Ulta Beauty Adds The Potion Studio To Textured Haircare Roster

The textured haircare brand launched on Ulta’s website on Aug. 9 and is rolling out to 460 locations by Aug. 23. The rollout augments its existing retail distribution, including 25 Nordstrom stores and the department store retailer’s website. At Ulta, it joins a haircare assortment that has recently welcomed the brands Jupiter , Growus and Nutrire and features textured haircare brands such as Pattern, Cécred, Rizos Curls , Ocoa , Mielle and Camille Rose .

Independently owned and funded, The Potion Studio has more than doubled its revenue year over year since its 2021 launch. Sales are expected to grow 4X in 2026 compared to last year thanks to the new retail partnership, according to founder Aziza El Wanni.

Growing up in Suriname to Palestinian and Caribbean parents, El Wanni, who later moved to Amsterdam and then Los Angeles, heard constantly that textured hair was difficult to maintain. Under her mother’s supervision, she mixed products in their kitchen for her curly hair with ingredients such as avocado oil, tonka bean oil and egg yolks. Inspired by Middle Eastern and Caribbean hair rituals, she created The Potion Studio to streamline textured haircare routines and to design products to work across different climates.

“It was about inclusivity, but I wanted it to be very intentional. I believe in multifunctionality and that less is more,” she says. “We’re lazy naturals. Our hair will still look good and be healthy, but we don’t have to spend all this time and money on a 10-step routine that will probably make our hair too heavy by day three anyway.”

Ulta carries five of The Potion Studio’s haircare and styling products priced from $12 to $32, including shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioning spray, moisturizer and styling gel, along with a $30 mini styling kit and four hair accessories priced from $23 to $30. Its shampoo can also be used as a body cleanser and beard wash, and its conditioner can be used as an intensive hair mask, underscoring the brand’s multifunctionality. Among its bestsellers are the brand’s hero product, Rose Bomb Leave-In Conditioning Spray, and Monoi Mango Moisturizer.

Market and consumer trends

The Potion Studio is launching at Ulta as racial and ethnic diversity transforms younger generations of American consumers. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2018, one in four gen Zers in the United States are Hispanic, 14% are Black, 6% are Asian and 5% are some other race or two or more races. An estimated 65% of the U.S. population has wavy, curly or coily hair, according to NaturallyCurly’s 2018 TextureTrends Report. According to Euromonitor International, almost a quarter of consumers globally reported having curly hair in 2024, with curls more prevalent in younger generations.

“The hair category continues to become more nuanced and personalized as our guests embrace their natural textures and look for products that speak to their individual hair needs, routines and identities,” says Shianna Davey, VP of merchandising at Ulta, via email. “As the next generation of beauty consumers becomes increasingly diverse, it’s important that our assortment evolves alongside them.”

She continues, “Our goal is to offer meaningful choice across curls, coils, waves and textures, while bringing forward brands and founders with distinct perspectives on how people care for and express themselves through their hair. The Potion Studio is a great example of that evolution. As a Black and Middle Eastern-owned brand, it brings an authentic point of view to the category, pairing products created with textured hair in mind with a fresh, expressive approach to the category.”

> “As the next generation of beauty consumers becomes increasingly diverse, it’s important that our assortment evolves alongside them.”

Brand development and growth

Last year, The Potion Studio participated in two programs for emerging beauty brands, Sephora Accelerate and Maesa Magic Incubator. Another member of its Accelerate cohort was Bounce Curl , a curly hair brand known for its viral hairbrush that landed in roughly 215 Sephora stores in March. El Wanni lauded the programs for helping refine The Potion Studio’s pricing and positioning. Initially, she intended to position the brand closer to masstige, but came to see it as more premium.

“I learned that you can’t undervalue your brand through pricing. At first, I wanted to position the brand closer to masstige, but I realized that the brand itself is much more premium and finding the perfect balance is key,” says El Wanni. “For example, our 8-oz. gel is priced at $28, which still sits somewhere between mass and prestige, but it allows us to offer a more concentrated, premium product rather than competing directly in the mass market, where products are typically larger sizes and sold at lower price points.”

The programs reinforced for El Wanni the importance of branding in supporting pricing. She says, “People are buying into a story, a feeling and an aesthetic, not just a product. It’s about positioning the brand in a way that the consumer would want to position themselves alongside it.”

The Potion Studio’s push toward more premium positioning coincides with strong growth in prestige haircare. Prestige haircare sales increased 11% in the first half of 2026, with unit sales up 8%, according to Circana. Hair treatments were the primary growth driver, with serums, masks, oils, leave-in treatments and scalp-focused products posting gains.

For a long time, the bootstrapped brand didn’t have enough budget for advertising, so El Wanni spent every weekend at artisan and flea markets promoting the brand. That grassroots playbook informs its Ulta launch. She plans to visit the nearly 20 stores in the Los Angeles area. She currently hosts pop-ups and meet-and-greets at Nordstrom locations approximately twice a month, and she’s doling out gratis products for 4,610 Ulta Beauty sales associates in decorative bags and kits containing Monoi Mango Moisturizer and Rose Bomb Leave-In Conditioning Spray.

El Wanni says, “At the end of the day, it’s still up to you as a brand to stay true to yourself and to make sure that what you’re communicating on your social media or as a founder and what retailers are communicating are all aligned.”