Why Upsensed Was Created: The Story Behind Our Luxury Home Fragrance Brand

Some stories are told because they sound beautiful; others are told because they are true. The story behind Upsensed—a luxury home fragrance brand created with intention, care, and purpose—is the latter.

This brand did not begin as a polished marketing concept or a strategic business plan. It began in a much quieter, more complex place: born from the weight of anxiety, exhaustion, and the silent, cumulative stress that builds until your body finally demands to be heard.

For as long as I can remember, I have lived with anxiety and panic attacks. This wasn't the fleeting nervousness before a big event, but a constant background hum—a state of being I learned to function around. I convinced myself I could manage it because I was still showing up, still working, and still pouring everything I had into taking care of others.

My name is Mikayla, and I am the founder of Upsensed. I have spent the last decade as a labor and delivery nurse in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Being a nurse is one of the greatest honors of my life; there is something profoundly sacred about witnessing a mother’s first moment as a parent or being present as a family is transformed in a single, unpredictable moment. However, this work is also incredibly high-stakes. It requires you to be a pillar of calm during emergencies, focused when tension rises, and strong when everyone else is afraid. 

For years, I embodied that strength. I showed up, I pushed through, and I poured from myself again and again. That is what nurses do—we carry the weight so others don't have to. But eventually, the toll of that endurance became something I could no longer ignore.

When Anxiety Pushed Me to a Breaking Point

For a long time, I resisted seeking help. In hindsight, I think a part of me felt obligated to shoulder the burden alone because I am a nurse. I understood the clinical signs of stress and the physiological impact of anxiety; I had cared for patients during their most vulnerable life transitions. Yet, there is a profound disconnect between possessing professional medical knowledge and applying that same compassion to oneself. Knowing something in theory and admitting it in reality are two very different things.

I had grown accustomed to the background noise of anxiety. I was intimately familiar with the symptoms: the tight chest, the racing thoughts, and the restlessness that turned a single, small worry into a full-scale spiral. I lived in a state of being physically present but mentally overwhelmed, returning home each day completely drained—not just by the demands of my job, but by the exhausting, constant effort of holding myself together.

I kept convincing myself I was fine.... until I wasn't.

I had a horrific panic attack that changed everything for me. It was one of those moments where your body takes over completely. Your mind is trying to make sense of what is happening, but your nervous system is already in full alarm. It is terrifying. It feels like losing control inside your own body.

In that moment, I knew I could not keep pretending.

I could not keep delaying my own care while spending my life caring for everyone else — making my mental health something I would “get to later.” I could not keep treating survival like it was the same thing as wellness. That panic attack became a turning point. Not because everything was suddenly fixed, but because I finally understood that I needed help and support. I needed to take my mental health seriously.

So I did. I started therapy, and that decision changed the direction of my life in ways I never expected.

How Candle Making Became Part of My Healing

During therapy, my therapist suggested that I find something I enjoyed doing — something I loved. It sounds simple, but at the time, it felt almost foreign.

When you have spent years operating in survival mode, joy can start to feel unfamiliar. Rest can feel unproductive. Hobbies can feel like something you do only when everything else is handled... and let's be real.... everything else is never really handled. But I took the suggestion seriously.

I started asking myself: What do I actually enjoy? What makes me feel grounded? What helps me feel like myself?

The answer was candles.

I have always loved candles. Not just for how they smell, but for what they do to a space. A candle can soften a room, mark the end of a long day, and make an ordinary moment feel intentional. It can become part of a ritual, even a small one. Lighting a candle has always felt like a signal to slow down.

I started researching how to make candles. At first, it was curiosity. Then it became something I looked forward to. Then it became something I needed.

I began learning about waxes, wicks, vessels, fragrance loads, burn testing, scent throw, and curing times — all the tiny details that separate a candle that simply smells good from one that actually performs well. Candle making was far more technical than I expected, but I loved that about it. Creating handmade luxury candles became both a craft and a form of self-care.

From Healing Hobby to Handcrafted Luxury Candle Brand

That is how Vibe & Glo began — my first brand.

