Nutrition and skincare company Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. has announced plans to introduce a new line of essential oils in its U.S., Canada and Latin America markets next month. The Utah-based brand will launch Epoch Essential Oils through a sales promotion available to qualifying distributors on Thursday, April 9.
The initial Epoch offering will consist of three single oils and five oil blends, which the company plans to introduce as a package, along with a diffuser, a mini diffuser and topical blending oil. Nu Skin says it will begin selling individual products in July and, later in 2015, introduce the line in China and Europe.
Essential oils, used topically or aromatically, are gaining popularity as natural alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics. In the past five years essential oil manufacturing in the U.S. has grown 3.5 percent annually to $1 billion in revenue, according to a report by IBISWorld. Nu Skin CEO Truman Hunt said the brand is looking to differentiate itself from competitors by “applying Nu Skin scientific rigor” to the category.
“Indigenous cultures have long known the value of botanical substances and have used them for their healthful benefits,” Chief Scientific Officer Joseph Chang, Ph.D., said in the company’s release. “Nu Skin has partnered with one of the world’s leading ethnobotanists to bring this knowledge to our modern lifestyle.”
Epoch product sales will contribute to improving the lives of children through the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation, which supports humanitarian projects in more than 50 countries. The company has pledged to donate 25 cents from each sale to the foundation’s efforts to alleviate disease, illiteracy, and poverty.