Six months after entering four Ulta Beauty stores, Stripes Beauty is expanding into 448 locations, marking the Naomi Watts-founded menopause care brand’s first major national retail rollout.
Across the 448 stores, beginning July 26, Stripes will expand its in-store assortment to five products spanning skin care, body care and intimate wellness: Rich & Tight, The Full Monty, Vag of Honor, Oh My Glide and Dew as I Do. The brand’s full assortment, which also includes hair care and supplements, is available through Ulta.com and the Ulta Beauty app.
The expansion follows a short pilot that began in January across Ulta’s four Wellness by Ulta Beauty boutique locations. In the wider 448-store rollout, Stripes will be merchandised as a dedicated brand assortment within Ulta’s existing wellness sections, with more prominent display units expected later this year.
Stripes president and CEO Cara Kamenev said both companies entered the pilot expecting the brand to eventually reach a wider store network.
“Both Ulta and Stripes came into it with the mindset that this brand would be expanding,” Kamenev told Glossy. “Wellness is really a cornerstone of the way they intend to grow in the future.”
The companies declined to share sales or sell-through figures from the pilot, but said the partnership was tracking ahead of expectations. According to Kamenev, the early results demonstrated sufficient traction, while Ulta’s commitment to consumer education was central to the decision to expand.
“Wellness and menopause, in particular sexual health and intimacy care, are very nascent at retail,” she said. “These products should be as accessible as any other form of care for women. You can walk into any local store and access period care or postpartum care, and yet, for years, women have not been able to have the same level of access for menopause care.”
The rollout builds on Ulta’s broader effort to become a destination for wellness and life-stage care. The retailer launched its original Wellness Shop concept in 2021 as a curated in-store and online assortment spanning categories including intimate care and supplements. By early 2025, it had added dedicated wellness sections across its full store network. In January 2026, Ulta went a step further by piloting Wellness by Ulta Beauty, a larger, approximately 475-square-foot shop-in-shop format in four locations, featuring expanded merchandising, sampling and specially trained wellness advisers.
Across its brands, Ulta carries a modest assortment focused on menopause, spanning intimate care, supplements, cooling products and devices. Its online Menopausal Care section currently lists 39 products from 16 brands, including Womaness, Joylux, Revive Collagen and Medicine Mama, and in-store availability varies by location.
“We really want to be able to service their needs, everything from first-period care for our young [Gen] Alpha guests to prenatal, postnatal, pre-menopause, post-menopause and menopause care, and beyond that,” Penny Coy, Ulta Beauty’s svp of merchandising, previously told Glossy. “We’re really taking them through their life journey of wellness.”
Stripes has previously generated most of its sales through its direct-to-consumer business, alongside smaller wholesale partnerships with Credo Beauty, among other retailers. Kamenev said the Ulta rollout will begin shifting the company’s channel mix toward wholesale, though she expects the contribution of third-party sales to build gradually.
“This is our first major specialty retail partnership, so it will certainly change the mix of DTC versus wholesale,” she said. “Wholesale is a channel that takes a little bit longer to roll out and execute, but we’re hopeful and excited to see its contribution come up over time.”
The pilot also tested whether shoppers would feel as comfortable purchasing vaginal health and sexual wellness products in a physical store as they were online.
According to Kamenev, Stripes is seeing similar purchasing patterns across its DTC business, Ulta.com and physical stores. Body care is currently the brand’s top-performing category, led by The Full Monty body cream and Rich & Tight firming body serum. Intimate wellness products, including Oh My Glide lubricant and The Vag of Honor vaginal moisturizer, are performing closely behind.
“Wellness continues to grow in the market, and importantly, our guests just continue to demand more of it,” Laura Beres, Ulta Beauty’s vp of wellness, told Glossy while discussing the four-store boutique pilot on the Glossy podcast. “This is really an evolution of the Wellness Shop.”
Stripes’ cross-category products will be presented together within Ulta’s wellness area. Later this year, the brand will also receive dedicated display units beyond its standard shelf space, designed to give Stripes a more prominent presence and provide additional product education.
Education will also extend to store employees. Stripes is working with Ulta on associate training, masterclasses and doctor-led content to help staff discuss menopause, vaginal health and intimacy care with customers.
“Sometimes in stores you have women and men [workers] of all ages, and sometimes younger associates, talking to women who may be older than them about problems that can seem really difficult to discuss,” Kamenev said. “We’re working with Ulta to create specific education, host masterclasses and bring in Naomi and our doctors.”
Watts is also expected to participate in social content and make in-store appearances following the expansion.
Kamenev said Stripes will focus on building the Ulta partnership before pursuing another major U.S. retailer.
“We’re still a startup and a small brand, and we’re growing thoughtfully,” she said. “There is so much education to be done in the category at large. You’re going to see us really focusing on Ulta and leaning in with them as we build this category together.”
