Herbivore Gets Serious About Self-Care by Teaming Up With the Real: Mental Health App
With its vegan and eco-conscious formulas (and some of the prettiest packaging we've ever seen), Herbivore is one of our all-time favorite skincare brands—and we're even more obsessed thanks to their new collaboration with the Real: Mental Health app.
Herbivore knows very well that self-care is more than just a great beauty routine, which is why it's empowering customers this month by offering complimentary health care through the Real app. The brands were kind enough to give us the chance to check our Real ourselves, and here's what to know about the deal, and the app.
The Deal
Through the end of the month (April 30), Herbivore is offering a complimentary month's subscription to Real for every purchase of their best-selling Aquarius BHA + Blue Tansy Cleanser. The $26 cleanser is designed for oily to combination skin, utilizing BHA, blue tansy and zinc to bust acne and minimize pores while balancing oils. It also works wonders as a makeup remover without stripping and drying the skin.
(via Herbivore)
The partnership was inspired by the personal experiences of Herbivore co-founders Julia Wills and Alexander Kummerov, who themselves have dealt with acne-prone skin and the effects it can have on mental health. By offering customers access to innovative mental health care via the Real app, they're empowering them with tools for the best tools for improved confidence and self-love. Typically, subscriptions are available for $23.99 per month, or for $164.99 if you commit for the full year, so you can also think of your free month as paying for the subscription and getting the cleanser for just $2!
Also read about: Things Girls With High-Functioning Anxiety Know Too Well
The Real App
It only took us a few moments with Real to discover that it's quite different from any other mental health apps we've tried. They utilize a new approach to affordable, equitable preventative mental health care that feels great to use.
It all starts with a questionnaire asking you to rate different aspects of your life, from energy, mood and motivation to your sense of purpose and optimism, on a scale from very poor to very good. Once this is completed, it generates your "Real Pulse"—essentially a personal snapshot and overview of where you are mentally at this moment, to track over time.
(via Real)
Next, the app asked us to choose one of its Pathways, which are essentially interactive, guided mental health programs. We were intrigued by the first—How to (Really) Feel—and dove in. Within this section, we were introduced to the concept of Real through videos with licensed therapist Madeline Lucas. These videos felt soothing as well as informative, with a much-appreciated sense of acceptance and lack of judgment. It ended by asking us to write a letter to our future selves, who've now completed this pathway, before guiding us into the first session, "WTF Are Feelings, Anyway?"
(via Real)
This session also came with a video from Madeline, sharing the importance of understanding the evolutionary role of feelings, the difference between primary and secondary emotions and how to identify feelings and their impacts. It may all sound pretty simple, but this is powerful stuff, and the writing prompts for this one felt a bit more challenging—though in a good way.
(via Real)
The other thing that's interesting about the app is that it encourages taking your time. It can be more helpful to just do portions of a session each day to really sit with your learnings and take a few days to reflect on what you've learned. We haven't yet moved on to the second session, but we already feel like using the app has been super beneficial. By participating daily, and not just when things get challenging, we feel like we've been creating habits, adapting new grounding practices and tapping into new ways of thinking.
If you don't feel ready to move on, or simply need to take more time to think about one of the exercises in your current session, there are also other tools in the Real app. Under Moments, you can do short exercises that complement your Pathway, each with specific purposes such as "When your schedule is out of control" or When you can't focus at work." Under the Toolkit section, you can review your responses to sections of sessions you've completed to reflect or get a little perspective. The app also offers Events where you can tune in live to talks with real therapists, or revisit videos of past events in your areas of interest.
Altogether, the app has become a necessary part of our daily routines, and we fully plan to continue our subscription once the trial runs out.
Looking to focus more on your mental health? Click HERE for the mental health podcasts that have us hooked.