What started as a therapeutic outlet slowly became a business. I spent two years learning, testing, failing, adjusting, and perfecting the craft. I poured candles, tested them, took notes, changed wicks, adjusted fragrance blends, tried again, and then tried again after that.

There is a lot people do not see behind a candle.

They do not see the test burns. The wax choices. The labels that did not feel quite right. The fragrance blends that almost worked but not quite enough. The late nights — mornings in my case — after a nursing shift, trying to get one detail right because “good enough” did not feel good enough.

But all of that work mattered.

Vibe & Glo gave me a place to create and gave me something that felt like mine during a season when I was learning how to come back to myself. It helped me rediscover joy in a very hands-on way, but over time, I started to feel like the brand I had built no longer told the full story.

It represented the craft, but not the deeper reason behind it. It showed the candles, but not the why. And the why was everything. I did not start making candles just because I wanted to sell candles. I started making candles because I was trying to heal. I was trying to create something beautiful out of a season that had pushed me to my limit.

Eventually, I knew it was time to reinvent the brand into something that reflects that truth more fully. That reinvention became Upsensed — a luxury home fragrance brand built not just around beautiful scents, but around a deeper purpose.

What “Upsensed” Means: Intentional Home Fragrance That Shifts a Moment

Upsensed is rooted in the idea that scent has the power to shift a moment. Not fix your life, erase anxiety, or replace therapy, support, medication, rest, or real mental health care, but shift a moment.

A candle can become part of the way you come home to yourself. It can be there while you journal, pray, stretch, cry, clean, rest, shower, read, or sit quietly after a day that asked too much of you. It can hold space.

We create luxury home fragrance with intention. Every scent, vessel, label, and detail is designed to feel elevated, but also emotionally connected. I want Upsensed candles to look beautiful in your home, but I also want them to mean something when you light them, because scent is personal.

Scent attaches itself to memory, seasons, and people. To versions of ourselves we are becoming or releasing. One fragrance can remind you of softness. Another can make you feel confident. Another can help you settle into stillness.

Upsensed was created for those moments.

What Makes Upsensed a Luxury Home Fragrance Brand With Purpose

When I think about luxury, I do not only think about price, packaging, or aesthetics — I think about care. Luxury is in the details. It is in the way something is made, the way it performs, the way it feels in your space, and the way it makes you feel while using it.

For Upsensed, luxury means thoughtful fragrance blends, clean design, quality ingredients, and a candle experience that feels intentional from the first light to the final burn. If you are wondering what makes a candle feel truly elevated, our guide to luxury candles vs. regular candles explains how ingredients, fragrance quality, performance, and design all shape the experience. 

But luxury also means not being empty. I did not want to build a luxury home fragrance brand that only looked good — I wanted a brand that stood for something.

My own mental health journey is woven into the foundation of this business. Anxiety is part of my story. Panic attacks are part of my story. Therapy is part of my story. Learning how to care for myself after years of pushing through is part of my story.

And I know I am not the only one.

So many people are functioning through anxiety every day. Many people are delaying help because they think they should be able to manage it alone. People are overwhelmed, overstimulated, burned out — and still showing up because life does not pause just because your nervous system is tired.

I see you. Not in a vague, inspirational way. In a real way.

I know what it feels like to be capable and struggling at the same time. I know what it feels like to smile, work, care, create — and still feel like something inside you is unraveling.

That is why Upsensed is more than home fragrance.

It is a brand built from the belief that care should be part of everyday life. Not only when we are falling apart or when things get unbearable. But daily, intentionally, in small ways that help us reconnect with ourselves. 

Our Partnership With the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA)

One of the most important parts of Upsensed is our mission to help spread mental health awareness and support access to mental health resources.

That is why Upsensed donates 5% of proceeds through our partnership with the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA).

This matters deeply to me because seeking help changed my life. Therapy gave me language for what I was experiencing and helped me stop minimizing my anxiety and understand that needing support was not weakness.

I also know that taking that first step can be hard. Sometimes people do not know where to start. Sometimes they feel embarrassed. Sometimes they have spent so long being “the strong one” that admitting they need support feels impossible. Sometimes access itself is the barrier.

