Leading up to the 2016 Canadian Young Living Convention, we will be spotlighting some of the great vendors you’ll find at the Vendor Expo being held alongside the convention in Calgary Aug. 25th-27th.
Proudly Canadian! Essential Bracelet actually got it start in a little dingy basement in the Mount Pleasant area of Calgary.
Christmas of 2013, sitting around a table with my Mom, Sister and Girlfriend, I was listening to a problem that they had. All being distributors and avid essential oil users, they were talking about how none of the essential oil jewellery on the market really spoke to them, they we’re all looking for an every day wearable option that was lightweight, easy to use and could be worn anywhere they went. Immediately a light bulb turned went off and as soon as I got back to Calgary the work began. I sketched out the design, found a manufacturer to help me with prototypes and failed about 1000 times. Design, packaging, diffusing tablets, websites and logistics was all done by myself, who 3 months earlier knew nothing about essential oils. Once we had a design for the bracelet finalised, next was the diffusing tablets. After trying many different options, I settled on clay because of it’s ability to hold the scent for a very long time and would not change the scent of the oils. Growing up I had also been exposed to the power of gemstones, so I knew that was a component that I had to incorporate into the tablets. I used to spend hours and hours rolling out clay with a rolling pin and cutting them by hand. Soon we were ready to go to market and we started touring around with people doing small home parties, we used to set up and sell anywhere and everywhere. November of 2014 I quit my full time job two days before our first big tradeshow, we also launched the website that month and began online marketing.
At the time, there was only a few orders here and there, I used to sit down and write each one by hand. One year later, on the Christmas holidays again, we had an amazing review from Elizabeth Modero from Modero Green Moments. I was sitting in Texas when orders began pouring in and I was 30 hours away! All of us sat down on the couch and emailed every single person over some eggnog and explained that their orders would be 2 weeks late. I quickly starting outgrowing the small basement. I had two room mates and as patient and supportive as they were, there was essential oil jewellery and clay EVERYWHERE! Looking back to my home province of Saskatoon, I found a good friend that had just retired from the military, he had a large unfinished basement and also knew nothing about essential oils, so I knew he was perfect. I moved my entire operation ( a rolling pin and a few thousand silicone bracelets) back home to Saskatoon. Kevin was a wiz with logistics and organisation, soon we we’re growing at an even quicker rate. Within 5 months we had outgrown the basement and found a 2500 sqft warehouse space with a place for retail, 2 treatment rooms, a presentation room and offices for all the new staff to bring on. Again at another big business decision, I moved in with blind confidence. Essential Bracelet +, soon to become Essential+ was Saskatoon’s first store dedicated specifically to essential oils and the distributors that sell them. We offer all your favourite accessories, workshops, treatments and even allow distributors to use the space for their own events and workshops.
Essential Bracelet now ships all over the world and attends the biggest essential oil events in the world! We have big plans to continue growing and have our bracelets on every essential oil users wrist.
When we heard about the first ever Canadian Convention we knew we wanted to do something for the community that has helped me grow my dreams and honour the other entrepreneurs with a journey like mine to share their stories. This is why we are putting on this year’s vendor event. We hope that we can see you all there!
