Now, you can stock up on Biology Fragrances while picking up organic eggs, plant-based ranch dressing, avocados and bulk nuts at Sprouts, where the functional fragrance brand is arriving at around 485 stores nationwide.
The chain-wide rollout comes as the natural grocer channel is seeing renewed interest from beauty brands and injecting newness into its beauty selections to draw younger customers for whom beauty and wellness is increasingly one. According to Retail Insights, large natural supermarket chains like Whole Foods, Sprouts and Fresh Thyme hold the leading market share in the natural, organic foods, supplements and personal care space in the United States, at nearly 30%, with sales climbing 6.7% last year to almost $2.2 billion.
While grocery isn’t the most obvious distribution route for a fragrance brand, with the category’s growth and demand from especially gen Z shoppers, fragrance is making headway at grocers, and prior to Sprouts, Biology Fragrances entered grocery concepts such as Happier Grocery and Seed Peoples Market. Overall, the functional fragrance brand is in 50 boutiques across the country. Previously, it was stocked by Urban Outfitters, but Sprouts represents its largest retail partnership to date.
Sun says, “Sprouts is such a strategic and important partner because the demographics match up perfectly: It is that consumer with a little bit of extra money to spend and they care for clean, healthy products, but I think most importantly it’s the mass distribution that they have.”
At Sprouts, Biology’s four bestselling $32 fragrance oil rollerballs—Joy, Deep, Mystery and Balance—will be housed in brightly colored product display quickly (PDQ) endcaps meant to grab consumers’ attention. Modern and splashed with yellow, the displays are designed to stand out in a sea of mostly muted colors and to feature descriptions of fragrance notes, functionality and intention. Testers of the four scents will be available.
“There are fundamental basics of what’s good about essential oils, so we really wanted to highlight that,” says Sun. “Once you touch and feel and experience our products, you’re going to buy it because it’s high quality.”
To spread the word about its Sprouts launch, Biology will gift products to over 100 creators, editors and wellness enthusiasts. The grocer will support the launch with cross-promotions. Sun is stepping into a more front-facing role in Biology’s content, which he hasn’t done much in the past, to communicate about the brand’s history and story. The brand spends roughly $4,000 to $6,000 a month on Meta and Google advertising to gain traction digitally.
Biology operates with a lean two-person team and is evaluating opportunities to tap senior leadership. Alex Mohler, who was formerly a brand lead at Amazon and head of sales, brand content and partnerships for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” came on as COO in 2025 to secure partnerships and fuel growth. Biology discloses it’s registered 3x year-over-year sales growth.
A designer whose career has had stops at several big-name Hollywood companies like Paramount, Walt Disney and CAA, Sun launched Biology in 2023 with $10,000 after leaving his corporate career. Born in the Taiwanese port city Kaohsiung, he created the brand to honor his Chinese heritage and the matriarchs in his family.
Specifically, the brand is a love letter to his mother, who had a stroke after giving birth to Sun’s sister and suffered from debilitating headaches afterward. She relied on the Chinese herbal ointment Tiger Balm for relief, but Sun says its medicinal smell was off-putting. Biology aims to provide many of the same benefits without the offending odor.
Biology is among a phalanx of functional fragrance brands like The Nue Co., Initio Parfums Privés, Blueme and Vyrao. According to reporting by The Business of Fashion, searches for the term “functional fragrance” reached their highest point in March this year, up 25% from November and hitting 100% growth year-over-year.
Market research firm Market Growth Reports estimates that the U.S. functional fragrance market will grow annually at an almost 6% rate from 2026 to 2035. It has monitored widespread penetration of the functional fragrance phenomenon, with over 65% of personal care product companies adopting functional fragrances in their formulas to address emotional benefits and approximately 58% of perfume launches in 2024 making claims related to stress and enhanced focus or mood.
In addition to its $32 oil rollerballs, Biology offers its functional fragrances in 50-ml. eau de parfum sprays priced at $128 and incense priced at $24. Every product is tied to a movie scene or specific moment in time. The brand’s bestselling fragrance Joy, for example, is an ode to Taiwanese actress and singer Teresa Teng’s song “Tuberose,” a constant soundtrack in Sun’s house growing up. It contains uplifting jasmine, aphrodisiac tuberose and stress-relieving bergamot and sandalwood.
Set to release mid-summer, Biology’s forthcoming fragrance, Form, includes raspberry notes and is a nod to Sun’s mother’s affinity for fruity scents. Simultaneously, Biology will introduce Calm Balm, Sun’s take on the Tiger Balm his mother used to combat chronic headaches.
“It’s almost like a fashionable, chic Tiger Balm that you can bring everywhere that also can provide you with aromatherapy benefits and smells great,” he says. “Whatever we do, it needs to lead with what can it bring to the consumer and how can it benefit them.”
