In an industry saturated with brands popular for overengineered serums and chasing after trends, Ursa Major has always taken the scenic route. Founded in 2010 by Emily Doyle and Oliver Sweatman, the Vermont-based skincare brand built its name around simplicity, integrity, and a wild, back-to-nature ethos, years before “clean beauty” became a cultural mandate.
Sweatan started his career in finance before becoming a beauty entrepreneur. After leaving investment banking to co-found Sharps, a men’s grooming brand, he moved to Vermont with his partner Doyle to start Ursa Major. Doyle started her beauty career in sales and general management at Bumble and Bumble, before serving as Head of Sales and GM (US) at Jurlique, an Australian skincare company.
However, after nearly fifteen years of steady growth, the duo is doing what few founders in their position would dare—slowing down, stepping back, and reimagining what success truly looks like. “We’ve always said we’re building a long-term, values-led business,” Sweatman said to BeautyMatter. “Now, we’re making sure we walk that talk in everything we do, including how we operate and grow.”
This year marks a pivotal moment in Ursa Major’s journey as it embarks on a quiet but profound restructuring, with a goal of realigning operations with its founding principles, deepening the brand’s customer relationships, and creating a more resilient business for the next decade and beyond.
A Return to the Essentials
Ursa Major launched with a single shaving product and a clear mission of offering forest-infused, plant-powered skincare for people who craved the outdoors as much as good grooming. Over time, the line expanded to include cult favorites like the Fantastic Face Wash and Golden Hour Recovery Cream, beloved for their performance, purity, and unpretentious packaging.
Yet as demand scaled, so did complexity. “It’s very easy to start chasing scale for the sake of scale,” Doyle told BeautyMatter. “You end up with a product calendar that feels more like a treadmill. For us, that’s never been the point.” That tension between growth and groundedness has catalyzed Ursa Major’s recent decision to pause aggressive retail expansion and streamline internal operations. The company has consciously reduced its SKU count, scaled back on new launches, and taken a hard look at what truly serves its customers and community.
“The last couple of years were intense,” Doyle admitted. “Coming out of the pandemic, we grew quickly, but not always sustainably. This restructuring is our way of returning to our roots—and building something healthier.” Its audience too, became a focal point. “Ursa Major is gender agnostic, and gender varies by channel,” Sweatman said. “DTC is 90% female, Amazon is 70% female (and <25% male/undefined). [Our] core customer is affluent, educated, 35-50+, values-oriented and focused on holistic wellness vs. chasing beauty trends,” he continued.
In 2019, Ursa Major raised $5 million. “We [also] raised $2.5 million via convertible note from existing shareholders in May 2023, which recently converted into preferred stock,” Sweatman shared. From the outset, however, Sweatman and Doyle always resisted external pressures. Unlike many indie brands snapped up by conglomerates, Ursa Major has remained proudly independent and founder-led. That independence, they say, allows them to maintain a long-term vision rather than chasing quarterly results. “We’ve had opportunities to sell or raise a ton of money,” Sweatman shared. “But we believe the real value lies in staying close to our mission and our customers, not in an exit.”
This philosophy extends to their current restructuring strategy. Rather than downsizing in crisis, the changes are a proactive recalibration. The founders have taken on leadership roles, reassessed third-party partnerships, and reprioritized supply chain transparency, all while ensuring the brand’s sustainability commitments remain non-negotiable. “We’re not in this to cut costs just to look good on a spreadsheet,” Doyle emphasized. “We’re doing this to create more space for creativity, for our team, and for the customer experience.”
Designing for Depth, Not Just Reach
As many beauty brands chase TikTok virality and celebrity endorsements, Ursa Major leans the other way—intimacy, honesty, and depth. The brand quietly relaunched its packaging and even its email strategy, focusing less on conversion and more on storytelling and education. “We have a $1.5 million working capital facility set up which we recently started using to help finance our repack,” Sweatman shared. Steed+Friends, run by Helen Steed (formerly of Bumble and Bumble, Glossier, etc.), led the repackaging project, with a brief to elevate, harmonize, and strengthen Ursa Major’s pack system, leveraging what’s already working—vs. a total rebrand—while moving out of plastic into more sustainable materials.
“We want to be a trusted guide, not just a product pusher,” Sweatman explained. “Our goal isn’t just to sell another face balm. It’s to help people build a better relationship with their skin, their routines, and the world around them,” he continued. For the brand, this means investing more in customer listening, collecting feedback not only through reviews but also direct interviews, surveys, and in-person events. “There’s no algorithm substitute for conversation,” said Doyle.
The company is also exploring slower, more intentional product development—something Doyle called “soulful innovation.” Upcoming launches will focus on seasonal skincare support and minimalist rituals that don’t overwhelm. “It’s less about filling shelves and more about filling a real need,” she said.
Ursa Major has also long worn its sustainability badge with quiet pride. The brand is a certified B Corp, uses recycled packaging materials, and is plastic-negative through its partnership with rePurpose Global. However, in a time when nearly every beauty label claims “clean and green,” Doyle and Sweatman are doubling down on transparency.
“It’s not just about what’s in the bottle,” Sweatman said. “It’s how that bottle was made, how it ships, and how we take responsibility for it after it leaves our warehouse.” That includes a renewed focus on localizing their supply chain and minimizing overseas freight. “We’re surrounded by forest in Vermont,” Doyle says. “You can’t ignore your impact when nature is literally outside your door.”
A Legacy, Not a Trend
Partnering with wholesale institutions like Credo, Goop, Erewhon, and many others, Ursa Major has experienced steady annual growth since its inception, with limited outside capital. “The first five years were very organic, averaging one new product a year, [with a] projected $40 million gross revenue for ‘25, profitable,” Sweatman said. Ursa Major has also seen a CAGR growth of over 25%, due to new innovation, a successful acquisition strategy on Meta (ROAS >1-1.5) and steadily increasing LTV each year. “[We’re] primarily an e-commerce centric business today, [with] 60% DTC, 30% Amazon, 10% wholesale. [We] expect to grow all three channels and feel like the field is wide open on wholesale, especially with new repack.”
The brand also has a handful of committed retailers in the US where it has strong shared values around clean and sustainable beauty. “With our new repack live, we are now gearing up talks with a handful of specialty retailers in the US and overseas, [including] Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, India, to learn more about who may be a good partner, and to understand what success looks like,” Sweatman said. “Today ~5% of our revenue is from [the] international [market]. We think it can be approximately 20% within two to three years, with the right partners,” he continued.
The next chapter for Ursa Major has an interesting premise. For Doyle and Sweatman, it was never about going big but about going deep. “We want to be the Patagonia of skincare,” Sweatman said. “Trusted. Consistent. Purposeful.” That might mean fewer products, fewer stockists, and fewer headlines, but it also means a richer, more resonant brand; one built to last, not to impress.
“We’re not chasing unicorn status,” Doyle said. “We’re building a beautiful, enduring company that puts people and the planet first. And that takes time.” Time, as it turns out, might be Ursa Major’s ultimate luxury.
