Dibs Beauty is making its retail debut.
The makeup brand, cofounded in 2021 by influencer Courtney Shields, beauty veteran Jeff Lee and Tula Skincare cofounders Ken Landis (who also cofounded Bobbi Brown Cosmetics) and Dan Reich, is slated to enter 592 Ulta Beauty doors beginning this month, also launching online at the retailer.
Dibs — an acronym for Desert Island Beauty Status — quickly built a cult following online for its hero $38 blush-and-bronze sticks, and has since expanded its range to include lip liners, body highlight sticks and baked blushes and bronzers, priced $16 to $55.
Prior to its debut, the brand raised $2.6 million in an initial round of funding from investors including L Catterton partners Michael Farello and Jonathan Owsley, who invested individually. Last year, though, L Catterton formally acquired a stake in the company with its own “significant” growth investment via the firm’s new fund, Elevate Beauty, which is dedicated to investing in early-stage beauty businesses.
For Dibs, which has thus far only sold direct-to-consumer or at Revolve and is predicted by industry sources to do between $20 million and $30 million in sales this year, the Ulta foray has been a long time coming — and purposely so.
“It was a very deliberate move on our end to [wait to enter retail],” said Lee, adding that the brand has received “almost a dozen unsolicited retail offers” over the last three years. It held off in part to vet the right partner, and to allow consumer demand for Dibs at retail to build organically.
Dibs cofounder Courtney Shields.
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“Finding the right partner in Ulta has been a validation of everything we’ve sought for the brand,” Lee said. “An unintimidating space for people to discover beauty: that’s what we’ve created, and that’s what Ulta has created, too.”
Indeed, the throughline across Dibs’ assortment is an aim to simplify the makeup process for consumers across all levels of expertise. This ethos informed the brand’s signature dual-ended sticks, as well as its “slow” product launch strategy.
“Everything in our assortment has to make sense together — we don’t need 47 options for one step of our makeup routine,” said Shields, pointing to the brand’s newly launched baked blushes and bronzers, designed not so much as an alternative, but a complement, to its cream offerings, in line with the viral technique of “blush stacking,” in which users top off a cream blush base with powder to extend wear.
Dibs cofounder Jeff Lee.
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“I have this term I say, ‘MIMS’ or ‘make it make sense,’” said Shields, who counts more than 1.1 million followers on Instagram. “There’s a point where innovation can kind of go over the hump and it’s like, ‘OK — what is this?’ We like to say that [Dibs] is innovation without intimidation; we’re not trying to overcomplicate it.”
The approach is part of what drew Ulta to the brand.
“Dibs’ creamy, blendable blush-bronzer duos captured out interest from the very start,” wrote Maria Salcedo, Ulta’s senior vice president of merchandising, in an email to WWD. “With innovative formulas and versatile color combos.…Dibs taps into the latest beauty trends, including the ongoing blush, bronzing and glow crazes.”
Twelve of Dibs’ key offerings will be available in store, while broader 24-product assortment will launch online at the retailer beginning Aug. 26.
“The thing that is most important about this brand is the accessibility, ease and enjoyability of makeup; we take seriously the quality and the value we want to bring to people’s lives, but we also have this undercurrent of ‘it’s just makeup — don’t stress out about it,’” Lee said.
