Two years ago, fragrance generated around 20% of The Nue Co.’s sales, with the company still best known for supplements and its subscription-led wellness business. This year, the category is expected to account for 85% of total company net sales, as the wellness company redirects its inventory, marketing and product pipeline around its fastest-growing business.
The shift has been propelled by The Nue Co.’s expansion into 1,400 permanent Ulta Beauty stores in early 2026, with distribution extending to all 1,539 doors during holiday and other key activations. Ulta now generates 40% of the company’s sales. The Nue Co. also sells directly through its website and subscriptions, as well as through wholesale partners including Erewhon in the U.S., Space NK in the U.K. and Mecca in Australia.
Between January 1 and July 1, 2026, the company’s overall sales grew 98% year over year, while its U.S. business increased 167%. U.S. wholesale sales, including but not limited to Ulta, rose 267%.
Ulta carries The Nue Co. as part of its wellness assortment, including its functional fragrance and select supplements and body products, though fragrance is driving the bulk of its growth.
“Ulta can be a $50 million business for us,” Miller said, adding that the company expects to reach that level of annual retail sales within three years.
The growth comes as The Nue Co. introduces Good Spirits, a new functional fragrance meant to evoke joy. It launched on the brand’s e-commerce site in July and will arrive on Ulta’s website on July 19 before entering its stores nationwide on July 26.
Good Spirits was developed with the Swiss fragrance and beauty company Givaudan, using InSituScanz, a non-invasive neuroimaging method that uses infrared light to track changes in blood oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex as participants smell a fragrance. During testing, each scent was presented for 30 seconds at least three times, with rest periods and an odorless control.
Givaudan then combined those brain-activity patterns with consumer mood research and sensory fragrance mapping to identify notes associated with states such as joy. “You never want to lose sight of creating a beautiful fragrance, but at the same time, you have to work within an algorithm designed to deliver a specific mood or benefit,” said Carine Certain Boin, senior perfumer at Givaudan. For Good Spirits, she balanced smoky, resinous notes with coconut water and orange to support the intended sense of warmth and positivity.
Good Spirits builds on The Nue Co.’s functional-fragrance line, launched in 2018 with a stress-relief scent. Subsequent releases included Forest Lungs, inspired by forest bathing, Mind Energy for focus, Water Therapy for relaxation and Us, a pheromone-inspired skin scent. Good Spirits shifts the focus to a broader emotional benefit.
“Within wellness, we’re focusing a lot more on tracking and optimization,” Miller said. “I want to come back to these rituals and these things that feel very organic to us.”
The brand’s functional fragrance collection grew 303% year over year following its 2024 relaunch and is projected to grow another 469% in 2026, according to the company.
Miller initially regarded fragrance as a passion project, rather than a major commercial category.
“It really exploded, and we weren’t putting any meaningful ad spend behind it,” Miller said. “We were still focused on supplements and subscriptions.”
Instead of settling on a single signature scent, Miller said customers are building mood-based fragrance wardrobes, using products such as Mind Energy for workouts and Water Therapy in the evening. She said the behavior has lifted both average order value and customer lifetime value.
The change is taking place as fragrance continues to outperform the wider beauty market. U.S. prestige fragrance sales increased 6% to $5.9 billion through the third quarter of 2025, according to Circana. Demand was particularly strong at both ends of the market: Luxury fragrance sales grew by double digits, while unit sales of mini and travel-size fragrances rose 12%.
At Ulta, 10-milliliter fragrances account for 50% of The Nue Co.’s unit sales, compared with 30% for 50-milliliter bottles and 20% for sets. But the two bottle sizes contribute nearly equal revenue.
“We went into Ulta thinking we were going to be predominantly a 10-milliliter brand,” Miller said. “What we’re seeing is almost a 50-50 split.” Us, the brand’s pheromone-inspired skin scent, is its top-selling Ulta product, led by the full-size bottle.
“[Our customers] have got their little toolbox of the 10 milliliters, which they travel with,” Miller said. “But then whatever they really love, they’ll get the 50 milliliter and keep it at their desk or keep it at home.”
Ulta has expanded The Nue Co. beyond the brand’s historically New York-centric customer base. California, Texas and Florida are now among its strongest markets, with stores in New York and Georgia ranking in the brand’s top 10.
“We’re talking to a much wider pool of people,” Miller said. “Some come in through wellness, while others discover the brand because the fragrance smells amazing and then become interested in the science.”
For its part, Ulta believes fragrance will increasingly become tied to wellness. “Fragrance has evolved beyond scent alone into a meaningful expression of mood, emotion and daily ritual,” said Laura Beres, vp of wellness at Ulta Beauty. She said The Nue Co.’s combination of neuroscience-backed fragrance technology and sensory experience helped distinguish it within the retailer’s wellness assortment.
Its fragrance pivot is also reshaping the company operationally. The category now receives 75-80% of The Nue Co.’s inventory investment as the brand increases stock, improves demand planning, and strengthens sourcing and manufacturing. A major portion of its marketing budget has also moved toward functional fragrance.
The Nue Co. competes with a growing field of mood-led fragrance brands, including London-based Vyrao and neuroscience-focused French Edeniste, while larger players such as Charlotte Tilbury are also moving into the category.
Still, Miller continues to position scent as an acquisition vehicle for the broader business. The intention is for customers to discover The Nue Co. through fragrance before expanding into magnesium products, supplements or subscriptions. But the fragrance portion of that journey is becoming longer as shoppers purchase more scents before moving into other categories.
“I would be heartbroken if we lost the supplements completely because that was the heartbeat of the brand,” Miller said. “But right now, the core focus really is on Ulta.”
The pipeline reflects that priority. Following Good Spirits, The Nue Co. plans to release another standalone fragrance in September, alongside holiday kits and an undisclosed new format. That format will receive a broader in-store rollout in January 2027. For Miller, the immediate challenge is not simply maintaining growth, but also convincing a wider consumer that functional fragrance is a distinct wellness category.
“Most people still don’t know what a functional fragrance is,” she said. “We’re still talking to people who think it’s just a fragrance that doesn’t give you allergies.”
