“We’re pleased to have Fourth Ray and SOL Body join ColourPop at Ulta Beauty and offer our guests an exclusive head-to-toe in person experience from SEED Beauty,” says Monica Arnaudo, Ulta Beauty Chief Merchandising Officer, in a media release circulated by SEED Beuaty.
“We champion brands that have like-minded values,” adds Arnaudo, “and are pleased to support Fourth Ray’s products that make your skin look great because you feel great about the products you’re using, to SOL’s inclusive line of body products that celebrate every body’s glow,” she says.
SEED Beauty launches brands fast
The SEED Beauty business model is all about speed to market. Siblings John Nelson and Laura Nelson launched the business in 2014, leveraging their own industry experience and the private label California-based manufacturing facility SPATZ Laboratories (which their father Joel Nelson owned at the time).
The company’s first brand was ColourPop; and since that brand’s launch in 2014, the full-service accelerator that is SEED Beauty has also produced Kylie Cosmetics, KKW Beauty, Fourth Ray Beauty, SOL Body, and Tati Beauty. (Read more about how the business is structured in this 2016 piece Lexy Lebsack wrote for Refinery29.)
Moving DTC brands into retail
Neither Fourth Ray Beauty nor SOL Body are new brands. But thanks to the deal with Ulta Beauty, consumers will be able to discover and experience the brands’ products in person before purchase for the first time.
“Our customers are at the heart of everything we do,” Laura Nelson, President at SEED Beauty, tells the press. “We're thrilled,” she says, “to deliver on their demand for sister brands Fourth Ray Beauty and SOL Body to join ColourPop at Ulta, providing a 360 experience for the online customer shopping in real life.”
Fouth Ray Beauty is a skin care brand that promises to help consumer “[achieve] healthy, balanced skin so everyone can start their makeup routines with the best skin possible.” And SOL Body is a body care brand that specializes in “glowy, bronzy, and shimmery,” according to the SEED Beauty media release. “SOL Body wants women of all shapes, sizes and skin tones to highlight their highlights and openly express themselves.”
As Laura Nelson emphasizes, “SOL and Fourth Ray encourage confidence, self-expression and self-care; Ulta's unique retail environment will take that journey even further."
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Deanna Utroske is a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement. As Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com, she writes daily news about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders.
Deanna will be traveling next to the Personal Care Product Council’s annual meeting; if you’ll be there too and have beauty business news to share, feel free to contact her at deanna.utroske@wrbm.com