Bipolar Princess
Mental Illness is Good for Business
What we’ll cover in this post:
Your mental struggles might be the most interesting thing about you
Brands are capitalizing big time using mental health as their marketing angle
Howdy folks. How’s everybody doing? This week we’re talking about our mental health, how brands are exploiting it, and how we can too (yay!).
After all, your mental and emotional challenges may just be the most interesting thing about you. I don’t say that to be callous. It’s more a recognition that some of the most notable, fascinating, and accomplished people in human history had some form of mental or emotional imbalance driving them.
Vincent Van Gogh, Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Earnest Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, Beethoven, and Virginia Woolf are all suspected to have lived with bipolar disorder, to name a few.
I’m not romanticizing BPD. It’s a serious condition and can be life threatening. I am drawing the connection between emotional imbalance and creativity. As writer Kevin Jokipii writes in his piece on the relationship between bipolar disorder and creative genius, “it can be a devastating illness when not properly taken care of, but there are definitely certain advantages that can come with it. Incredible insight, amazing artistic expression, and imagination are very common traits of those with bipolar disorder.”
He goes on to say, and I couldn’t have put this better, “Some of the fiery aspects of thought and emotion, that people with bipolar have, can lead to a tireless artistic voyage – high energy, expansive mood, quick thinking, and unique insight; a sense of vision and grandiose fervor commonly come with the capacity for darker moods and bouts of madness. Bipolar can lead to more extreme experiences, and these extremities gives the artist a larger toolkit to work with when creating their art. From the deep depths of depression, to the incredible highs of mania, and the heightened imagination of psychosis gives the artist with bipolar disorder a larger scope of life experience in thought and emotion.”
As someone who lives in this full technicolored spectrum, I can attest to experiencing life as a heightened, uninhibited, vast frontier of extremes.
“Sometimes the thing that gets you in the most trouble is also your greatest superpower.”
I sat on the table in the craniosacral therapists office. “In Ayurvedic medicine, your constitution is Pitta, the fire dosha. The qualities of your fiery constitution that get you in trouble - your temper, being manic, depressive, competitive, obsessive, urgent, and hyper-critical - are also a large part of what drive your success.”
In 20 years of therapy I’ve never had my “constitution”, a cocktail of bipolar depression, childhood trauma, and PMDD, framed for me in that way. The traits that get me in the most trouble, are also responsible for some of my greatest achievements. I feel like Kanye. Don’t cancel me.
But this new framing did make me feel…powerful. It made me aware of all the ways I leverage those traits to be driving forces.
Hear me out. The depressive cycles are a time for introversion, deep thought, focused creative work, and reflection. Reading, writing, learning, organizing, doing more backend work on my business, going for quiet walks on my own.
The manic cycles are a time for extroversion; being super social, scheduling the big presentations, pursuing the audacious opportunities, and putting more of myself out there. It’s the yin and the yang. Or in my case, the withdrawn and the intrepid. Know thy self.
We’ve entered an interesting time in human existence. We’re all hyper-aware of the labels we can apply to our various mental and emotional conditions and states. We’re all such armchair experts that we pathologize ourselves. We’ve almost entered the golden age of mental illness, where the stigmas have dissipated and we are focused on solutions and understanding. I refer to the golden age of mental illness, and not mental health, because while we are aware, we do not have widespread relief. We’re still suffering greatly, we just have names for it now.
You know who else knows about our menty health problems? Brands. They know our triggers and they’re running with them all the way to the bank.
Things that have never been commercialized before are now blossoming into entire industries. Take the psychedelic renaissance as an example. Psychedelics have historically been natural, localized resources used by indigenous cultures as tools for healing and spiritual awakening. As soon as companies realized the profit to be made by commercializing psychedelic medicine, they jumped at the opportunity to be on the forefront of this new industry.
I am all for psychedelic medicine. I believe MDMA therapy should be available to veterans and people struggling with PTSD and treatment resistant depression. I think psilocybin, lsd, mescaline, etc. all have potential to be more impactful (and safer) than most traditional pharmaceutical medicines.
My big beef with the burgeoning psychedelics industry, is that if the value proposition was that psychedelics enlarged penis size, they would have jumped at the opportunity of commercializing all the same. I don’t believe it was for the sheer passion of trying to solve the global mental health crisis. At least not across the board.
If you’ve ever done psychedelics, you know it feels strange to even refer to this new market an “industry”, given the experience using psychedelics feels so far beyond and detached from any societal structures as we know them.
“Psychedelics are far more complex than your average Lexapro (and potentially more effective), and we’re only just staring to realize their full potential. It’s crucial we maintain a reverence for the inherently mystical, unexplainable nature of these medicines, and not synthesize and adulterate them to a point where they are unrecognizable and the very thing that makes them special is lost.” - A Roast of the Shroom Boom and Psychedelic Mania.
My post on brands exploiting the psychedelic renaissance puts players like Psychedelic Water under the microscope. I really feel this was one of my best posts and it did not get enough attention. I removed the paywall so give that a read if you’re feeling spicy.
