Oak Essentials, founded in 2021 by designer and serial entrepreneur Jenni Kayne, is expanding its retail presence. The skin and bodycare brand, which was primarily online-driven until this year, launched on ulta.com in late 2024 and will be available in 250 Ulta Beauty stores starting February 2, 2025. This significant shift in retail strategy follows a period of substantial growth for Oak Essentials, including a successful $8 million first-round funding and a 2024 retail expansion into Nordstrom.

“Ulta was the natural next step in Oak Essentials’ retail strategy because of its strong focus on customer experience and its exceptional partnership approach,” Joanne Godard, Vice President of Sales at Oak Essentials, tells BeautyMatter. “We are very intentional about the partners we work with, and Ulta’s commitment to collaboration and support aligns perfectly with our vision. From the corporate teams to the in-store sales teams, Ulta ensures consistency and excellence in bringing our brand to life. Ulta’s dedication to creating meaningful and seamless experiences for customers makes them an ideal partner for Oak Essentials.”

The capital raised from Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures in October 2024 was essential in facilitating Oak Essentials' strategic retail expansion, including the latest Ulta launch. The funding allowed Oak Essentials to expand production, establish robust distribution channels, and construct the operational framework needed for a successful national retail launch. Oak Essentials offers a differentiated collection of skincare, bodycare, and fragrances that emphasize the power of clean, botanical ingredients and holistic well-being—something Ulta Beauty says its guests are looking for more of.

“Oak Essentials stood out to us as a brand that champions simplicity and effectiveness while delivering a consciously made yet luxurious skincare experience,” Lisa Tamburello, Vice President of Merchandising at Ulta, tells BeautyMatter. “The brand’s commitment to high-quality, clean, and cruelty-free ingredients and a minimalistic yet results-driven approach aligns perfectly with Ulta Beauty’s mission to offer guests differentiated and meaningful choices. As we continue to prioritize wellness, alongside our guests, Oak Essentials became a natural fit for today’s beauty enthusiasts looking to incorporate elevated self-care into their daily routines.”

Ulta has made strategic moves to expand its wellness offerings for 2025. As of January 2025, all 1,385 Ulta locations now have a dedicated wellness space called The Wellness Shop. Launched in 2021, The Wellness Shop initially offered 35 products in 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. In 2025, Ulta Beauty plans to expand its current categories and add new categories, including oral care, nutrition, sleep, hormonal health, mindfulness, stress relief, ingrown hair solutions, aromatherapy, and select skin and bodycare products that promote skin health.

“With the continued convergence of beauty and wellness, we’re seeing more guests looking to incorporate products with transparency, intentionality, and simplicity in their beauty routines,” says Tamburello. “Many are gravitating toward fewer, high-quality products that combine effectiveness with a wellness-forward mindset. Oak Essentials taps into these trends beautifully, offering an elevated yet accessible experience that meets the evolving needs of today’s beauty enthusiasts.”

Starting February 2, Ulta customers will get exclusive early access to Oak Essentials’ latest product launch, Firming Plant Peptide Serum, before it’s available anywhere else on February 15. To enhance the in-store experience, the brand has designed immersive, nature-inspired displays that invite customers to explore and connect with Oak Essentials. “With the visual presentation, we’re creating a sensorial shopping experience that feels like a mini spa moment—luxurious, yet entirely approachable,” says Godard.

Founder Jenni Kayne believes that Oak Essentials' success is due to the brand's clear identity and intentional growth strategy. By applying the lessons learned from building her lifestyle brand over the past 20 years, Kayne has been able to fast-track Oak Essentials' growth.

“From day one, Oak Essentials had the advantage of leveraging the talented team behind Jenni Kayne, which then allowed us to immediately use strategies that were backed by success—like  creating a distinct yet familiar visual language and focusing on a scalable DTC approach,” Kayne tells BeautyMatter. “This really allowed Oak Essentials to establish quick recognition while maintaining the same quality and authenticity that define Jenni Kayne.”

Oak Essentials initially utilized shared services from Jenni Kayne after its launch in 2021. To prepare for expansion, a dedicated team was established in the first half of 2024 to support retail marketing efforts. Lauren Harris, former COO at Jenni Kayne, transitioned to CEO of Oak Essentials in January 2024, using her brand growth expertise to lead the expansion.

