How Scarlet By RedDrop Rebranded, Landed In Ulta Stores, And Hit $15M In Overall Revenue – AfroTech

Scarlet by RedDrop founders Monica Williams and Dana Roberts are getting candid about rebranding their shared venture and their long-term aspirations.

The duo created the puberty care brand that launched in 2019 as RedDrop, with a goal of desexualizing periods. The company rebranded to Scarlet by RedDrop in 2025 as it scaled from catering to the first period and tweens to support early teens in elementary, middle, and high school with an increased focus on education. This coincided with its launch in more than 400 Ulta Beauty stores and on ulta.com, making it the retailer’s only puberty-focused care brand, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™.

The rebrand occurred with the assistance of a team of “powerhouses” and was completed in five months, a timeline described by Williams as “very close to impossible.”

“I guess the virtue of ignorance is I didn’t know that at the time,” she told AFROTECH™ in an interview.

Roberts commented: “It was really an emotional kind of shift for us. We had been RedDrop, we had really just started to kinda cement ourselves in that name, in that brand. Then, to change it all in less than five months. And to be fair, we knew we had to evolve, but to not evolve kind of on our own timing, it made it a little more difficult and a little more emotional because you’re having to do that based on this opportunity.”

She added, “As women and especially as Black women, and in this category, the category that we’re creating, that doesn’t come around a lot. So it’s like you don’t have a choice because you’re doing this for yourself, but you’re really also doing it especially for the Black women founders that are gonna come behind us and hopefully have access to these opportunities from it.”

The founders say the brand has reduced its SKUs from 60 to 20 at Ulta and across the board and believe narrowing the assortment further, potentially to 10 to 15, would put them in a stronger position, according to market data.

While Ulta Beauty emphasizes consistent “newness,” they note that this pace can be too aggressive for a brand of their size and with their products. The founders feel streamlining their offerings is currently wise for their internal goals in retail.

“[Ulta is] used to dealing with makeup companies, you need new colors and new spring summer palettes … All those things kind of change, and I think for us, actually being consistent will be more powerful,” Williams mentioned to AFROTECH™.

Roberts added: “What does that newness look like while trying to stay true to serving girls with the products that they are responding to that they really like? I don’t know how we continuously evolve in newness for them, but we’re trying to do our best.”

The founders also make it clear they are grateful for the opportunity at the retailer and understand it signals to young girls that health and wellness should be seen as holistic. They emphasize that having period care available alongside everyday beauty products reinforces the idea that every part of the body deserves attention, helping normalize these conversations for tweens, teens, and their caretakers.

“We’re forever grateful for that, and they’re trying to elevate this category because they recognize how important it is,” Roberts said.

Scarlet by RedDrop has reached millions of teens and tweens since launch and has achieved $15 million in lifetime revenue, with 40% year-over-year growth in 2025, according to information shared with AFROTECH™.  Direct-to-consumer remains the primary revenue source with a subscription model as well that delivers period care on schedule monthly. The company also has two major B2B channels delivering products to K-12 schools. Scarlet by RedDrop was recently recognized on Fast Company’s 2026 Most Innovative Companies list as well.

“We’re coming to the realization that we are really creating a category, like we used to say back in the day, ‘Oh, we’re unicorns.’ It’s really hard to do that…,” Roberts said. “We’re really coming into our own and realizing that we are the leader, the originator of this category. We have been really intentional and just purposeful about saying, ‘We’re gonna take care of girls during this time period, and it’s really important to us, and we’re gonna do all the hard work to make sure it happens.’”

As they think about innovation beyond physical products, the founders also see opportunity in digital solutions, which could take the form of a non-invasive app that integrates AI to help users ask questions and access information, particularly for those who may not have an open dialogue with a parent or caregiver about menstrual health.

The founders are also anchored by more than $1.8 million in funding (at the time of this writing). As AFROTECH™ previously told you, they received $1 million through Pharrell Williams’ nonprofit, Black Ambition, in 2024.

The ultimate return, they hope, will come in the form of an acquisition of the brand they have built from the ground up. They want it to remain a trusted one for generations to come.

“We make no apologies that we want to exit,” Roberts said.

Looking ahead, the founders want to push further into retail, as it will also be more attractive to investors, with their first national mass-retail expansion projected for May 2026.

“Growing in retail is really logical for them. So that’s part of the big push,” Williams said.