DTC Podcast Ep 584 Summary

Episode Title: Building in Public: Inspecting Bushbalm’s 70% Growth via Retail & the Pro Channel
Date: February 9, 2026
Guest: David Gaylord, CEO of Bushbalm
Host: Eric Dyck (DTC Newsletter and Podcast)

Episode Overview

This episode spotlights the impressive 70% year-over-year growth of Bushbalm, a direct-to-consumer and retail brand focused on personal care for waxing and hair removal. CEO David Gaylord returns for his third interview to share how Bushbalm has scaled by doubling down on retail, particularly through a focused partnership with Ulta Beauty, and by leveraging the “pro channel”—a robust network of waxing salons. The discussion dives into retail strategy, category leadership, new product development, marketing shifts, and fostering a community-first approach for professionals.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Record Growth and Business Evolution

• Bushbalm’s 2025 Success: 70% YoY growth off a strong base, 10% EBITDA margin, and expansion to over 52 employees.

  “We grew 70% on a pretty good base... Our fastest growing year in three or four years and we grew at 10% EBITDA."
  — David Gaylord (00:38, 36:20)

• Retail-Centric Shift: After early DTC and Amazon traction, retail—with Ulta Beauty as the flagship partner—now dominates revenue streams.

  “We’re by far a much larger retail oriented company now... In person is now like the core of everything Bushbalm does.”
  — David (02:15)

Doubling Down on Ulta and Pro Channel

• Focused Retail Strategy: Bushbalm prioritizes deep partnerships with one major retailer per country (e.g., Ulta in the US, Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada), resisting the urge to diversify prematurely.

  “The more you focus on one retailer, the better it's going to do... A lot of brands... accidentally spread too thin and none of them do well. You want to land a whale and then really focus.”
  — David (06:42, 07:26)

• Trade Shows & Relationship Building: Frequent participation in pro-focused and retail trade shows, but with a long-term relationship-building approach, not just deal-chasing.

  “We're not at Expo West to sign deals tomorrow, but to build relationships... for when it might make sense to go to another retailer.”
  — David (05:47)

• Classic Trade Marketing Overhaul: Heavy investment in in-store displays (shelf risers, end caps, PDQs), which have a major impact on sales; $200K spent on shelf risers in 2025.

  “The number one place you need to spend money first is on your display—because 100% of people come into Ulta are going to go there and look at it... The second place is Ulta’s promotional calendar—if you can be part of it, that's how you win.”
  — David (09:06)

The Pro Channel: Community-First Distribution

• Professional Channel as a Community: More than distribution—Bushbalm invests in education, live demos, and creating value for estheticians and salon professionals.

  “We do a ton of education now—live wax demos, pro tips. There’s so much we give back... word of mouth is really taking us to a new level.”
  — David (03:00)

• Massive Grassroots Network: Over 18,000 independent salons carry Bushbalm; most accounts are small and entrepreneurial rather than national chains.

  “Most of them are one to three locations. So it's like super homegrown, awesome people. They're typically pure entrepreneurs.”
  — David (32:47)

• Exclusivity Fuels Value: Some new product launches, like hypochlorous acid spray (“Sass Spray”), are exclusive to pros, not available at retail or DTC, strengthening the pro relationship.

  “The advantage is like all those other brands... they don't have this distribution network we have. We may as well use that to our advantage and also give an advantage to our pros.”
  — David (19:44)

Product Development & Category Leadership

• Creating & Rewiring a Category: Bushbalm pioneered aftercare and skincare for waxing, facing little competition in retail.

  “We’re kind of one of the only players that makes skin care that's really good. We've got routines for it. Aftercare is focused, very niche, but we own a lot of it at Ulta now.”
  — David (04:31)

• Rapid New Product Launches: Expecting to launch 18 new products in 2026, with active limited editions and permanent SKUs.

  “This year, we'll launch like 18 new products... At least 10 are limited editions, plus a few accessories, and 4 full-time SKUs.”
  — David (17:06)

Marketing: From DTC Ads to Retail & Community

• Meta Ads and DTC: DTC up 25% (2025), but other channels are driving most growth. Retention optimization and creative cycling remain challenging, but focus has shifted more to pro and retail.