“We’ve learned so much about what our customer expects from us in the three years since we’ve launched, and we’ve used those insights to crystallize our brand promise and key points of differentiation,” says Harris. “It was really important to us to enter retail when we knew we could execute it properly—through investments in team growth, marketing, field sales support, sampling, and more, the funding ensures we can deliver on all of those things and be in a strategic inventory position to capitalize on the momentum we’re expecting once we open in Ulta stores.”

Jenni Kayne's growth was fueled by establishing and nurturing hero products, a strategy that has become essential for Oak Essentials' expansion. When former Jenni Kayne CEO Julia Hunter decided to take this approach with the Cocoon Cardigan, clothing brands weren’t known for their viral styles. The style experienced a rapid increase in popularity after Jenni Kayne supported it with extensive marketing efforts and introduced new fabric options each season. As a result, the Cocoon Cardigan became and remains synonymous with the Jenni Kayne brand.

“Hero products are nothing new in beauty, but I believe some of Oak Essentials’ overnight success at launch had to do with applying this same strategy,” says Harris. “We built our hero product, Moisture Rich Balm, using the same playbook as the Jenni Kayne Cocoon Cardigan—ensuring it had the right support to become the cornerstone of our brand.”

Harris's experience at Jenni Kayne taught her the importance of building a brand identity that fosters genuine customer connection and engagement. This insight was instrumental in shaping her approach at Oak Essentials, where she recognized the significance of authentic offline interactions in brand building. In the early days of Jenni Kayne’s retail store expansion, the team invested in a robust event strategy centered around education and workshops, which gave their customers a meaningful reason to walk in the doors beyond shopping.

“We’re so excited to recreate the Oak version of this in Ulta stores by offering a menu of spa services tailored to retail environments,” says Harris. “One of the many reasons people love our brand is the sensorial, spa-like experience of using our products, so it felt  right to recreate that moment of self-care when you go into a store.”

Oak Essentials is an extension of the Jenni Kayne brand, which offers high-quality, elevated basics that simplify customers' routines and make them feel more put together. The Jenni Kayne brand's focus on simplicity and eliminating complications is directly reflected in the ethos of Oak Essentials.

“We wanted to simplify skincare in the same way—to create a collection of must-haves that inspire elevated, no-fuss, daily self-care rituals,” says Harris.

Both Jenni Kayne and Oak Essentials target a more mature customer demographic. Oak Essentials began with a focused collection of five SKUs, embodying the brand's core principles of simplicity and intentionality. The brand has now expanded its offerings to include 26 SKUs on its DTC site, encompassing skincare, bath, body, fragrance, candles, and additional categories.

“We are true to our name, focused on creating just the essentials—but the cleanest, most efficacious, enjoyable, and of course, beautiful essentials, says Harris. “Every product is curated, and every aspect of our brand is  thoughtfully crafted, all tying back to Jenni’s vision.”

According to the brand, less than 30% of Oak Essentials customers have shopped Jenni Kayne before, which Harris says was intentional. She felt it was important to prove that Oak Essentials could stand alone as a beauty brand and build a customer base through the power of products and storytelling.

“Now that we’ve done that, we’re working to tell the story of the connection between the two brands in a much more prominent way,” says Harris. This year, customers can expect to see more cross-promotion between the two brands, with Oak Essentials and Jenni Kayne showing up more frequently on each other’s channels. The Oak Essentials team also plans to introduce new ways to engage with the brand on the Jenni Kayne site and in Jenni Kayne stores.

Looking ahead to the future, Harris hopes to solidify Oak Essentials' position as a spa brand by developing permanent physical spaces, building hospitality and spa partnerships, and creating in-person experiences that bring the brand to life. The launch in Ulta's retail stores is a crucial step toward achieving these goals, as Harris believes it will significantly boost brand awareness and recognition for Oak Essentials. By offering mini spa services in stores and utilizing placement on custom end caps, the brand plans to make it easy for customers to understand and experience Oak Essentials.

“In many ways, 2024 was a foundational year for Oak Essentials, and we feel strongly that 2025 will be our moment to evolve from being a ‘best-kept secret’ to a household name,” she says. “So much of our brand is experiential—from the fragrances to the unique textures, to the visual aesthetics of our packaging and displays. We’ve always known that  giving customers an opportunity to experience all of that before they even buy will be a huge vehicle for growth.”