Junoco isn’t taking a tentative approach to its retail launch.
The digitally native Burlingame, Calif.-based brand is making its debut in 850 Ulta Beauty locations with eight body care products centered on a post-shower routine, including the Full Body Nectar Serum and Satinslip Hand & Foot Mask. Ulta’s website will carry six additional products: two online-exclusive items, the Pear Glimmer Puff and Aura Rosé Mist, along with four refill pods. Prices range from $8 for refill pods to $26 for full-size products.
Together, the 14-product assortment is designed to establish Junoco as a prominent cross-category face-and-body brand from the outset of its exclusive retail partnership with Ulta. The launch comes as body care continues to outperform much of beauty and has become a major growth driver for Junoco, with the brand’s year-to-date body care sales up 115% from the same period last year.
“We spent years building Junoco through DTC before taking this step into national retail,” says Junoco co-founder and CEO Kyle Jiang. “That gave us time to stay close to customers and understand what matters to them and what Junoco is about. We built a collection of products and the visual world of the brand. We developed an understanding of what makes customers come back.”
Junoco initially broke through with Clean 10 Cleansing Balm, which launched in 2022 and immediately became popular on TikTok. The cleanser stood out for its minimalist formula at a time when skincare products were increasingly packed with active ingredients.
“A lot of products intimidated people because of all the active ingredients,” says Jiang. “We launched the cleansing balm with only 10 ingredients, and customers loved how simple it was and how well it worked.”
A critical takeaway for Junoco from the cleansing balm’s early success, however, wasn’t just a consumer appetite for formula minimalism. The brand concluded the product’s sensory experience is a huge component of its appeal. It has a soft wax texture that easily melts off makeup and a weightless, clean finish. The cleanser epitomizes what Jiang calls Junoco’s “skin-close philosophy.”
“We spent years building Junoco through DTC before taking this step into national retail.”
“That philosophy became the foundation for how we developed our body care line,” he says. “A product should feel like it belongs to your skin, with a soft finish that makes you want to keep coming back.”
To scale its manufacturing capabilities ahead of wholesale expansion, Junoco raised a total of $6.3 million in funding across seed and series A rounds. The brand is profitable, according to Jiang, although he maintains a pragmatic outlook on the cost of the brick-and-mortar transition.
“My approach is to make each channel profitable individually, including physical retail going forward,” he says. “I’m not sure we’ll be profitable there from day one, but likely within about a year. Overall, I believe our numbers are strong.”
Ulta will serve as an important proving ground for Junoco’s retail strategy. Asked about specific sales projections, Jiang responds that the brand is prioritizing collective learning over rigid benchmarks.
“A product should feel like it belongs to your skin, with a soft finish that makes you want to keep coming back.”
Referring to Ulta, he says, “They’ve been giving us great support so far. They understand what body care customers are looking for and have been sharing customer insights to help us translate from DTC to physical retail. It’s been a great learning experience so far.”
Long before launching Junoco in 2020, Jiang and his twin brother, who handles supply chain and finance for the brand, grew up in their family’s beauty packaging manufacturing business. That expertise informs Junoco, which uses artificial intelligence tools to build new molds and create custom prototypes in a matter of hours.
“When I was young, I would run around the factory touching all these different products, and I was always curious about where they’d end up,” says Jiang. “I actually got to see how products are made. That’s the fun origin story.”
Refills are a pillar of Junoco’s long-term vision. The brand’s customers can purchase reusable outer packaging once, then replenish it with refill pods priced from $8 to $18.99. About 40% of Junoco’s direct-to-consumer customers currently buy into the system, though Jiang notes true mass adoption would be at 70% to 80%. Consumer adoption of refillable beauty products has remained limited even as larger companies such as L’Oréal have stepped up efforts to promote them.
Expanding refills into body care, however, presents particular challenges. Larger bottles require more material, and refill pods are nearly as heavy and expensive to produce as standard packaging, reducing some of the environmental and shipping advantages that make facial skincare refills attractive. Consumer behavior also differs in stores, where shoppers often prefer larger, ready-to-use bottles over refill systems.
“The DTC mentality and philosophy is different from the physical retail world, so we’re working closely with our Ulta team to understand the customer across both channels,” says Jiang. “Going forward, products need to work for both DTC and offline customers.”
