Emma Heming Willis On How Her Wellness Brand’s New Podcast Is Championing Women’s Brain Health
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Brain health is top of mind for Emma Heming Willis and Helen Christoni, the co-founders of women’s wellness brand Make Time. After debuting the company last year with supplements for the brain, body and beauty, the duo are channeling their philosophy into their first podcast and launching today on Amazon.
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In their latest venture, Willis (the wife of Bruce Willis) and Christoni pick the minds of inspiring women to find out how they prioritize their “me” moments. For its debut episode, Make Time’s inaugural guest is celebrity-loved aesthetics expert Dr. Barbara Sturm, known for creating the “vampire facial” that infuses patients’ plasma-rich platelets (PRP) into skincare. Twenty years after pioneering the treatment, the orthopedics specialist-turned-beauty expert shares her tips with Make Time’s co-hosts on how to follow an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, carving out moments for simple health and skin-care routines and more.
Sturm encourages listeners not to “feel bullied by the [beauty] industry or marketing that it has to be this way. You still can keep [your skin-care routine] super simple and have … success for your skin. If you have a hyaluronic serum and a good face cream, which really nourishes your skin and takes inflammation out and keeps your skin barrier and microbiome intact, that’s all you really need.”
She adds that it’s not always necessary to do a dozen-step skin-care routine with retinol, resurfacing treatments and other products. “All of a sudden, you get scared because your face is red or dry or you get eczema, and now you need to heal it. There’s a lot of confusion in this industry and this market where women become insecure. I always recommend to follow sites like ours and get education — we always do Skin School or masterclasses on YouTube [so you can learn] a little bit about the physiology of the skin and ingredient science and make choices based on the knowledge you have.”
Make Time for Brain Health
The trio also discusses the joy of collecting mushrooms in the wild and the effects of adopting a plant-based diet on bloating and inflammation, among other topics.
Make Time’s co-founders spoke with The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom about how the company was born, and why focusing on women’s brain health has become their mission. Willis has been open about her husband, Bruce Willis’ diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, and how her family has been making the most of their time together.
“We spend a lot of time at home. I’m a care partner to my husband, and it’s hard to answer [the question of how we spend time],” Willis tells THR. “We just spend a lot of time. Time is a gift. It truly is. And we just take it day by day, and I really enjoy my time with my family. And taking time for yourself is imperative. In order to be able to take care of the people that we love, we have to be able to take care of ourselves first. So it’s really about prioritizing that. And that’s okay because if you are not looking after yourself, you cannot look after the person that you love. So I try and make that a priority. It’s not always easy, but definitely top of mind.”
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Adds Christoni, “Everyone knows someone that in their family or someone else’s family that suffers with dementia or Alzheimer’s, or is a caregiver for someone. Women make up 11 million of caregivers, so that’s a huge statistic. And women also make up two-thirds of the world’s dementia patients, and no one’s talking about that, so it’s a really significant problem. [The response] we’re getting is so much because everyone is kind of affected by this in some capacity. People are like, ‘Thank you.’ Everyone has been so supportive of our mission for women just making time first and then also thinking about their brains. And like I said, it’s always the icebreaker to ask, ‘Has anyone talked to you about your brain lately?’ It’s great to be having such an important, being pioneers of this really important conversation.”
Make Time currently has four products in its lineup: Brain Health powder, Prenatal Health powder and gummies, and sugar-free women’s multivitamin and Rhodiola gummies alongside accessories such as hats, glass tumblers and drink mixers. The company also partners with Hilarity for Charity, the Alzheimer’s awareness and caregiver advocacy nonprofit organization co-founded by Seth and Lauren Rogen.
“They really have a really beautiful program,” says Christoni. “They also talk about the importance of brain health, so we are so aligned on so many things. For us as a brand, being able to donate to them and being able to talk about them is really meaningful.”
Willis and Christoni explain more about their brand’s beginnings, the wellness routines that are anchoring them right now and some of their favorite fitness and skin-care products.
How did the two of you first connect, and how was Make Time born?
Willis I was looking to bring my other brand, Coco Baba over from Germany to the U.S. and a friend of mine was helping me put that together. We were coming into a few roadblocks and my friend was like, ‘You should meet my friend Helen Christoni, this is exactly what she does.’ And Helen and I met, we got along great straight away, I loved her strategies and she helped me bring Coco Baba to the U.S., and then COVID hit.
So then we started connecting on other things, and one of them was about brain health. And at the time I was dealing with brain fog and “mommy brain,” and I had been seeing a doctor that had given me a fist full of pills and I was taking these vitamins and really noticing a difference. But I was telling Helen, ‘I’m so sick of choking down a handful of pills. I would love to be able to just make this into one drinkable supplement. And Helen was like, ‘We can totally do that. And that’s how Make Time was born.”
