For the Wellness Briefing, Glossy sat down with Ritual’s CEO, Katerina Schneider, and SVP of science and innovation, Dr. Mastaneh Sharafi, to learn about the brand’s entrance into perimenopause care, which includes two new products, an omnichannel marketing campaign and its first celebrity spokesperson.
Additionally, Target’s executive shuffle continues, a new peptide platform from a former Meta employee takes on $20 million in funding, and a new consumer study sheds light on fatigue around health tracking apps.
Ritual pushes into perimenopause care as it ages with its existing customer base
Ritual, the 10-year-old supplement company built around a traceable supply chain and science-backed formulations, is launching its first new product category in six years as it pushes into the perimenopause space.
“We’ve amassed millions of customers over the last decade, and now many of them who were pregnant with us are now entering this new life stage,” Ritual CEO and founder Katerina Schneider told Glossy. “We are seeing that 40% of our customers are now also entering perimenopause.”
In many ways, Schneider is a proxy for Ritual’s customers. “We started in pregnancy [supplements] because that’s what I was going through, and then postpartum, and now I’m also entering perimenopause,” she said.
Perimenopause, the hormonal precursor to menopause that can last a decade, has received new attention in the past few years as women’s health takes a front seat in popular culture. And now, “people are looking for a brand to be an authority when it comes to education in this space, but also products that lead with safety and efficacy,” Schneider told Glossy.
It’s part of a larger shift in women’s health care that saw the removal of “black box” warning labels on hormone replacement therapy. Imposed in 2003, “the warnings cautioned against risks of cardiovascular disease, stroke, breast cancer and probable dementia in postmenopausal women aged 50–79 years using oral [estrogen] for replacement therapy,” according to NIH. After closer examination, the warnings were removed in November of 2025, which ushered in an ongoing conversation about perimenopause and menopause care options.
“It’s been exciting to see the rise of HRT, but [we want to provide] other options for women seeking solutions that are non-hormone-based,” Schneider said.
Ritual’s push into perimenopause care will be spaced out over two weeks and includes two new products and an omnichannel marketing campaign, including a TV spot created by agency Giant Spoon starring the brand’s first celebrity spokesperson, who will be officially announced October 1.
As previously reported by Glossy, Ritual’s brand mission includes advocating for better safety and efficacy of supplements, which are widely thought to be underregulated in the U.S.
Ritual’s SVP of science and innovation, Dr. Mastaneh Sharafi, told Glossy that they considered only a small handful of ingredients for the new formula, called Perimenopause Health Hormone Balance Support. “There are not many choices, actually, when it comes to perimenopause ingredients that have clinical evidence,” Dr. Sharafi told Glossy.
Released Tuesday, the new formula includes shatavari extract, DIM, vitamin B6 and evening primrose oil. The supplement comes in a vanilla-scented capsule and will retail for $39 per month.
Dr. Sharafi told Glossy that, on average, perimenopause starts at around 45-47, but can start early in the 30s or late in the 50s, so Ritual designed the new supplement for women over 40 or those in perimenopause.
“For early perimenopause, the symptoms women are reporting most are mood and sleep issues, and then later, it’s hot flashes at night,” she said. The cocktail of ingredients she selected works for these symptoms, she told Glossy. Dr. Sharafi is currently writing a proposal to run a clinical trial for the supplement.
The campaign to support the launch, called “Welcome to peri-dise,” was meant to be evocative, Schneider told Glossy. “We wanted to add a little bit of levity and fun, and a wink,” she said. The soon-to-be-announced celeb face is, as you might expect, also in perimenopause.
Perimenopause- and menopause-focused categories include CPG companies selling personal care and skin care, like Stripes, Playground, Lola, and Tabu, and telehealth darlings like Wisp, Hers, Midi Health and Musley.
“There’s this beautiful overlap of life stages where women can be in perimenopause at as early as 38, sometimes even earlier, but also having children in their 40s,” Schneider said. “It’s exactly what our customer is going through, and we want to serve their needs.”
Executive moves:
- Jennifer Ryu is the new chief financial officer of Xponential Fitness, Inc., the Southern California-based parent company to boutique fitness concepts like Club Pilates, YogaSix, Pure Barre and StretchLab. She joins the company after seven years at RGP, a publicly traded professional services firm. She replaces interim CFO Robert Julian.
