Stephanie Morimoto, owner and chief executive officer of wellness brand Asutra, bought the company 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 president of regional development at a nonprofit led her to a point of extreme burnout, and ultimately served as a catalyst for her interest in self-care and wellness.
“I was working around the clock, traveling across the country and eating like crap. I tried to change the culture where I worked, and I was shut down,” Morimoto recalled at WWD’s Wellness Forum.
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Seeing a need for change in both her own life and the cultural consciousness at large, Morimoto embarked on a decade-long journey filled with yoga, intuitive eating and much-needed rest in order to reconnect with herself and attain a healthy work-life balance.
“As I went on this journey, I realized I wasn’t alone,” Morimoto said, noting how concerningly common it has become for people to endure physical and mental aches as they go about their day, often with no reprieve. “I realized that if I wanted to work in a place that really valued self-care, well-being and bringing your full self to work, I was probably going to have to create it myself.”
Enter Asutra.
When Morimoto took the reins at the company 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 address pain, stress, sleep and energy levels are in over 6,300 doors, including Target and CVS and more niche e-tailers like Grove Collaborative.
The brand’s range remains affordably priced because, as Morimoto puts it, “Everyone should be able to take care of 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 a lot of other ways,” said Morimoto, noting the importance of having an inclusive team when seeking to cater to a diverse consumer.
Asutra’s hero ingredient, magnesium, benefits over 300 bodily processes, she said, such as sleep, detoxification, mood and hormone balancing, and can even alleviate symptoms of menopause and perimenopause.
“Two out of three of us are deficient in magnesium and don’t even know it. We put [magnesium] in different formats — sprays, lotions, soaps — that way you can use it anywhere you want to on your body, in any format you desire,” said Morimoto, adding that combining the ingredient with other actives such as menthol provides effective pain relief.
As Asutra grows its reach, it seeks to continue delivering innovation that emphasizes the power of active self-care, a practice Morimoto does not see as a luxury, but rather a necessity for one to thrive.
“Our main goal is to be a catalyst,” she said. “We want to inspire people to add more self-care rituals into their day-to-day. We want them to experience firsthand that when they make time for self-care, they can truly be their best, whatever that is to them.”