Project Runway's Elaine Welteroth On CBD: 'A Welcome Gearshift Out Of Work-Mode, Into Self-Care'

Famed journalist, author and TV host Elaine Welteroth has joined the CBD industry, becoming a celebrity ambassador for wellness brand Feals.

But the Project Runway judge and former Teen Vogue editor wasn’t always sold on CBD. In fact – the author disclosed during an exclusive interview, she was quite skeptical at first. “I saw all the CBD products flooding the market. Suddenly, I was seeing CBD everything.”

“I tried certain topical versions for soreness but I always thought of myself as too much of a control freak to ingest it because I wasn’t sure how my body would react.”

However, after watching a documentary about the healing benefits of CBD and hearing more and more of her closest friends sharing their positive experiences, her interest was piqued. During the quarantine, Welteroth was gifted some CBD tinctures and decided to give it a try.

“As a generally high-strung person, it immediately helped me center and, well, chill out,” she declared. “Working from home non-stop during the lockdown made it even harder to find some semblance of work / life separation, which I have always struggled with to begin with. CBD drops have become a welcome gearshift to help me transition out of work-mode to sink into self-care.”

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And the relief is needed. Welteroth sees herself as “a pretty type A personality who is also a creative entrepreneur.” This means she is constantly transitioning between the left and right sides of her brain.

“I have to master zooming in and out to nail the details while also seeing the big picture. CBD helps to ease that transition. And it also helps me get back into my body after living in my head all day.”

One thing the wordsmith is sure about is the importance of good rest, and how CBD helps with that: “I cannot flow creatively without rest. Not just the, lie-in-bed-mentally-scrolling-my-to-do-list R&R, but the kind that truly resets and rejuvenates my body and brain so that I am ready to attack any creative task in front of me from a place of flow. CBD is just one of many tools in my toolkit that help me slow down and reset with intention.”

A Breath Of Fresh Air

To celebrate the new partnership, Feals and Welteroth released all-new CBD-infused Mints.

Feals’ Mints are made with just 9 thoughtful ingredients. They are vegan and 100% sugar free, and contain 20 mg of CBD each. And Welteroth loves them. “I was never a huge fan of the taste of CBD tinctures and it took a second to figure out the right dosing. Once I discovered Feals mints, I converted.

“I mainly enjoy a CBD mint at the end of a long work day to shift into quality time with my husband over a meal, or to be fully present while watching one of our favorite shows,” she voiced.

Mints not only taste good. They look good too. The packaging is clean and slick, worthy of a big Consumer Packaged Goods brand.

“We think deeply about where Feals products occupy space in our customers' lives and seek to achieve a simple yet sophisticated design language that makes the Feals brand accessible to all. As a company, we’re striving to break stigmas around cannabis, and the visual identity of our products plays an essential role in this,” explained Feals co-founder Drew Todd.

The container itself is child-resistant and features an “on-the-go” shape – as Todd defines it.

“For context, it took us 83 attempts of powder coat color adjustments to achieve the right Feals Sunset color of our bottles,” he shared. “The rounded droplet shape of the mint came from the Herman Scheer team and was pulled from a drop icon that indicates dosage on the back of every Feals bottle. It’s shape is a bit of a brand easter egg and a motif that subtly connects the entire product family. We worked with a team of precision engineers on the tablet dies and are thrilled how the final product came out.”

Why Welteroth?

Elaine Welteroth is Feals’ first celebrity ambassador. Co-founders Drew Todd, Alex Iwanchuk and Eric Scheibling assure they chose her specifically due to her shared passion for mental health support and her active voice in the well-being community. 

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Feals, they say, is a self-care and well-being brand, so Welteroth was just the perfect choice. In fact, the writer recalls being immediately drawn in by Feals’ design and messaging, centered on self-care.

It seems Todd’s detailed approach to design had the desired effect.

“It was timely in that I was doubling down on my self-care practices while shooting both ‘Project Runway’ and ‘The Talk’ at the same time, on top of juggling multiple projects off-camera,” she said.

“I think it’s important that we elevate conversations around all-natural, healthy tools for prioritizing our well-being, including CBD, which strangely still has somewhat of a stigma. Partnering with Feals was a great opportunity to help break through the stigma and share my experience with a product I believe can actually help people feel better naturally.”

Lee en español: Elaine Welteroth de Project Runway y Teen Vogue: el CBD Provee ‘un Bienvenido Cambio de Marcha’

This article was originally published on Forbes and appears here with permission.