Busy Millennial Mom-Favorite Curie Takes Its Clean Deodorants To Target After Launching At Walmart

Less than two months into being a parent, Sarah Moret has a newfound appreciation for the convenience of Target, the shopping refuge for busy millennial moms. She’s placing multiple Target pickup orders per week and can now add products from her own brand, Curie, to her cart.

After premiering in big-box retail last year at Walmart, the clean personal care brand aimed at on-the-go consumers has rolled out to 1,001 Target locations with $12.99 deodorants in five scents: White Tea, Coconut Nectar, Warm Vanilla, Santal Sage and Peach Soleil, a bestseller in direct-to-consumer distribution that’s making its store debut. Target has been raising its deodorant game with masstige deodorants escalating prices and benefits from the likes of Wild, Megababe and Saltair along with Curie.

“I’m a millennial mom. I am my customer, and I think that, in terms of where the business is going, I think me being our core demographic and a lot of our team being our core demographic makes it easy for us to focus and grow based on what that customer needs,” says Moret, who’s returning to her CEO and founder position at Curie full-time next month following an abbreviated maternity leave, joking, “Forming sentences right now is difficult.”

What’s also difficult, she emphasizes, is entering major retail as an insurgent brand. Curie, which started in 2018 with around $12,000 from Moret’s personal savings, hasn’t pulled in a ton of funding—she discloses it’s secured about $2 million from investors such as Pure Imagination Brands, Curate Capital and Precursor Ventures and is not currently seeking funding—and is supporting Target and Walmart expansion without a cash injection. A profitable business that crossed $10 million in DTC sales in 2023, it’s in 4,300 Walmart locations and has roughly doubled its merchandise footprint at the megachain to 13 stockkeeping units.

“You don’t just launch in a retailer and have millions and millions of dollars in your pocket. You get on the shelves and that’s where the work comes, really getting on the shelf is like 20%,” says Moret. “It is your responsibility as a brand to bring in net new customers to that retailer. A success to the buyer is not cannibalizing their existing customers. We did a really good job with that with Walmart. I think at this point we have a pretty good idea of how we’re going to execute that at Target as well.”

Marketing to draw new customers is crucial, but operational execution is equally crucial. Curie spent considerable portions of 2022 out of stock, leaving untold revenues off the table, and it’s since been obsessive about nailing down operations to not fall behind demand and succeed at retail. Hockey-stick sales momentum, pandemic-related supply chain snags and conservative forecasting caused the out-of-stock issues.

Curie appeared on the ABC pitch competition show “Shark Tank” in 2022, leading to the brand generating $250,000 in sales in three days, selling out six times and racking up a 1,000-person waiting list. (On the show, the brand agreed to take $300,000 from “sharks” Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran in exchange for 14% equity.) In 2023, it sold over 1 million deodorants, and from 2022 to 2023, it had a 900% increase in sales, and its deodorant and body spray sold out five times in DTC. On QVC, they’ve sold out seven times. In 2024, Curie was the fastest-growing brand in the natural deodorant category on Amazon.

Walmart approached Curie post-“Shark Tank” to join the natural section within its beauty and personal care assortment. To help rectify out-of-stock issues before it hit the shelves, the brand moved to a manufacturer and third-party logistics provider that could handle greater scale. It hired Suzy Gonzalez, who previously held operations roles at Bala, Staud and Stone Cold Fox, as senior operations manager and fine-tuned its forecasting.

“I’m a millennial mom. I am my customer.”

Curie tracks its operations team members’ performance on key metrics like on-time deliveries, freight costs, in-stock rates, chargebacks and cash conversion cycles to reduce the periods between inventory purchases and revenue received for inventory. All told, the brand has 13 members on its team and is looking to beef up its marketing talent.

Curie is leaning into its strengths as a digitally native brand with its marketing strategies. The brand has created a community of some 1,000 fans it calls “Sniff Club” that test its products and taps into its devoted audience to spot its items at stores and post about them. With its Target entrance, Moret says Curie is putting a “significant budget” behind influencer marketing, product seeding, direct mail and Meta advertising. The publication Modern Retail has reported the brand is running an out-of-home campaign to propel sales and recognition at Walmart.

Beauty is in the midst of a ferocious fragrance moment, and Curie’s scents are a chief motivator for its customers. They switch them up on a seasonal basis. Warm Vanilla takes center stage in the winter, while Coconut Nectar and Peach Soleil are summer favorites. Thirty percent of Curie’s customers are male—it has a presence in Equinox men’s and women’s locker rooms, an awareness driver for its male customers in particular—and it’s careful to have scents that appeal to customers across the gender spectrum.

Curie has teamed up with Ann Gottlieb, a fragrance developer with a client roster that’s a who’s who of the fragrance world, including Calvin Klein, Dior, Dove and Bath & Body Works, on its fragrances and expects to release more this year, both limited-edition and permanent options. More everyday body care basics are on the way, too. Last year, it introduced Detoxifying Body Wash Bar to a body care and haircare selection that contains Whipped Body Wash, Hair Freshener and Moisturizing Body and Hair Oil.

Late last year, Target CEO Brian Cornell noted that consumers budgets’ were being “stretched.” Amid uncertainty, Walmart is warning its net sales will slow this year, when it forecasts they will advance 3% to 4%. In a traditional commodity category, Curie’s deodorant prices are higher than the average deodorant, but in line with competitors in the natural space that Moret pegs at generally charging $10 to $15. She hasn’t detected any pushback to the brand’s prices.

“Our customers believe they’re getting a good value,” says Moret. For Curie, she continues, “The biggest long-term goal is growing profitably. That’s always been a huge focus and a big priority for me, and it will continue to be in future years—expanding our retail presence, making sure that we are where our customers want us to be when they want us, and continuing to elevate the personal care experience for the customers.”

This article was updated on March 3 to include information on Curie’s out-of-home advertising campaign.