Terra Luna Beauty Has Gone From Underwhelming To Upscale On Its Path From Etsy To Urban Outfitters

In May, Urban Outfitters contacted Terra Luna Beauty via Instagram and requested the brand’s hero products. Among the array of plant-based goods founder Sara Khan sent in a sample package to the retailer, she snuck in Saturn Detox Bath, her favorite bath soak among three from Terra Luna.

“They said, ‘We’ve tried this one bath product and we’re blown away. We will take all three,’” she recounts. “The bath products have really been resonating with people. The packaging has been luring people in and getting more people to try them to see what they’re about.”

Terra Luna has now launched on Urban Outfitters’ website with its Saturn, UFO and Moon Detox Bath Soaks that are encased in vivid 12-oz. red, green and blue glass bottles, respectively, and capped with corks. Overall, the brand sells nine products priced from $15 to $40 across hair, face, bath and body, an edited selection compared to the 15 or so products it sold four years ago when it premiered on Etsy.

Terra Luna
Terra Luna Beauty’s Saturn, UFO and Moon Detox Bath Soaks are available online at Urban Outfitters.

“I really feel this is a win for green beauty. I love that big companies like this are reaching out to smaller, cleaner brands and bringing them to the masses,” says Khan. “Green beauty has done a lot over the last couple of years in terms of becoming more available, but I still think there’s a lot of work to be done, and this is another step to get green and clean beauty commercially available.”

Khan, who grew up in the Detroit suburb West Bloomfield, began Terra Luna with $3,000 in her little kitchen during college at Michigan State University. She ventured into skincare to come up with solutions for her skin issues. She’d long suffered from acne and hyperpigmentation, and had experimented with countless products meant to address them.

“I really feel this is a win for green beauty. I love that big companies like this are reaching out to smaller, cleaner brands and bringing them to the masses. Green beauty has done a lot over the last couple of years in terms of becoming more available, but I still think there’s a lot of work to be done, and this is another step to get green and clean beauty commercially available.”

“If there was an infomercial for it, I’ve probably tried it,” laughs Khan. “None of it helped my acne. The products were actually drying my skin, and made it dull and lifeless.” Her skin turned a corner once she incorporated natural ingredients into formulas, many of which she’d been exposed to through Bangladeshi food and herbal remedies. Espresso Scrub, an original Terra Luna product and perennial bestseller, features green tea, Himalayan pink salt, aloe vera, jojoba, coconut, peppermint, lavender and tea tree oils, and cocoa and shea butters along with espresso.

Terra Luna wasn’t a smash hit out of the gate. It had a hodgepodge of products on Etsy at the outset in rudimentary containers and labels that didn’t convey a strong message. In 2016, Khan decided to invest $10,000 in upgrading the look, and put liquid products in dark glass to protect their insides from damage due to light and bath soaks in colorful apothecary packaging.

Terra Luna
Terra Luna Beauty founder Sara Khan

“I wanted to create a modern take on the recipes that had been in my family for generations. I didn’t want it to look like something that came out of my mother’s pantry,” says Khan. “I wanted it to look like something you could find in a department store and that would appeal to modern generations. I always aspired to have the packaging be clean, chic and minimal.”

With new packaging in tow, Terra Luna left Etsy behind, and Khan pursued local retailers. Alchemy Slow Living Studio in Ferndale, Mich., was the first location that signed on to carry the brand. Recently, it’s been gaining a national presence. Predating its Urban Outfitters’ debut, South Moon Under brought Terra Luna into six doors in April. The brand is on track to generate roughly $50,000 in sales this year.

“I didn’t think such a big retailer would be so accommodating of a small business. They kept in mind that I couldn’t turn out 1,000 of each bath product in a week. I love that my tiny business that I started in my college kitchen the size of a doormat is on their website.”

Although Terra Luna is making inroads at retail, Khan acknowledges not all business and personal challenges are behind her. “I still have acne scars from when I was 13,” says the 24-year-old. “People come up to me and say, ‘Don’t you own a skincare company,’ and I say, ‘Yes, I do, but I still have skin issues.’ It can be difficult to be confident while representing this idea of ideal skin.”

Accumulating sufficient capital for growth is also a challenge. Khan is evaluating different funding options to determine the right fit for her business. “We’ve had offers from venture capitalists, and it’s hard to look at that kind of money and have to say no,” she says. “We aren’t at the point where we could do anything with $2 million to $3 million. It’s about finding someone more suitable for our size and, then, scaling up to the point where we can eventually work with venture capitalists.”

Terra Luna
In 2016, Terra Luna Beauty revamped its packaging to land on a minimal and sophisticated look.

Terra Luna is in the process of scaling up its product assortment as well as its retail reach. Khan is currently developing a toner and moisturizer, and plans to build out a full range of skincare products. On the retail front, Khan has set her sights on propelling Terra Luna into additional large chains. She says, “I want people all over the country and the world to be able to easily walk into a drugstore or department store and find clean beauty, and not have to go out of their way to find it.”

On the part of retailers, it can take patience to partner with emerging brands like Terra Luna, a quality Khan indicates Urban Outfitters has to spare. The company often rolls out products from small brands carefully by testing them online before filtering them into stores and doesn’t overwhelm brands like Terra Luna that hand-make merchandise in-house by placing huge orders they can’t handle.

“I didn’t think such a big retailer would be so accommodating of a small business. They kept in mind that I couldn’t turn out 1,000 of each bath product in a week,” says Khan. “I love that my tiny business that I started in my college kitchen the size of a doormat is on their website.”