What I find most surprising (or not surprising at all?) is that the BEAUTY industry, of all things, is not only preying on our physical insecurities, it’s preying on our mental and emotional issues now too.
That said, I’ll start on a high note.
Selfmade
Perhaps this personal care company took a page out of Rare Beauty’s naming guidelines. Secure Attachment Comfort Serum. True Grit Resilience Scrub. Self Disclosure Intimacy Serum.
They made the brand name one word. Interesting choice, perhaps for trademarking purposes, but a quick google search for SelfMade returns a dozen businesses by the same name, and a quick glance at the USPTO trademark search shows there are already businesses by the same name that applied for cosmetics and personal care. Anyways.
From their website:
Selfmade is a personal care brand made by messy, emotional humans who ditched perfectionism to make practical wellness tools that blend psychology and skincare. Think creams that combat stress and more. We're changing the way we take care of ourselves with results you can see and feel.
Blending as it pertains to how they activate psychology and skincare might be the wrong term. I might say, “we make skincare products and we also like to advocate for mental health.”
The idea of blending psychology and skincare has been floated to me a few times in the last year. I’ve heard it referred to as psychodermatology. Selfmade calls it NeuroBeauty. I call it… marketing.
Psychodermatology refers to the treatment of skin disorders using psychological and psychiatric techniques by addressing the interaction between mind and skin. An inward - out approach, if you will. SelfMade’s approach is more of the outward-in methodology, from what I can tell. Using skincare to decrease stress and help you unwind.
I’m listening…
I have to break down their NeuroBeauty Bundle because there’s a lot to unpack here. We’re talking somatic practitioners, partnerships with trauma psychologists, a field guide for practicing interoception, and I’m still trying to understand how a skin cream combats stress.
Copy from their NeuroBeauty Bundle PDP with insertions of my notes. This is wild. A big spoonful of word soup. Hope you’re hungry. Here we go.
*****
The ultimate kit to help bring ease to your skin and mind.
We are releasing a limited number of NeuroBeauty Rest Ritual bundles for this time of collective rest. The world feels busier and more stressful than ever [true] so as a business we’re taking the time to pause. [Must be nice] And because rest is not easy for us, we’ve created this ritual bundle to help guide us all. This ritual features our four award-winning hero products that are paired with rest and recovery centered mind and skin rituals intentionally developed by Ev’Yan Whitney, community manager and somatic practitioner in-residence. [Here’s where they start to lose me. Can skincare be ritualistic? Sure. Does it warrant a community manager and somatic practitioner in residence to validate that skincare rituals = rest and recovery? That feels like a stretch].
These rituals are found in the NeuroBeauty Rest Field Guide that comes with self workshopping prompts [I’ll take it] developed in partnership with psychiatrist Dr. Byron Young, MD, Chief Medical Advisor, and trauma psychologist and psychosomatic specialist, Dr. Jeshana Johnson, Chief Therapy Advisor. [Leveraging a somatic practitioner, a Chief Medical Advisor, and a Chief Therapy Advisor seems like a bit of an overcompensation for a skincare company. Like they’re trying too hard to justify a connection between a body scrub and addressing the beast of stress and overwhelm.] This Field Guide is your partner in the practice of interoception as a way to practice stress and anxiety management, upgrade our skin care routines as ways to emotionally regulate [howwwwww does upgrading your skincare help you emotionally regulate? This is where it gets soupy], and return to homeostasis [homeostasis for your epidermis is very different than reaching a state of homeostasis for your mental, emotional, and gut health, which let’s be honest, has a bigger influence on the state of your skin than any topical does] so we can get the best out of our products for healthy skin. [whew] Made for anxious minds and every body and we recognize self-care is deeply personal. [This sentence contradicts itself] There is no blanket solution to burn out and our stress cycles, which is why our universal-use products are tools backed by credible neuroscience and behavior research to choose your own adventure. [Another contradiction within one sentence. There is no blanket solution…. our universal-use products…”]
******
Listen, I appreciate the sentiment behind what they’re aiming to do here, but they’re trying to force a connection with this NeuroBeauty marketing angle that is a stretch on a good day.
Let’s look at a couple of the products in this bundle to see how they’re justifying upgrading your skincare to emotionally regulate.
SelfMade says the Secure Attachment Comfort Serum, which retails for $36, “promotes a secure attachment aka a feeling of safety and comfort with self - and best of all with your skin.” Mkay.
The core ingredients are pretty basic by beauty industry standards. Peptides, hyaluronic acid, marine algae extracts and squalane.
Why is the True Grit body scrub named True Grit body scrub? Glad you asked. According to SelfMade, “Practicing resilience (a.k.a. the inner strength to bounce back) makes life’s obstacles feel a little less stressful. Improving skin’s resilience (its ability to protect as your body’s first line of defense) comes with a healthy dose of hands-on friction and a healthy growth mindset.”
I actually have no words. All I can think about is Hailee Steinfeld washing her face.
They also managed to side swipe the Oscar award-winning movie and trademark “True Grit” for their body scrub, which I kind of love for them. Ballsy.
