RMS Beauty Rolls Out To 200 Ulta Doors

After launching its lip oils on Ulta’s website in October, veteran clean brand RMS Beauty rolled out to 200 of the specialty retailer’s doors this weekend with over 30 offerings and 120 stock keeping units across makeup and skincare.

RMS’s color cosmetics will take top shelf at Ulta, including its $49 SunCoverup Super Tint, new $35 Revitalize Hydra Concealer, as well as blushes, lip serums and the beloved $40 Living Luminizer highlighter cream. “This is probably the proudest achievement in my entire career, not just because of what it means for the business, but what it represents for the brand, what it represents for Rose-Marie,” shares CEO David Olsen. 

Such a declaration is significant coming from the industry vet, who previously held executive positions at Dermstore, Net-A-Porter and Cos Bar. Olsen was brought on as CEO of RMS Beauty in 2021 after the brand, founded by iconoclastic makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift in 2009, was acquired by private equity firm Highlander Partners where Olsen is managing director. Olsen shares that RMS has grown 500% since he took the helm. 

Getting the business to a place of sustainable growth was key to Olsen before hitting the shelves of the biggest beauty speciality chain. This included tightening up all its current physical retail partnerships—some of which were struggling, Olsen admits. RMS’s other key retailers include Bluemercury, Credo Beauty and in Australia, Mecca.

“When Highlander invested in the business, it was definitely at a crossroads. We were exiting another major retailer, and, frankly, on the verge of losing a handful of retailers. I wanted to make sure that we got our existing retail partners really right before going to Ulta,” he says. 

That major retailer was Sephora. RMS began its partnership with the retailer in 2016 with an online-only debut. It entered select stores the next year, and when Beauty Independent spoke to Swift in 2019, she said the brand was doing “very well” there. But RMS exited Sephora completely by late 2022.

Without the added strain of Sephora distribution, RMS was able to focus on its direct-to-consumer sales, which Olsen says “rocketed past” retail in 2023. “We’re still shooting for that 50/50 split and we’ll be closer with the Ulta partnership,” Olsen notes, adding, “Our overall portfolio is really well balanced.” Twenty percent of RMS Beauty’s sales come from new launches, and its current best-sellers include a mix of newness, hero products and its $49 Supernatural Radiance Serum. It was previously reported in trade publication WWD that industry sources expected the brand to reach between $60 million and $80 million in sales in 2024.

“I wanted to make sure that we got our existing retail partners really right before going to Ulta.”

Getting the right team in place was key to optimizing the brand’s distribution. Olsen estimates that the company has doubled its headcount since he’s joined. This included bringing its field operations in-house about six months ago. Shannan Carlson, EVP of sales, planning and merchandising, brought on Brittany Bruce, who previously spent seven years at Nars, as global director of sales and education.

Olsen reports that the new RMS team members have spent the last several months training, including sessions with Swift herself. “Each week we’ve had a one hour weekly session with Rose-Marie, company-wide, to have every single person on board with the way Rose-Marie thinks about the products and the brand. You see our sales in Credo and Bluemercury increasing drastically because of those people having that direct connection with Rose-Marie. That to me goes such a long way. They are so appreciative.”

Olsen says the team has “rallied around” the mission of getting into and winning at Ulta, and they will play a key role in the multifaceted rollout, which includes educational in-store events at 85 different doors through October with the brand’s Swift–trained makeup artists. Swift will also make in-store appearances, starting with Savannah and Philadelphia, where she’ll connect directly with Ulta guests. 

Other aspects of the launch include a custom “Launch-in-a-Box” kit sent to all 200 Ulta doors with an RMS magazine and exclusive co-branded Ulta merch, targeted community and influencer gifting across the RMS and Ulta Beauty Collective audiences, a multi-layered digital campaign driving traffic to Ulta stores, supporting Ulta.com and participating in high-visibility programs like the retailer’s 21 Days of Beauty and a Dallas-based out-of-home campaign including Adgile Trucks, in-store sampling and a VIP suite activation at an upcoming Tate McRae concert at American Airlines Center in partnership with luxury linens maker Sferra.

Of course, Olsen has his sights set on RMS expanding into Ulta’s full fleet of over 1,450 U.S. stores. His target date is Spring 2026. “I’m hoping that we’re out of the gates hot, then we have the conversation and we can expand more,” he shares, adding that the momentum that will come with the Ulta launch will be building on a stride the brand has already hit.

He says, “We’re going to have our biggest month ever in July. We continue to have our biggest month ever. From that perspective, the brand is really firing on all cylinders. I’ve known Rose-Marie for a decade, she’s one of the most passionate voices in clean beauty. She’s also a friend of mine. To build this alongside of her, bringing this brand from survival mode to Ulta shelves in this short amount of time is something that I’ll always be proud of.”