While a candle cannot provide mental health care, a brand can use its platform to talk about mental health honestly, give back, and build a community that makes people feel less alone. A product can carry a purpose beyond itself.

That is what I want Upsensed to do. 

Every purchase supports a larger mission. Every product is connected to a story that began with struggle, but did not end there. Every scent is part of a brand that believes beauty and purpose can exist together. 

Why I Rebranded from Vibe & Glo to Upsensed

Rebranding from Vibe & Glo to Upsensed was not just a business decision — it was personal.

It meant being honest about why I started. It meant letting the brand grow into something more aligned with who I am, what I believe, and moving beyond simply creating candles to step into a mission that felt bigger, more vulnerable, and more true.

That kind of shift is scary. It is easier to keep things surface-level: “I make luxury candles,” and leave it there.

It is much harder to say: “I make candles because anxiety forced me to reexamine my life, and therapy helped me find my way back to something I loved. Creating became part of my healing, and I want this brand to help someone else feel seen.”

But that is the truth. And Upsensed deserves to be built on the truth.

The new brand reflects everything I have learned: the technical craft of candle making, the emotional power of scent, the importance of beautiful design, and the deeper purpose that was there from the beginning. 

What Upsensed Stands For

Upsensed stands for intentional home fragrance, emotional connection, mental health awareness, and the quiet rituals that help us feel steady in our own lives.

It stands for luxury that is not cold or performative, but warm, thoughtful, and relatable.

Our products are created to become part of your atmosphere. I want Upsensed to feel elevated, yes — but more than that, I want it to feel real.

Real enough for the woman lighting a candle after putting everyone else first all day.

Real enough for the nurse, the mother, the entrepreneur, the overthinker, the caretaker, the high achiever, the soft-hearted person who has been carrying too much for too long.

Real enough for anyone who needs a reminder that they are allowed to pause. 

Upsensed Launches September 14, 2026

Upsensed is officially launching on September 14, 2026. 

The first collection has been shaped with so much care, not only around how each candle smells, but around how each one feels. The scent notes, the names, the mood, the design, the packaging, the entire sensory experience — every detail is being created with intention.

This launch is not just the beginning of a new luxury home fragrance brand. It is the beginning of a brand born from a very personal season of my life — one that carries my story, my healing, my craft, and my hope that something beautiful can come from the moments that nearly break us.

I am still a nurse. I still have anxiety. I am still learning how to care for myself better, how to slow down, how to listen to my body, and how to choose support instead of silence.

Upsensed does not come from a perfect story. It comes from a human one, and maybe that is why it means so much to me. This brand is proof that sometimes the thing that helps you heal becomes the thing you are meant to share. 

Join Us — Be Part of Something Bigger

As we move closer to launch, I hope you will follow along.

Not just for the candles, although I cannot wait for you to experience them, but for the story. For the conversations around scent, self-care, home fragrance, anxiety, rest, and what it means to build rituals that support the life you are trying to create.

Thank you for being here at the beginning.

Join our email list for launch updates, subscriber perks, and first access to our luxury home fragrance collection.

With love,

Mikayla, MSN, RN

Founder of Upsensed

Frequently Asked Questions About Upsensed

What is Upsensed?

Upsensed is a luxury home fragrance brand founded by Mikayla, a labor and delivery nurse. Every product is created with intention — designed to elevate your space and support the daily self-care rituals that help you feel grounded and present.

What makes Upsensed different from other luxury candle brands?

Upsensed is rooted in a real story of anxiety, healing, and purpose. Beyond beautiful fragrance and elevated design, the brand donates 5% of proceeds to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA), making every purchase part of a larger mental health awareness mission.

Are Upsensed candles good for anxiety?

Upsensed candles are not a medical treatment for anxiety. However, scent is a powerful sensory tool — it can anchor you to the present moment, signal your nervous system to slow down, and become part of a grounding self-care ritual. Our products are designed to hold space for exactly those kinds of mindful moments.

When does Upsensed launch?

Upsensed officially launches September 2026. Join the email list to get first access, launch updates, and subscriber-only perks.

Does Upsensed give back?

Yes. Upsensed donates 5% of all proceeds to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA) to support mental health awareness and access to resources