  “Our focus is how do we make the flywheel work better—getting people from waxing salons to then go into an Ulta or D2C and purchase.”
  — David (12:34)

• Reduced Paid Spend for Efficiency: Marketing spend as a percentage of revenue has dropped from 40% to 21%, due to organic growth, word-of-mouth, and brand-building.

  “We don't have to spend nearly as much to acquire customers... just because the program, the system, the revenue we have is much more sustainable.”
  — David (36:20)

• Brand Marketing, Not Just DR: Emphasis shifting to brand/story-driven content and education over pure direct response.

  “We're less about old school direct response ads. We're trying to change it more into brand ads, which is a different endeavor.”
  — David (28:33)

Scent and Limited Editions—A Growth Lever

• Scent Trend: Inspired by market hits (e.g., Sol de Janeiro), Bushbalm has embraced fragrance—with regular limited edition launches, appealing to both retail and DTC.

  “Scent became a huge boom in body care... sense always been in the Bushbalm DNA... We're doing our first ever limited edition with three different products, different formats.”
  — David (23:00)

Loyalty, Data, and Team Expansion

• Data & Product Development Investments: In-house data team automated reporting and enabled faster, more focused product dev.

  “That's been huge... all the graphs just update and... we've really grown our product development team.”
  — David (16:37)

• Pro Loyalty Program: Successful rollout with plans for more personalization and high-value rewards.

  “If you're a Pro, you spend $500,000 at Bush Balm... We should do something cool for you... We're figuring that kind of stuff out for the next few years.”
  — David (33:14)

Memorable Quotes and Moments

• On Not Chasing Retailers:

  “It’s so easy to accidentally be like, oh, we signed up with this retailer, that retailer and all of a sudden you have seven retailers and none of them do well.”
  — David (06:42)

• On Category Baggage:

  “Shaving and hair removal... a category that has a lot of baggage. Number one—waxing is super painful... Number two—shaving is a chore... Number three—hair removal creams are toxic. Number four—razor burn is just part of it.”
  — David (25:11)

• On Community and Professional Channel:

  “We don’t use distributors... 18,000 accounts, most of them are one to three locations. Super homegrown, awesome people. They're typically pure entrepreneurs.”
  — David (32:47)

• On Business Mindset:

  “Every year I feel like our market, our TAM is way bigger... We feel every year we're like, oh my God, we're still so small and there's so much room to go.”
  — David (34:39)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Bushbalm’s Growth and Retail Shift — 00:38-02:36
• Pro Channel & Word-of-Mouth Strategy — 03:00-03:43
• Defining Retail vs. Pro — 03:49-04:22
• Retail Strategy Focus (Ulta) — 06:37-07:26
• Investing in Retail Displays & Trade Marketing — 09:04-10:29
• Branding and PDQ Displays — 11:10-12:31
• DTC & Meta Ads Performance — 12:31-13:41
• Negotiating with Ulta & Promotional Calendar — 14:21-15:35
• Team Growth & Product Development — 16:37-17:41
• Hypochlorous Acid Spray Launch — 17:41-20:34
• Category Rewiring and Brand Positioning — 25:11-26:48
• Pro Community and Loyalty — 33:14-34:24
• Amazon as a Channel — 38:36-39:14

Conclusion

In this highly tactical and candid episode, David Gaylord offers an inside look at Bushbalm’s scale-up ethos—staying disciplined with retail expansion, betting big on the professional community, relentlessly refining the product assortment, and making every channel work synergistically. Bushbalm’s evolution is a study in product category leadership, operational focus, and building in public, with an eye set firmly on sustainable, profitable growth.

“We grew 70% on a pretty good base... Our fastest growing year... we're really starting to build the engine for profit.”
— David Gaylord (00:38, 36:20)

Follow David on LinkedIn for more, and subscribe to the DTC newsletter for further insights.