Smudge Is Spreading Spiritual Connection Through Subscription Boxes

With wellness practices ascending from self-care to spirituality, Smudge is launching as a New Age-meets-the-digital-age shaman in a box delivering smudge sticks, crystals, beauty tools and more to people longing to detach from their devices.

Created by friends Lara Corey, Luigi Aldon and Christopher Klotzbach, the subscription service promises to be a metaphysical ice breaker for those intimidated to enter the witchy store on the corner. Debuting in March around the spring equinox, it takes the guesswork out of shopping for ritual supplies by starting customers off with an assessment directing the content of monthly boxes that include personalized letters with instructions on the usage of that content.

“Spiritual wellness—what we are offering people—is the next level of beauty. It is beauty for the soul,” says Aldon. “When you’re doing your makeup, and putting on your bronzer, highlighter and lip gloss, having a rose quartz on your vanity while you are doing that helps you feel self-love and be confident. Why not add that layer of magic? It almost wouldn’t make sense not to.”

To add that layer of magic, Smudge will ship boxes to customers featuring five products relating recipients to the mind, body, earth, universe and fellow humans. Every month, there will be a theme to the boxes. Smudge is still finalizing pricing, but boxes will probably be priced between $60 and $75 per month.

There will be à la carte boxes available for gifting, too. A beta test of Smudge over the holidays showed that consumers were drawn to giving its boxes as a gift. “It fills this need in the marketplace people have,” says Corey. “They don’t just want to give a lipstick or perfume. They want to give something that is personal to the core of someone’s being.”

Smudge is crafting gifting options linked to significant milestones such as having a baby, moving into a new home or getting married. It can execute IRL experiences tied to those milestones as well. Crystal bars at weddings are possibilities, for instance. Corey says, “That’s a great way for us to tangibly show what Smudge is.”

“Spiritual wellness—what we are offering people—is the next level of beauty. It is beauty for the soul.”

In its boxes, which are designed to satisfy customers with Net-a-porter tastes, Smudge will spotlight items from independent artisans. For the artisans, Corey points out Smudge can propel their products to becoming a part of customers’ regular routines. She and Aldon are also confident Smudge will grow quickly and, therefore, it can grow the sales of the products it dispatches in its boxes quickly.

“I don’t think we will be small for long,” says Corey. “We have a pretty good ability to rollout this product in a robust way. Our network is substantial. That’s one carrot for people who want to partner with us.” Aldon echoes Corey, saying, “Our dream is to take this and bring it to the masses.”

Bringing Smudge to the masses will require money. It’s currently fundraising to build the technological infrastructure underpinning its business. “While it doesn’t sound like it’s a particularly tech-focused company, it is. We are collecting information about our customers to utilize it in order to scale human connection,” says Corey. “Stitch Fix is trying to retain personalization at scale. We have to do something similar so it doesn’t feel like what they are getting is just a template.”

Originally, Corey, Aldon and Klotzbach conceived of Smudge as a fully virtual enterprise. Aldon says they envisioned a digital altar with digital crystals and intention setting. He remembers, “As we started to talk about it, we felt it was important to give people physical products because it is the physical products that have amazing benefits.”

Smudge’s founders are familiar with the benefits of the products it will spread. Corey, Aldon and Klotzbach met at SoulCycle, where Aldon is an instructor. Over tequila sodas on Friday nights, they bonded over their personal struggles and triumphs, even though their circumstances were quite different. Corey is a lawyer and former general counsel for InsideTrack, a student coaching nonprofit, and Klotzbach was previously head of product marketing at Flurry from Yahoo.

The three pals recommended therapists and products to each other, and began sharing their fascination with crystals and smudge sticks. They discovered the spiritual wellness implements enhanced their lives. However, they weren’t thrilled with the cultural baggage that the products came with.

“While it doesn’t sound like it’s a particularly tech-focused company, it is. We are collecting information about our customers to utilize it in order to scale human connection.”

“We weren’t talking about the spiritual wellness journey in a hippie way. We were developing a vernacular that was light and could make fun of that hippie way a bit. It translated to someone to their 20s, someone who spends time in Sephora and reads Vogue,” says Corey. As they became increasingly comfortable with their approach to spiritual wellness rituals, Aldon chimes in, “We would drunkenly talk about starting a business together. For a while, it was a joke and, then, one day, we just decided to go for it.”

Corey and Aldon speculate Smudge’s customers are similar to them: People searching for meaning, but not willing to settle for crappy stuff in that search. They’re largely millennials and members of generation X that have rejected traditional religion and are toggled to technology to fulfill the demands of contemporary existence.

“Technology creates this phenomenon of being completely connected, yet completely disconnected,” says Corey. “You can talk to anyone at any second, but many people can’t tell you the last time they walked in a forest or connected with people in a deep way. I think that’s the reason we are seeing an upward tick in people demonstrating interest in these products.”

Crystals, smudge sticks and beauty products geared toward self-care are common, and subscription boxes devoted to them have boomed. What distinguishes Smudge, according to Corey, is the deep connection it’s making with its customers as it attempts to heighten the connections those customers have to themselves and the world around them.

“When people ask us how on earth are we going to reach out to people in a way that they still feel personally connected to, I tell them, ‘I’ve seen it happen, and I know it’s possible,’” she says, referring to InsideTrack’s uCoach Platform that proliferated student coaching programs. “You can leverage technology in a way that’s very human.”