Lifetherapy, Take Me Away…

Lynette Lovelace had to get off of the plane. After a late flight from New York on a Friday afternoon, she was anxious to call her lawyer. She needed a trademark on that idea she’d been hoping would come.

 

“‘Lifetherapy’ just came to me on the plane that day—so clearly,” explains Lovelace, who spent more than 20 years in the retail and restaurant business in Hinsdale.

“I knew I had a talent for picking things people loved. So I decided I wanted to create a brand—a lifestyle brand that someday would be part of people’s everyday lives,” Lovelace says.

Lovelace took a leap of faith a year ago to bring lifetherapy to the market. As the eternally optimistic, married mother of 2 who ran a 5,000-square-foot restaurant with 50 employees and a retail store to boot (while also dealing with some serious family health issues), she had to be sure her idea could work. Armed with research that told her that wellness and self-help products typically flourish even in a down economy, as well as a powerful intuition for what women want, Lovelace created a line of apothecary products inspired by the therapeutic powers of fragrance and mood.

“Fate played such a role in the creation of my brand,” Lovelace says. “There was a man who I said ‘hello’ to at my restaurant every week for 10 years. I didn’t know his name or what he did. But one night, my husband and I walked out with him and he grabbed a bag from his trunk. ‘Finally, someone who will appreciate really great products’ he said as he handed the bag to me. Turns out, he worked for the largest manufacturer of liquid products in the United States. He didn’t know me or what I was planning. But I took this as a sign that lifetherapy was meant to be.”

That night, Lovelace showed her portfolio (which she took everywhere with her) and made an appointment to meet with him. It wasn’t long before she scrapped her plans to work with a French perfumery and decided to manufacture lifetherapy in the U.S.

Today, lifetherapy offers a line of crèmes and pulse point oils in 5 moods from which you can choose—play, vacation, chill, escape and flirt (available online February 1, in time for Valentine’s Day).

“Each day we make a choice about how we’re going to approach it. Lifetherapy can help you make that decision,” Lovelace explains. “Especially moms who already do so much for so many but feel guilty they’re not doing more.”

At press time, Lovelace was packing her bags for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah where lifetherapy will be offered in one of the celebrity gift suites. Lifetherapy also has strategic shelf space in tony boutiques like Fred Segal, Kitson and Planet Blue.

“At this point, we’ve done everything we can to make lifetherapy take off. We now just have to wait and see what happens,” she says.

Fingers crossed. So will we.

Lifetherapy is available at E-Street Denim in Winnetka and in Cheeky at E-Street Denim in Highland Park. You can also order lifetherapy online at lifetherapy.com. Make It Better shoppers can receive a 20% discount on their online purchase of Flirt if they enter MIB123 at checkout (offer applies until Feb. 14).

  Who We Are       NFP Support       Magazine       Programs       Donate    

X