Outfitters Inc.-owned lifestyle chain carries the brand’s $125 aromatherapy necklaces in silver, gold and rose gold variations in addition to $10 refill sets of essential oils-soaked wicks that provide mood-lifting benefits. The idea is to spread the centering, invigorating and relaxing attributes of essential oils with high-design jewelry rather than basic inhaler sticks that aren’t the most aesthetically appealing to carry around.

“Anthropologie is a big deal for me. The challenge with my product is that it’s something you need to see, smell and feel. It’s hard to make people understand without experiencing it,” says Coreena D’Alessandro, an aromatherapist who founded Cor with jewelry designer Marianne VanderWall. “I’m grateful for Anthropologie because I’ve been trying to put myself on the map for the last two-plus years, and they can do it a lot easier than I could.”

Cor Pendant
Coreena D’Alessandro

Cor’s launch at Anthropologie didn’t happen overnight. D’Alessandro originally sent samples to the chain’s women’s buyer when Cor hit the market in early 2016. In September of that year, she received a request for another sample from a buyer involved in Anthropologie’s wellness assortment. D’Alessandro kept in touch with her to inquire about Cor’s status and the status of the wellness update. A year after that buyer’s initial request, the brand received an order from Anthropologie.

“There were many times I cried, and I was like, ‘I’m done.’ I don’t need this at my age. I wanted this to be fun,” admits 56-year-old D’Alessandro, discussing the hardships of entrepreneurialism. “But I feel like I’m in a good place now, and doors are opening for me. I’m making the right connections, and it feels right intuitively. That’s not to say that I’m not going to encounter 20 challenges tomorrow.”

Cor was born after D’Alessandro, a former buyer for a department store, spent 25 years as a stay-at-home mom. During her stint as a stay-at-home mom, she sought to nurture a healthy domestic environment for her three children and created cleaning products that were alternatives to the normal store-bought stuff was one method of doing so. She became enamored with the properties of essential oils and garnered an aromatherapy certification to pair her passion for the plant compounds with a deep comprehension of them.

Cor Pendant

“I think that, once you use essential oils, you fall in love with them and want to use them for everything. I made my own skincare and remedies. For anything that was ailing someone, I’d have something for it,” says D’Alessandro. “I blend intuitively, but, of course, I always look at what oils go pair together due to their therapeutic properties. There’s a ton of science behind it.”

Cor’s sleek pendants are constructed in a painstaking process. The components are made at a machine shop, and the plating is outsourced. However, D’Alessandro carefully assembles the inner workings of the pendants and wicks to complete the pieces. She also readies the three essential oil mixtures Cor currently has available. “It’s a long process, and there are a lot of steps,” says D’Alessandro. “Hopefully, I will be able to slim it down in the future.”

Today, roughly half of Cor’s business is driven by its website and half from retail sales. The brand is carried by a smattering of stores and spas, including Exhale Spa and The Angel Cooperative, primarily close to where D’Alessandro lives in Redding, Conn. She’s found yoga practitioners are especially drawn to Cor’s concept. “Health-conscious people are attracted to it. I don’t think there’s an age to that,” says D’Alessandro. “I have people that wear it in their mid-20s, and people that are in their 50s wear it.”

Cor Pendant

In pursuing retailers, Cor has faced difficulty positioning itself. It can fit into women’s, accessories and beauty departments. The rise of wellness assortments is fortuitous for Cor because wellness crosses many categories appropriate to the brand. No matter where Cor is stationed at a store, D’Alessandro notes it’s extremely valuable to have sales associates sport its pendants. “If I have it on and people see me showing it to someone else, they ask, ‘What is that?’ They’re very curious,” she says.

D’Alessandro is busy pondering product possibilities to build Cor’s merchandise repertoire. She is considering ways to wear essential oils from Cor without the pendants and releasing an array of essential oils. “People could use them with the pendants, in diffusers or if they’re making their own products,” she says of the proposed essential oils. “The bottom line is I want people to know about the natural benefits of essential oils.”