Christoni We really dug into development. We really want the Make Time for Brain Health formula to be an all-in-one for women, one thing you can drink every day that actually tastes good and that would cover your brain, body and beauty and that order. It really is an all-in-one supplement, it covers all women’s multivitamins, it has biotin and stuff that’s great for beauty; and Omega-3s, MCTs and all kinds of beautiful ingredients that support a healthy brain. We are so proud of it because it’s really a great solution for women.
No one was talking when we started talking about this. I was like, oh my God, nobody’s talking to women about their brains who’s talked to you about your brain lately. It’s just not a conversation that women are having. I thought, ‘Wow, what a great platform to actually talk to women about their brains, talk about how important it’s for us to think about our brains and really start that conversation.’ And it’s so easy. You can throw it in your water bottle, you can throw it in a smoothie, you can just drink it as a drink.
It’s just as simple as our brand name. It’s really about being more than a brand, but a movement for women to just learn how to make time as opposed to this term. I think self-care has just been so sort of washed down. I think it becomes very specific when you ask someone, ‘What are you making time for? What are you making time for during your day for you that really feeds your soul?’ That is something that we think is really important about our brand and getting that across.
Make Time Sugar-Free Women's Vitamins
Tell me more about the most recent supplement that you launched last fall, Make Time for Rhodiola. What brought you two to that ingredient?
Christoni I’m a really big fan of rhodiola, and I always have been, and I worked with it several years ago in another capacity. It is an adaptogenic herb that just doesn’t get the attention it deserves. What rhodiola does is it reduces your cortisol while improving your performance, so it’s something that every woman needs in her bag.
If you are busy, if you’re a mom, if you’re on the go, rhodiola is something that all women should have in their bag because it just really lowers your cortisol levels and then it improves your body’s ability to perform and not go into fight or flight and do all these things. Olympians take it, astronauts take it, so it’s this real peak performance adaptogen. To be able to put it into a consumer product and introduce women to this fantastic herb, it has really been a lot of fun and we’re getting a great response. And it also is delicious, and I have to try not to eat a whole bottle.
For people who are caffeine-averse, it’s also a really, really great product for them. If they can’t drink a lot of caffeine, this is something that can really help you improve your focus, your ability, your performance, while not increasing anxiety.
Make Time for Rhodiola
Speaking of feeding your soul, what are some activities that are anchoring you right now?
Christoni One of my big anchors is fitness, so I’m really trying to get back into running. I’m an avid runner, and lacing up every day and getting out the front door is super important. When I make time for that every day, it clears the path and makes me super productive all day. I find if I don’t make that time for myself in the morning and put my sneakers on and get out the door, everything’s kind of chaotic and it happens to me rather than me going out and happening to the world. Fitness is always a No. 1 priority for me.
Willis If I can start my day by doing some form of exercise, that definitely sort of sets the tone for the rest of the day. I end up drinking more water. I end up wanting to put healthier foods into my body because I’ve done something beneficial for it at the front of the day, and I just feel so much better after I exercise. I think that it helps me clear my head. It doesn’t have to be this strenuous exercise. Either it’s working out at home or just getting out for a hike — to be outdoors is my meditation where I can listen to a podcast, or not listen to anything. To just walk and be out in nature is really grounding for me.
Make Time Prenatal Health Powder
Speaking of running, Helen, do you have a favorite running shoe?
Christoni Hoka is absolutely my favorite running shoe, hands down. For women, when you’re out there and you’re running, our bones are really delicate, especially as you get older. You just need to be careful. So they’re a high cushion shoe and you’re able to go out and run as much as you want without that impact to your bones. And so I’m a huge Hoka fan.
What are some other wellness-focused activities that you try to make time for these days?
Willis I have something under my desk right now, which I use to roll my feet. Let me grab it. This, it’s a, that you are supposed to be using for your lymphatic system. This is our CocoBaba foot roller, and I use it under my desk to roll out my old feet. I love it. I just find it very sort of relaxing. So when I’m sitting here at my desk talking to you, I’m rolling.
And my cult favorite, I have to say it’s on my desk every single day, is my CocoBaba body serum. I use it on my hands. And so I put it on my hands at my desk all day long. It’s probably the only thing I do religiously is put this body serum on my hands and it’s taken the age right out of my hands. I’m obsessed.
And then I also have a Lumebox. Red light therapy is one of my big things lately. It’s kind of like a disco, right? If I am sore from a workout or if my neck hurts or something, at the end of the day, I have my little Lumebox, my red light disco, and my husband’s always like, ‘Oh, is it disco time?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s my red light therapy hour.’
Interview edited for length and clarity.
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