With wellness and beauty growing more intertwined, beauty retailers are only beginning to crack the complex code of wellness consumers: what they want, how they buy, and how to keep them coming back.

Ulta Beauty is tapping into the “sober-curious” trend with its recent launch of Apothékary on the retailer's digital platforms (ulta.com and the Ulta Beauty app). Known for its powdered herbal blends and tinctures, Apothékary offers products like Wine Down, a red wine alternative designed to help consumers relax. As part of Ulta's Wellness Shop vertical, the partnership introduces six best-selling tinctures to the retailer's lineup: Wine Down, Take the Edge Off, Rosé-Tinted Glasses, The Honest Youth, Blue Burn, and Never Been Bitter.

The Ulta launch follows the closing of an $8 million pre-series A funding round, with Shiseido’s venture capital arm among the investors. The round was oversubscribed by 40%, according to CEO and founder Shizu Okusa. Additional backers include Anne Mahlum, founder of Solidcore workout studios, and venture capital firm Stella Capital. With this latest round, Apothékary has raised over $15 million in total equity funding, complemented by $6 million in debt funding through Walden Mutual Bank.

Apothékary is the first alcohol-alternative collection to enter Ulta Beauty and highlights a broader shift in US wellness consumption, driven by the growing sober-curious movement and increasing consumer interest in mindful alternatives. While supplements have been on the rise in the wellness category in recent years, beauty retailers have struggled with defining their role as wellness destinations. Bridging the gap between traditional beauty offerings and the holistic needs of wellness-focused consumers has proven to be a challenge.

For Okusa, the timing is ideal for the herbal medicine movement to take hold at a major beauty retailer like Ulta.

"We chose Ulta because the timing felt right, but also because they’re building a portfolio of wellness brands that connect with its existing customers,” Okusa tells BeautyMatter. “Customers are starting to recognize Ulta as a destination for both beauty and wellness.”

Grocery retailers have had better luck integrating wellness products into their stores. A 2024 FMI study found that 84% of food retailers are focusing on nutrition and well-being strategies. West Coast specialty grocer Erewhon is famous for its wellness offerings, which include trendy brands like ARMRA, Cymbiotika, and Cowboy Colostrum. Before launching on Ulta.com, Apothékary landed in more than 400 Sprouts Farmers Market doors. It’s still too early to tell where the wellness consumer prefers to shop, which explains why Apothékary took a diversified approach to retail.

“As a wellness brand, we're not afraid to take risks and bets and test out different categories of retail to ultimately see where our customer lives,” says Okusa. “It could be grocery, which has seen a huge amount of success, but it also could be beauty.”

Founded in 2020, Apothékary didn't intend to land in the center of the alcohol alternative market. Okusa, drawing inspiration from her family's traditional Japanese healing practices, started the brand with the intention to develop natural herbal remedies that target the root cause of health issues surrounding stress, sleep, beauty, gut health, and skin. In the early Covid-19 days, consumers were drinking at unprecedented rates. One study found that heavy drinking among adult Americans increased more than 20% during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and continued for the following two years. When the pendulum swung back around and the “sober curious” movement started to gain popularity, Apothékary knew its herbal remedies could be a perfect replacement.

“After Covid-19 is when we started the convergence of beauty and wellness, and that thesis of how you feel inside determines how you feel and look on the outside,” says Okusa.

Unlike alcohol, which is harmful to the human body, Apothékary’s herbal remedies can accomplish what many people who drink alcohol are looking for when they sit down to enjoy an alcoholic beverage, which is to ease stress and promote deep, restful sleep.

While some people in the sober curious movement have quit alcohol for good and are looking for replacement beverages, others are simply hoping to drink less and, in the process, sidestep some of the negative effects that alcohol can have on the brain and body. Wine is loaded with sugar, which can lead to breakouts. Alcohol of any kind causes inflammation and bloating.

As consumers began seeking alcohol alternatives, Apothékary’s Stop Your Wine-ing quickly became the brand’s best-selling herbal formula. Take The Edge Off, Apothékary’s first foray into liquid formats, launched at the end of 2022 and sold out in seven days. The success of Apothékary’s non-alcohol alternatives is what initially attracted Ulta’s interest, but buyers were also intrigued by the liquid tincture format, which is the standard in the herbalism world.

From a branding perspective, Apothékary has avoided pigeonholing the brand too firmly in the “woo woo” world of herbalism by opting for vibrant glass bottles and jars designed to stand out on shelves and resonate with modern wellness consumers. The decision to partner with Ulta also aligns with the brand’s mission of meeting the needs of today’s wellness-focused shoppers.

“As a brand that is more in the world of supplements, where everybody can benefit from Apothékary’s products—not just a particular tier or a certain kind of beauty customer—we actually want to be seen as approachable,” says Okusa. “We want people to be able to go to a place that's approachable for their wellness needs, and we felt that Ulta was more of an approachable brand, especially when it comes to wellness.”

While the supplement category is starting to feel crowded, herbal medicine is ripe with potential. Okusa believes herbal medicine is the next frontier of the overall “clean” movement.

“The herbal medicine market is actually the fastest growing category of the supplement category, and that has a lot to do with people moving to clean food and clean beauty,” she says. “Now, you're seeing that in medicine, from clean supplements into herbal, plant-based medicine.”

When Apothékary was raising its latest fund, investors had questions about the category and what retailers would be the best fit to support the brand. While Sephora and Ulta are great places for brand discovery, wellness is still a very personal category, and consumers want personalized recommendations that help solve real problems, whether that’s stress, digestion problems, hormonal imbalances, or any number of other concerns. According to Okusa, the customers with the highest retention in the brand’s portfolio today have been beauty consumers, but she acknowledges that selling wellness products in a beauty store is still something of an uphill battle.

“I think wellness is a category that is a little bit shy to be in retail, but I think things are going to continue to grow,” she says. “There'll be more pick up in stores being available as another option.”

Consumers are naturally skeptical when it comes to ingestible products like tinctures or powders. To help ease that skepticism and provide scientific evidence supporting their product claims, Apothékary has invested thousands of dollars in clinical studies. The brand just finished its first clinical study on its best-selling red wine alternative, Wine Down, yielding impressive results. The study resulted in reduced alcohol consumption in 86% of participants, with over 60% of participants saying they experienced improved sleep quality. The brand plans to continue investing in more clinical studies going into 2025.