Ries Launches as Sephora’s First Reusable Travel Bottle Brand – WWD

Travel-friendly beauty — a domain that has long been ripe for development — just garnered one of its most significant wins to date.

Ries, a brand whose name was extracted from the word “toiletries,” has been lassoed by Sephora as the retailer’s first reusable travel bottle partner, and will launch online at sephora.com on Tuesday.

“Ries is built for women and people in the way that we truly travel,” said Ries founder Megan Graham, who was formerly the beauty market director at Vogue. “Historically the bottles in the beauty industry have been built on single-use, cheap, inexpensive virgin plastics — they’re not built for the functionality that Ries provides.”

A member of the 2021 Sephora Accelerate cohort, Ries launched as a direct-to-consumer business in February 2022 with its Essential Travel Bottle, which retails for $18 for the original 3.4-oz. bottle, or $15 for the 1.7-oz. version.

“We want to turn traveling with toiletries into a more premier experience,” Graham said. “It should feel like a gift and a beautiful thing that you’re doing for yourself, and not just, you know, the burden that it can often be when you’re packing. There shouldn’t be the feeling of, like, I’m half of myself, or that I am an incomplete being just because I am on the move,” continued the founder.

It was Graham’s own long-standing, bereft packing experience that sparked the idea for Ries, which seeks to bring a sustainable and utilitarian approach to on-the-go beauty.

Recalled Graham, “I was working at Vogue and my vanity was almost like this coveted little beauty closet of its own, and yet I was still going through this same situation of shoving my beauty products into little plastic bottles from Duane Reade and writing on them with a Sharpie.”

Ries’ bottles come in a forest green shade called “Escapade,” and consumers can choose from a set of pre-crafted labels to engrave each bottle in accordance with its intended product use at no additional cost.

While Ries’ product portfolio currently consists of the Essential Travel Bottle in its two sizes, Graham hinted that additional colorways and sizes could be on the horizon. She said Sephora is precisely the retail partner she envisioned she would forge the brand’s — and the category’s — next steps with.

“In terms of growth with Sephora, there’s just so much there,” Graham said. “We’re kind of learning together and bringing forth a whole new era of sustainability, reusability and figuring out what that could look like together.”

In addition to being able to purchase individual bottles, consumers can buy Ries bundles such as The Gym Set, The Hair Set and The Skin Set, which each consists of three bottles and starts at $45.

While Graham did not comment on sales expectations, industry sources estimate Ries could do between $1 million and $2 million in its first year on the market.

“It is just a beautiful object that can sit on your shelf with your Frederic Malle and your La Mer and all of these beautiful products, but it can also get thrown in the bag and go with your Cetaphil, too,” said Graham. “She can do it all.”