Key Takeaways:
Wellness is booming—and Blooming—at Ulta Beauty. This week, Bloom Nutrition announced exclusively to BeautyMatter that it would be joining Ulta Beauty’s growing wellness assortment. Starting July 28, Bloom Nutrition will be available to shop at 300 Ulta Beauty stores nationwide and online at ulta.com as part of The Wellness Shop.
Ulta shoppers can now stock up on Bloom’s best-selling wellness staples, including the Greens & Superfoods Powder, Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Energy Sticks, and High-Energy Pre-Workout. In September, the brand will also launch its Colostrum & Collagen Powder at the beauty and wellness retailer.
“Wellness and beauty go hand-in-hand: when you feel healthy on the inside, that, to me, is beauty,” Mari Llewellyn, co-founder and President of Bloom Nutrition, told BeautyMatter. “I always imagined our products, especially the Greens & Superfoods Powder and Creatine Monohydrate Powder, in Ulta [Beauty] because I made Bloom Nutrition for women like me. As someone who cares about wellness and feeling good, I also care about beauty, so it always made sense for the brand to be in Ulta Beauty.”
Bloom Nutrition is the latest addition to Ulta Beauty’s ever-expanding wellness roster, joining recent arrivals like Ritual, Saje Natural Wellness, and GuruNanda. The launch marks a major milestone in Bloom’s retail expansion: In 2024 alone, the brand more than doubled its footprint, growing from 7,200 to over 14,700 retail doors nationwide. Year-to-date, Bloom has surpassed $200 million in POS sales and achieved 35% year-over-year growth, with 75% of total sales coming from retail partners.
Bloom Nutrition first planted the seed for an Ulta Beauty partnership 18 months ago, when the wellness brand launched its energy drinks at Target. Greg LaVecchia, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Nutrition, noticed curated Ulta Beauty “shop-in-shops” within Target stores and immediately saw a natural opportunity for collaboration.
The partnership between Ulta Beauty and Target was initially met with widespread positive reception when it was first announced in 2020. The first shop-in-shops opened in 2021 to much acclaim from consumers who valued being able to shop for both everyday essentials and prestige beauty brands in one location, with the added benefits of Target's fulfillment options.
The goal was to expand to 800 locations, but in April, Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman announced that the retailer would halt its expansion plans to focus on optimizing the existing locations. Speaking at a J.P. Morgan retail conference, Steelman said that the decision was mutual.
“We’ve made the decision to really lean into the 600-plus stores that are open this next year and really look at, ‘How do we continue to drive efficiencies and leverage the learnings that we’ve had to really unlock value for both of us collectively together?’” Steelman said.
Ulta Beauty’s expansion into wellness has been a major focus for the retailer in 2025. The Wellness Shop at Ulta Beauty launched in 2021 with 35 products across five categories: down-there care, relax and renew, everyday care, spa at home, and supplements. The retailer later added intimate wellness and removed the spa-at-home category. Earlier this year, Ulta Beauty announced plans to expand into oral care, nutrition, sleep, hormonal health, mindfulness, stress relief, ingrown hair solutions, aromatherapy, and select skin and bodycare products that promote skin health. As of January 2025, all 1,385 Ulta Beauty locations now have a dedicated wellness space called The Wellness Shop.
For now, Ulta Beauty will only stock Bloom Nutrition’s powdered wellness supplements, but LaVecchia has high hopes that the partnership will expand to include the brand’s Sparkling Energy drinks and Bloom Pop prebiotic sodas, the latter of which launched exclusively at Walmart stores nationwide in early July.
“I could see our beverages being served chilled in Ulta Beauty stores,” said LaVecchia. “Anything's possible. If we have success out of the gate, there's no reason why that couldn't happen in 2026, and we definitely have the capabilities to make it happen.”
Bloom Nutrition is set to double its growth in 2025 compared to last year, according to LaVecchia. Over 40% of Bloom’s DTC customers return to shop again, driving nearly half of total DTC sales. The company has a diverse distribution network that includes major retailers like Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, and GNC, as well as online through its website and Amazon.
In early 2024, Nutrabolt acquired an approximately 20% stake in Bloom Nutrition as part of its strategy to expand in the wellness and nutrition space. Through Nutrabolt’s partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Bloom Nutrition benefits from KDP’s robust sales and distribution network, which significantly broadens the brand’s reach into more retail locations, including convenience and grocery stores.
“Wellness today doesn't need to come in the format of powders and pills,” said LaVecchia. “We were able to crack that code through our partnership with Nutrabolt and Keurig Dr. Pepper, which facilitated the creation of Bloom’s better-for-you energy [drink] and better-for-you soda and distributed it at scale.”
For a brand like Bloom Nutrition, which aims to be “accessible for anyone in America,” Ulta Beauty’s wide retail footprint, particularly in smaller cities nationwide, was a key factor in the partnership.
“What’s really great about stores like Ulta [Beauty] is that they are present in some of the smaller cities around the country,” said LaVecchia. “That helps us stay true to our mission of accessibility—not just in terms of price, but also convenience. It’s about making sure people can actually take our products regularly, and that they’re available where people already shop. While online is scalable to a certain extent, brick-and-mortar still plays a huge role.”
“Ulta [Beauty's] mission of accessibility is very aligned with Bloom,” added Llewellyn. “When I think of beauty, sometimes it can be difficult to get it at an affordable price range or find great products in the place that you live. The same goes for wellness, so I think that’s what makes this the perfect partnership for Bloom.”
Both founders are excited about the possibility of adding exclusive products to their Ulta Beauty offering. LaVecchia suggested that the brand could incubate and launch topical products that blur the line between beauty and wellness at the beauty retailer.
“Ulta Beauty leads the charge in wellness, and it’s a place where I can see Bloom really blossoming,” he said. “I could see us down the line partnering on creative solutions, flavors, packaging and even unique formulas that we want to bring to our consumer.”
“I would love to do some beauty spins on some of our products,” Llewellyn added. Women are becoming more educated about creatine, which was traditionally seen as a men’s product. Blending its health benefits with beauty, like adding biotin or other enhancements, opens the door to some really fun innovation.”
When Bloom Nutrition initially launched as a DTC brand in 2019, the retail landscape was still struggling to find its footing after the DTC boom of the mid-2010s. Bloom wisely expanded into retail starting in 2022, partnering with major retailers like Target and Walmart. The founders used the launch as a content opportunity to fuel the company’s growth on platforms like TikTok.
“We were one of the first brands to request to take photoshoots and film TikTok videos in stores,” recalled Llewellyn. “Now, it's become a bread and butter of our brand, and you even see celebrity brands like Bella Hadid’s Orebella brand in stores, because you kind of have to make a lot of noise to get people in there.”
By 2025, Bloom Nutrition knows what it takes to succeed at retail. As LaVecchia put it, “launching in a retailer is a two-sided equation.” Bloom makes an effort to drive traffic to its brick-and-mortar locations through digital and social media.
“It’s not just about what the retailer provides, it’s about making sure our community knows we’re there,” said LaVecchia. “This launch will be no different. We plan to be loud and proud on shelves and activate both our influencer and consumer communities to show up in-store.”
“I already have so many ideas of what we can do in-store, because when you combine makeup and beauty and wellness, there's so much opportunity,” said Llewellyn, who built Bloom Nutrition on the strength of her own large social media following. “To have a successful launch at retail, you have to be ready to turn the store into your personal content studio.”