Any connection between a body scrub and stress levels is loosely correlative at best. It would almost be better if they would take a page from the Rare Beauty playbook and just donate a percentage of proceeds to organizations that actually do impact the mental health crisis.
I appreciate that this bundle includes a field guide, and their Securely Attached Bundle includes a copy of the book Attached on understanding your attachment style, but referring to what they’re doing as NeuroBeauty is a bold move.
I don’t mean to bash another brand. I’m in CPG. It’s hard as hell to make it as a CPG brand these days and they seem to be doing alright for themselves. I’m dissecting this through the lens of brands capitalizing on the mental health crisis and exploiting our emotional struggles with irrelevant products and gratuitous claims. With peace and love, it’s all branding and marketing, baby.
FYI, SelfMade is doing 40% off everything site wide right now. If you buy and try anything please let me know in the comments. Specifically regarding your mental state.
Rare Beauty
Rare Beauty, founded by our darling bipolar princess Selena Gomez, has carved out a nice big corner as a “mental illness positive” beauty brand. I’m starting on a high note with Rare because 1) they’re products are great and 2) she puts herself out there as a founder and someone who struggles with bipolar disorder, and she’s walking the talk.
One of my gripes with beauty brands using mental health as their angle is that there is no face to the brand. There’s no public-facing founder saying “I struggle with xyz mental health issues and I wanted to build a brand that will allow me to create better resources…” or whatever. That’s what makes them feel like a cash grab beauty brand exploiting our mental and emotional needs.
From their About page: This is makeup made to feel good in, without hiding what makes you unique—because Rare Beauty is not about being someone else, but being who you are.
I’m not inspired but I’m not mad about it.
I found this quote from Selena herself to be a bit more definitive. “Being rare is about being comfortable with yourself. I've stopped trying to be perfect. I just want to be me I think Rare Beauty can be more than a beauty brand—it can make an impact. I want us all to stop comparing ourselves to each other and just start embracing our own uniqueness.”
Better! She defines what it means to be rare and acknowledges the comparison game that even she has fallen victim to.
More impressive is their Rare Impact Fund, which aims to mobilize $100 million for global organizations that improve access to mental health care, community support, education and resources for youth.
My favorite feature is the Comfort Club, a section of their website containing short, guided video tutorials for relaxation, movement, and connection.
But wait!
Selena didn’t stop there folks. Have you seen the product names?!
Positive Light Liquid Luminizer
Find Comfort Body and Hair Fragrance Mist
True to Myself Pressed Finishing Powder
Always an Optimist 4-in-1 mist
I would kill to be on the creative team coming up with these names. The cutting room floor for names must be a hoot.
You have to give it to Rare. The resounding feedback on their products is extremely positive. I am curious whether people who buy Rare Beauty do so because of the mission to embrace what makes you, you, or if they purchase simply because Rare makes a great concealer.
They do make amazing makeup. And from what I hear are a consistent favorite for beauty editors.
Bubble
Last but not least, Bubble is a skincare brand that caters, from what I can tell, to the YA crowd, teens and tweens. They focus on skincare education and stress that self care should be as accessible as skincare. No notes.
The emphasis on education, community, and science-backed formulas amps up the credibility factor, teeing up their mental health arm, a page on their site that features links to resources for meditation, mindfulness, therapy, general wellness, and emergency services. Respectable.
Most importantly, they make adorable key chains.
They disseminate part of their proceeds to nonprofit organizations that provide emotional health resources to teens and young adults, and they partner with BetterHelp to offer more affordable counseling services. Okay!
Are they just another skincare company? I’d say so. But the mental health arm feels more legitimate and authentic than SelfMade’s, mostly because they aren’t trying so hard to force a connection between the skincare products they’re selling you and your mental wellbeing.
Overall, we can do better. Beauty and personal care brands should take a beat before launching value propositions that try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Beauty is not healthcare, and it’s borderline predatory to be making those claims, especially towards a young consumer base.
Can beauty and mental health find common ground? In the case of wellbeauty brands, the connection can be made. But for a straight up skincare or makeup brand, the mental health component must live within the brand’s mission, separate from the value proposition of the products themselves.
Unless of course you’re making a face cream containing lithium that actually makes its way into your bloodstream. And if you make this, please let me know, I will be your tester.
Hope you enjoyed this little think piece.
Guess what? I just hit 100 subscribers. That is so cool! I love this platform because having 100 subs on Substack feels ten times more meaningful than gaining 100 followers on IG. We’re talking about READERS, not just people double-tapping a pretty picture.
So hey, cheers to YOU, dear readers.
See you next week.
'But for a straight up skincare or makeup brand, the mental health component must live within the brand’s mission, separate from the value proposition of the products themselves.'
This! It is unfortunate but not surprising that so many brands essentially tell little white lies about their products just so they can label themselves as a mental health / wellbeing / wellbeauty, it's crude business and lacks depth. The hardest part is people still lap it up, so finding a good balance is key. Imagine pitching to VC's / investors about a 'mental well-being brand' for example, a Peppa pig style pitch deck might be needed here.