Dune Suncare is entering 550 Ulta Beauty doors.
The 10-month-old sunscreen brand will be one of four brands featured in Ulta Beauty’s Sparked program, displayed on entry tables and end caps depending on the store. It will also be a member of the Conscious Beauty program. All stock keeping units, as well as new launches, will be available at the retailer.
Since Dune’s launch in June, it has been focused on retail expansion, as brick-and-mortar is where consumers typically purchase sunscreen.
“Convenience is key in this category. People, even the most upper echelon conscientious shoppers in sun care, are purchasing their sunscreen differently than they are, say, beauty or skin care products,” said Dune cofounder Emily Doyle. “They’re going to the nearest store in proximity to themselves, the beach, the pool, wherever they’re traveling to… We needed to be omnichannel, and we knew that wholesale was going to be the biggest point of revenue for the business, meaning big-box retail partnerships.”
With this in mind, the brand had homed in on more than 80 specialty retailers, including surf shops, resorts, Bluemercury and Urban Outfitters.
According to Doyle, Ulta Beauty “slid into [their] DMs in July of 2022,” interested in bringing the brand to stores.
“The importance of sun care is two-pronged: one obviously is for health reasons. Melanoma has risen to be the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States which is the hard, scary truth… The second is from a vanity perspective,” Doyle told WWD. “Sun care is really straddling the line between a wellness and a beauty product.”
Although the brand is currently focused on its Ulta Beauty partnership, this is a stepping stone toward expanding its retail footprint for increased access.
Dune’s SPF has a skin-care-infused approach. The products have an invisible gel formula that’s infused with ingredients more commonplace in skin care, like vitamin E and hibiscus sabdariffa fruit extract, which is said to provide up to 72 hours of moisture.
The brand formula went through 100 iterations to land on a gel formulation that met cofounder Mei Kwok’s standards.
“One of the main reasons that we started Dune and one of my personal pain points with the industry was #WhiteCastProblems, so skin tone inclusivity was really important to me, and that was one of the things that we needed to tackle immediately,” Kwok said, noting that as a BIPOC founder it is key to educate consumers of all skin tones on the importance of using SPF daily.
In order to further educate and present consumers a white-cast-free option, Dune will eventually join Ulta Beauty’s sampling program for guests to test out the product before purchasing.
“When we first connected with Emily and Mei, we knew they had developed something special with Dune Suncare. Inclusive, conscious sun care is gaining traction with the beauty consumer, and we are thrilled to offer our guests the opportunity to discover their innovative gel SPF formulas through Sparked at Ulta Beauty,” said Muffy Clince, director of emerging brands at Ulta Beauty.
Dune Suncare is expected to amass $3 million in retail sales in its first year at Ulta Beauty, according to industry sources. The brand, which is also currently fundraising, will now be available in about 700 total retail locations with plans to expand with Ulta Beauty by the end of this year.