Rose Botanica is the Self-Care Assessment Your Skin Needs
Rose Botanica is an interactive online store that boasts holistically-sourced lifestyle items along with eye-opening educational resources designed to enhance both your body and emotional well-being. We recently had a chance to speak to founder, Chelsea Poling about the positive psychological effects her handpicked merchandise has given her, as well as the methods we can all adopt to implement a healthy dose of self-care into our everyday schedules.
Chelsea’s personal journey in advocating for the transformational power of self-care started at a time when she was lacking it the most. After feeling depressed and anxious during her “rock bottom” Chelsea sought out the help of a therapist who gave her an exercise that changed the way she viewed herself. “My therapist asked me to look into the mirror daily, directly at my pupils, and say, simply, ‘I love you.’ In theory this didn’t seem challenging, but when I tried it, it felt nearly impossible. I found when I washed my face every morning, I was faced with my reflection -- and it was my opportunity to practice the exercise,” Chelsea remembers. She started to do it regularly and admits there were a lot of tears the first few weeks, but day by day it eventually got easier. “I gazed more softly and easily into my eyes, with kindness, compassion, and love reflecting back at me.”
After combining her exercise with other thoughtful routines in the morning and evening, Chelsea started to view her personal care rituals as acts of nurturing and caring for herself. “Skincare and body care products became self-care tools that gave me an opportunity to heal and replenish my self-love,” she recounts.
Chelsea’s recognition of the transformative effects of her new daily routines led to the birth of Rose Botanica, where every purchased item could be a gateway to helping customers find their happy place. The entrepreneur draws insight from her vast experiences around the world. She describes a learning experience at an Ayurvedic spa in Sri Lanka called Spa Ceylon. “Doshas in Ayurvedic refer to your unique physical and mental constitution, which influence your personal wellbeing. Each person has a dominant dosha or combination of doshas, and Spa Ceylon’s products are all offered based on individual doshas,” Chelsea describes. “It was here that I recognized the importance of consciously choosing products specific to your unique mind and body needs.”
Instead of using a one-size-fits-all mentality, Rose Botanica encourages people to be selective with what products are best suited for their bodies and spirit. They want their customers to only purchase what truly resonates with them. They even offer a questionnaire its customers are encouraged to fill out that will lay out exactly what products are best suited for your spiritual, physical, and mental goals.Rose Botanica does all the searching for you — but it’s up to us to find a routine that fully benefits us. A changed regiment may take a while to perfect, but if Chelsea’s transformative experience with self-love has taught us anything, it’s that we owe ourselves the responsibility to at least try. Sonia Gumuchian is a writer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, she received her film degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and has been working in the TV industry for several years. Sonia recently worked at ABC Studios and HBO, where she learned the ropes of creative development. Additionally, her work has been showcased at film festivals in the UK, the U.S., and Canada. Her short film Home Entertainment is an official selection at the Austin Film Festival this year.Photos by: Tynan Daniels.
