Meet The Beauty Founder Creating "Self-Worth" Products Inspired By what She Learned in Therapy

Introducing SelfMade.

Wellness and beauty tend to go hand in hand. You know the old saying, "When you look good, you feel good," right? Well, SelfMade, a new beauty plus wellness brand, hopes to combine all the concepts you may have learned in therapy and apply them to your everyday routine in an easy, tangible way.

Founder Stephanie Lee created the "self-worth" brand to meet you where you are. "We want to be on your vanity, in your shower, and on your nightstand," she explains of the new venture. The line currently features three products—all focused on different mental health concepts.

We reached out to Lee herself for more on the brand, their new offering, and the inspiration. Read on to learn all about SelfMade.

The Inspiration

Stephanie’s career journey was instrumental in her starting SelfMade—in more ways than one. While working at the White House, her job was storytelling, translating ideas into experiences and events—a critical concept she says stuck with her. She would take a policy like wellness and turn it into an event on the White House lawn or television.

After eventually moving on from the White House to product development at MAC, she suffered a mental health crisis. She realized that as a woman of color, she didn’t look like the portrayals of depression you’d see in ads, which made it feel like there was no space for necessary mental health discourse. Along with that, she didn’t have the tools or the resources to deal with depression.

This led her to therapy, where she thought about how an outdated approach to beauty often focuses on flaws. She explains she was going to therapy several times a week to relearn how to embrace her inherent worth, something she was already born with. "I just realized there's something fundamentally wrong about how we're spoken to and how we go through life," Lee explains. This realization led to a year-long journey around the world to eleven countries and sixteen states to discuss mental health with other women.

"What was interesting is, I know we celebrate diversity, but we all go through the same thing whether it's joy, sadness, excitement, pleasure, loneliness. And that, in itself, is what connects us and makes us feel like we belong," she explains. All these experiences informed her next adventure: starting SelfMade.

The Products

"The three pillars that we're most focused on (how we become human beings) have to do with attachment styles, resilience, and emotional intimacy," she explains. "So, we have a product for each one of those that embody that emotional and psychological concept."

Secure Attachment Comfort Serum+ ($36) is a de-stressing, hydrating facial serum. Inspired by the concept of attachment styles, which you can explore further on the site, the serum nurtures anxious and stressed skin. In the formula, you'll find hyaluronic acid, squalane, and marine algae.

The True Grit Resilience Scrub ($34) is a multi-tasking exfoliator inspired by resilience and bouncing back from obstacles. Bamboo powder and fruit enzymes help polish the skin and scalp. Tea tree oil helps even skin, and chia seed extract is vital for a healthy skin barrier. Lastly, the latest launch, Self Disclosure Intimacy Serum ($28), promotes emotional and physical intimacy with yourself or others.

As Lee puts it, "pairing a psychological concept with a product has to do with the first step of self-awareness, and that first step is just expanding your emotional vocabulary, information is power." Self-care in a nutshell.

You can shop the brand at beselfmade.co.

Read more on: beauty