Menopause Goes Mainstream: Stripes Beauty’s CEO on Its Bold Ulta Expansion

Stripes’ top-selling products—including Full Monty, Vag of Honor, Oh My Glide, Dew As I Do, and The Inside Addition—are now available on ulta.com, with a curated assortment rolling out in select Wellness by Ulta Beauty boutiques nationwide. Stripes BeautyStripes Beauty, the pro-aging menopause brand founded by Naomi Watts, is making its biggest retail move yet with a national launch at Ulta Beauty—signaling a step change in how mainstream beauty is approaching midlife wellness. 

The partnership dramatically expands access to Stripes’ targeted solutions while underscoring Ulta Beauty’s growing commitment to wellness as a standalone retail category.

The launch also reflects a broader industry reckoning: women navigating menopause remain one of beauty’s most underserved consumer groups, despite their spending power and influence. By bringing Stripes into its ecosystem, Ulta is betting that menopause-focused, full-body care is moving from niche to necessity.

Stripes’ top-selling products—including Full Monty, Vag of Honor, Oh My Glide, Dew As I Do, and The Inside Addition—are now available on ulta.com, with a curated assortment rolling out in select Wellness by Ulta Beauty boutiques nationwide. The in-store presence offers a focused introduction to the brand’s midlife-first positioning, reinforcing the idea that menopause care belongs squarely within the modern beauty and wellness conversation.

Menopause Meets Mainstream: Cara Kamenev on Stripes Beauty’s Bold Move at Ulta

Ulta Beauty has been vocal about investing in wellness as a distinct retail category. How does Stripes’ launch help define what “menopause-forward wellness” looks like on shelf, and what signals does this send to the broader beauty industry? 

Kamenev: For us, menopause-forward wellness begins with visibility, representation and empowerment rooted in our pro-aging perspective. Seeing Stripes on shelves at such respected and beloved retailers shows that this life stage isn’t niche, clinical, or something to keep secret. 

Our brand and products represent a vibrant chapter that needs and deserves effective and accessible solutions for midlife women. Our launch into Ulta Beauty helps us normalize menopause as an essential part of everyday wellness, while actively challenging anti-aging narratives that have long excluded women in midlife. 

Serving women in this stage of life is an opportunity rooted in empathy, innovation, and long over-due representation in traditional beauty retail. 

Midlife and menopause have historically been underserved in prestige beauty retail. What data or consumer insights gave Ulta confidence that this audience is not only ready—but commercially meaningful—at scale? 

Kamenev: We constantly hear from women that they are looking for trusted, science backed solutions for this phase of life. Ulta Beauty is helping us champion this goal by radically democratizing access to science-backed products that were designed specifically for this life stage in mind. 

Our full-body assortment provides women with effective products that were created with specific symptoms in mind that are frequently associated with menopause and natural aging. 

This retail partnership further accelerates our mission to meet women where they already are and love to shop, integrating our brand as an essential part of that journey. 

Stripes is debuting both online and in select Wellness by Ulta Beauty doors. How did you determine the right assortment for this initial rollout, and how does merchandising differ when educating consumers versus driving velocity? 

Kamenev: We make sure to be very clear with how we market our products both online and in store. In-store education is essential, so we make sure our merchandising leans into our educational and storytelling pillars and is all around approachable. 

Online, we make sure to include as much of our digital content, both from our community and in-house made content. In both environments, the goal is the same: remove confusion, build trust quickly, and make it easy for someone to say, “this product will benefit me”

In terms of product assortment, we wanted to make sure that Ulta Beauty carried a diverse range of our products that cater to women’s needs from scalp to vag. From dehydrated skin to estrogen loss, Stripes has something to target all midlife needs, so it was important for us to have that wide range of products represented to cater to every woman’s unique body and experience. 

As more beauty brands move into wellness, differentiation is becoming critical. What makes Stripes defensible as a category leader rather than a trend-driven extension brand? 

Kamenev: The shift towards incorporating wellness into everyone’s everyday life is very important, but at Stripes we don’t treat it as a trend. We exist to support women through midlife and beyond. 

Menopause is not an angle that we are “tapping into,” it's the foundation of everything we do and we really were the first to bring menopause out of the shadows and into mainstream conversations. Our credibility comes from listening to women within our community, and providing products that solve their current wellness problems and concerns. 

Our products are grounded in science and education, and the depth of our commitment is hard to replicate! 

Looking ahead, how does this retail expansion impact Stripes’ long-term growth strategy—particularly in terms of innovation pipelines, education, and potential global expansion?

Kamenev: We are always looking to meet women where they are, empowering them not just to survive this life stage but to thrive in it, even enjoy it! Aging isn’t something we need to fear, and midlife isn’t a crisis–it’s a celebration and it’s one we will continue to champion with innovative products, services and community.

We plan to continue investing in our innovations, in servicing this woman “scalp to vag” while prioritizing categories like body care and sexual/intimate wellness, which our customer continues to react to. 

Education and democratizing access to information continues to be a priority, as well as community building. No one should have to go through this alone—feeling seen and understood is so powerful.