Olive & June Hits $125M Revenue, Launches Plant-Based Dip Kit

Olive & June posted roughly $125 million in revenue in 2025, about 35% year-over-year growth, one year after Helen of Troy acquired the nail-care brand for $240 million. Founder and CEO Sarah Gibson Tuttle stayed on to run it — and just shipped one of the hardest products she's ever built.

The Dip Mani System, an at-home dip powder manicure kit, launched October 22. It's plant-based, took 127 iterations with a chemist to perfect, and costs $75 to $100 depending on the number of polish colors. That works out to less than $3 per manicure, Gibson Tuttle notes — versus $30 to $60 for a dip powder manicure at U.S. salons. Results last up to 21 days.

Why dip powder was 'a very hard thing to achieve'

Traditional dip powder uses acrylic, a man-made chemical called PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) that in some cases has caused contact dermatitis, weakened nails and increased infection risk. Gibson Tuttle refused to use it. She had toyed with a dip product for half a decade but said Olive & June would only do it if the formulation could be plant-based.

"That is a very hard thing to achieve," Gibson Tuttle told Entrepreneur. "It is a slightly different texture, and it's a little fluffier, so you have to work with it a little bit differently. We really had to make sure that we could not only have the same efficacy, but hopefully better efficacy, than what we're seeing in the market."

The final five-step system includes an extra "mini step" to handle that fluffier texture. Getting the color right added its own friction: a Pantone shade on paper doesn't read the same across different formulations.

The category matters strategically. "Other brands have done it in smaller scale and haven't been as successful," Gibson Tuttle said. "That's really where we thrive and shine." She calls dip powder "one of the last frontiers of salon-focused products."

From Wall Street to Beverly Hills to 15,000 retail doors

Gibson Tuttle spent a decade on Wall Street before opening the first Olive & June nail salon in Beverly Hills in 2013, aiming to bridge the gap between high-end salons and mom-and-pop shops — the way Drybar did for blowouts at a mid-level price. The salon expanded to Pasadena and Santa Monica, but she spotted a bigger constraint than affordability: time and access.

"There's a limitation on the number of manicurists in the country, and the demand far exceeds what that capacity is for those manicurists," Gibson Tuttle explained. "And so you go to pockets of the country, and there isn't an offering like there is in LA or New York."

Nearly every other beauty category had a real at-home option, she said. Nails didn't. So in 2019 — six years after the first salon opened — Olive & June launched its product line: the patented counterweighted Poppy brush handle, made of rubber silicone for easier application, plus six shades of vegan polish free of seven common toxins.

The retail rollout moved fast:

• A collaborative end cap at Target with another nail brand sold out in 10 days.
• Olive & June then launched 14 SKUs at Target, its exclusive distributor for four years.
• After pandemic shutdowns closed its salons, the brand scaled to more than 15,000 retail doors, including Ulta and Walmart.

The direct-to-consumer channel let Olive & June pair products with education, which Gibson Tuttle calls a critical piece in driving adoption.

Why she sold — and why she stayed

Revenue milestones kept climbing: $50 million, $75 million, closing in on $100 million. Scaling a brand nationally was a first for the leadership team, and the pull of a larger house of brands grew with each milestone.

"We didn't have to sell," Gibson Tuttle said. "We were profitable. It was really our choice to sell at that moment. And it was about if we could find the right partner that will continue to let us run the business, and run it the way we want."

Helen of Troy — owner of Hydroflask and PUR — bought the company in 2024. "We run standalone," Gibson Tuttle said. "Nothing has changed about anything. Other than we have a financial parent company, which helps me sleep better at night. I'm working harder than I've ever worked because we have more retailers than we've ever had."

What consumer dollars told her to build next

Olive & June's product line is now consumer feedback-based, "with a dash of gut." The proof case: press-on nails. Gibson Tuttle resisted the category at first — she considered Olive & June polish-first and associated press-ons with the low-quality versions she grew up with. The DMs and emails kept coming, so she listened.

In 2021 the brand launched Super Stick Mani, a 94% post-consumer recycled press-on collection with twice as many sizes as others on the market. "They have been explosive for the business," Gibson Tuttle said. "Now I'm a press-on stan. I think what's important is that without giving up my voice, I really leaned into the consumers guiding us with their dollars and their voice."

"I truly believe that the consumer leads with their dollars," she added. "They show you what they care about, in every category."

People keep asking about her contract terms — how long she has to stay. Stepping back, she says, is the last thing on her mind, with each new year bringing product innovation and collaboration opportunities. As she put it: "I love the fever and the excitement, and the enthusiasm that our community has."

With a $75 plant-based dip kit undercutting salon prices by 90%, Olive & June is betting the last frontier of salon-quality nails fits on a bathroom counter.