- Mark Weinstein is the new chief marketing and guest experience officer at Target. He joins the company after 16 years at Hilton, where he most recently served as chief marketing officer and head of luxury brands. “I’m joining Target now at this moment in its storied history not only because of where it’s been, but because I genuinely believe our best chapter is yet to come. That we have stories to tell and experiences to create that will shape culture and spark conversation,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn. Lisa Roath, EVP and COO, held the CMO role from 2023 to 2025. The shift is part of a larger executive reshuffling by Michael Fiddelke, who took on the CEO role in February.
News to know:
- Speaking of hospitality juggernaut Hilton, the 101-year-old brand is doubling down on wellness through an expansion of its partnership with ResortPass. “Hilton has long been a leader in spa and wellness innovation,” Jessica Shea, Hilton Americas VP of wellness, retail, and leisure, said in a release. “The success of our ResortPass partnership has encouraged us to expand our offerings and accelerate how we approach wellness across our portfolio. We can now better connect our properties more meaningfully to the communities around them, offering flexible access to world-class wellness experiences.” ResortPass is a 10-year-old booking platform used by hotels and resorts to sell day passes to pools, spas, fitness centers and other amenities.
- It’s been another big week over at Wizard Wellness, the 9-month-old allergy-care disruptor selling in Target, CVS and Walmart. The company launched its first celebrity-fronted campaign with Elisa Donovan, who played Amber in the 1995 film “Clueless,” and announced a $1 million raise from Pave Health Ventures, Vanquish Equity, True Beauty Ventures and Barrier Island Capital.
- System Laboratories, a vertically integrated peptide platform founded earlier this year by a former Meta product manager, has raised $20 million from Patron Fund, Will Ventures, Vine, Courtside, Daybreak, SV Angel and RiverPark Ventures. “This funding signals that we’re building a company that is filling the gap between concierge clinics and research-grade access that no single platform currently owns,” founder and CEO Adam Steinle said in a statement. Steinle worked as a project manager at Meta for four years before launching and selling a speech therapy platform for children called Verse Therapy to Beaming Health in 2024. The funding raise is part of the ongoing race to dominate the emerging peptide market, which gained new legal momentum earlier this year.
Stat of the week:
As sleep scores become status symbols and tech companies push deeper into wellness, half of all American consumers are feeling overwhelmed by their digital health tools, according to a study conducted earlier this year by Talker Research. In a survey of 2,000 Americans ages 18-65, the firm found that the average person uses six different health apps, with 22% having more than 10 health apps. This includes activity trackers, nutrition apps, sleep trackers and more, with the average person spending at least one hour per week manually logging insights. The study found that 53% of respondents feel there are too many health apps to keep track of, 45% say they’ve felt “burnt out” on a weekly basis just from trying to stay on top of inputting information into their apps, and 15% feel exhausted trying to keep up with alerts.
In the headlines:
What we’ve learned from the creator snafus at this year’s US Open [Digiday]. Instacart launches custom AI assistants for retailers, and its own [Modern Retail]. Gold’s Gym debuts Hone, a training app with designs on non-members [ATN]. Lilly’s GLP windfall to fund push into women’s health [Bloomberg]. Stonyfield Organic launches first organic cow spa [Happi]. Apple hid the ‘IPHONE DUO’ trademark for nearly six months. Here’s how. [Gerben IP]. Sleep scores have become a status symbol [WSJ]. When do women really need a bone scan? [NYT]. Apple acquires brain- and muscle-sensing tech [Fitt Insider].
Listen in:
Helmed for the past six years by veteran beauty executive Mary van Praag, 25-year-old mass beauty mainstay Milani Cosmetics is in the midst of meteoric growth. Fresh off reaching just under $250 million in annual sales in 2025, and 20 quarters of growth, van Praag has her sights set on topping $500 million in the next three years. Van Praag discusses her strategy and tactics in this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast.
Need a Glossy recap?
Ulta Beauty doubles down on wellness with the launch of Midi Health. Dedcool is betting on a $1 million NYFW pop-up, OOH blitz to break through the crowded fragrance landscape with new launch. Westman Atelier and ShopMy are taking affiliate shopping IRL. Mary Phillips, Dr. Shereene Idriss and Mara Roszak on translating their expertise into a brand. 2 years after launching bridal, wedding attire now makes up half of Tanner Fletcher’s business. Kendra Scott’s NYFW return is just the start of its fashion ambitions. Pop Newsletter: How Ariana Grande’s R.E.M. Beauty capitalized on the Eternal Sunshine Tour to drive engagement and sales. With LTK integration, Coreli wants to be the homepage for creator commerce. Glossy Podcast: Inside Uniqlo’s US expansion strategy with head of marketing Nico Cessot.
