What Jules Miller learned from restless nights with IBS

Sixty five percent. That share of revenue coming from fragrance by 2024 tells you where The Nue Co. nights now live, not only in a jar of capsules but in scent, in spray, in the small rituals before lights out.

Sixty five percent of revenue from fragrance after the 2024 rebrand. That number is a good place to begin an evening read with Jules Miller, because it points to the hour before bed. The Nue Co. started in 2017 with gut capsules, 60 capsules for 75 dollars, two taken in the morning. It grew into topical magnesium, hair formulas and scent made with perfumer Frank Voelkl and houses including Givaudan and Firmenich. Miller manages IBS since her early twenties and built the line from her own routine of diet and a short list of supplements.

The brand name comes from nue, meaning stripped back or naked. The early rule was plain. She found around half of market supplement contents were synthetic fillers and bulking agents, and she wanted formulas without them. What changed later was delivery. Capsules and powders could not offer immediacy, so she turned to smell, which she describes as a direct route to awareness, memory and mood. For a reader on the sofa after dinner, lamp on, phone in hand, that shift matters. It moves the brand from morning dose to nightstand.

You talk about blending probiotics gently in a slow blender to keep them stable through the night. Why does a slow blend matter for a two capsule dose taken in the morning.

What has to hold is the label at the moment you swallow. High shear makes heat and fractures particles in a way that may lower viability. A slow blender guards bacteria stability through that step, then we manage moisture and fill weight during encapsulation so each capsule keeps its intended amount. That is what my grandfather meant when he taught me that formulation and ingredient quality change everything. A blend can read correctly on paper and still lose strength in the factory if the method is too harsh. We check purity and potency and we hold batch records, so when someone asks about a jar of 60 capsules we can point to the lot and the lab sheet. Our range is made to live through the day and around the home. It should feel pleasant to reach for, not heavy. The morning pair shows it best. Two capsules, same hour, same glass of water, no complex pile.

In 2019 you started Functional Fragrance direct to consumer with perfumer Frank Voelkl, thought it would do little, and saw a small order sell out before Black Friday. What did that evening teach you about scent as a soft delivery system.

When we first released functional fragrance I assumed it would do almost nothing. It was 2019. We sold direct to consumer. Many mentors and investors said stress or mental health did not belong in wellness. Capsules, powders and tinctures could not give the immediacy we sought. So we turned to the olfactory system, which is basically the highway to your brain. The debut scent was warm, smoky, fresh and spicy, created with Frank Voelkl, meant to settle the nervous system. You mist pulse points before tense moments and breathe slowly. It sold out. That showed us people wanted support for stress and sleep and mood that slipped into a day, not one more schedule to keep. Though our scents put function first, I wanted them to last as icons. In the quiet of night our fragrance had grown to 65 percent of revenue after our 2024 rebrand around six mood states and eight fragrances, and in 2025 we joined Ulta Beauty as exclusive retailer focused on fragrance.

You started The Nue Co. in 2017 after IBS arrived in your early twenties and common supplements left you feeling worse in the evenings. What did those early labels quietly show you about fillers and formula quality.

Wellness always seemed instinctive to me. I was raised in a Colombian home grounded in plant based healing, I visited the herbalist beside my mother, and I first heard about vitamin B12 from my grandfather, who worked as a chemist. When IBS arrived, I spent much time and money on goods that left me feeling worse. Looking back softly, as a rule I saw that 50 percent of ingredients were synthetic fillers and bulking agents. My grandfather had shown me probiotic supplements and taught me that formulation and ingredient quality decide the outcome. I had been employed in the supplement trade and I noticed the lack of transparency and effectiveness. I feel I had gathered lessons all my life for The Nue Co. No role truly suited me, so I chose to make one. Nue means bare or naked in feeling. That stayed the brief. Pure efficacious ingredients at proven dosages, nothing extra to fill the capsule.

You say nue means bare or naked, grounded in pure ingredients that truly work. How does that thought appear in the other ingredients line on a jar like Pre plus Probiotic.

At The Nue Co. our first rule is to make supplements that harm neither people nor the planet. Sustainability sits at the center of our work, because health looks like one linked ecosystem. We join science and nature through sustainable and clinically proven ingredients to craft goods that serve people and the planet. On the label that stance means we reject artificial colors, flavors, fillers, GMO ingredients, refined sugars and preservatives in ingestibles. We also reject toxic preservatives, additives, flavourings and sweeteners, and we keep a list of more than 200 banned ingredients. Pre + Probiotic ranked among our earliest goods and remains a bestseller. It joins a prebiotic with spore bacteria, which rest dormant until they arrive in the small intestine where they activate. Take two capsules each morning for steady gut care over time. The label carries that, and batch paperwork behind it allows us to support it.

Your Magnesium Ease spray blends magnesium chloride with lavender oil and arnica oil for joints and belly before sleep. What can you trace inside that bottle, and what stays harder to prove.

Magnesium Ease is a topical spray, 60 ml for 45 dollars, and it is a bestseller that leads fragrance buyers toward ingestibles and body care. The label lists magnesium chloride with lavender oil and arnica oil. You mist joints and stomach before bed as a nightly ritual. What we can follow is the mineral origin, the lot, the essential oil supplier and the heavy metals testing on the finished batch. Lavender and arnica travel from plant chains with harvest dates and distillation or extraction records. What stays harder to prove, candidly, is complete field tracing for each minor aroma part at every moment, because fragrance and botanical markets mix lots to hit specification. I would rather bring niche rituals to many people than leave wellness exclusive, and I would rather welcome customers through fragrance than through supplements alone. Yet the bar holds. When we cannot name the grower or present the test, we state it, and we keep seeking the paper.

Your brief notes that over half of ingredients are organic or community sourced and formulas are checked for efficacy, purity and potency. Where does the Pre plus Probiotic material begin, and what happens between harvest and capsule.

For gentle evenings we select clinically studied and ethically sourced ingredients at proven dosages, and more than half are organic or community sourced. Before sleep settles in, each lot is checked for efficacy, purity and potency. In the lamplight, for probiotics the chain counts because living organisms react to heat, moisture and shear. For softer evenings our probiotic blending relies on a special slow blender to guard bacteria stability. That detail seems minor, yet it determines whether fill weight in the capsule aligns with the count on the Supplement Facts panel when you take it. The plant share begins on farms listed in our sourcing files, then it is dried to a fixed moisture specification, milled, and extracted when an extract is needed. By lamplight extract ratio and standardisation appear on the certificate of analysis. Then the material is blended, encapsulated, and sealed jars wait until third party lab results return for heavy metals and microbes. As I wind down I prefer clean and clinically proven ingredients over synthetic fillers and additives. Clean, in our use, must point to a paper behind the term.

You work with Givaudan and Firmenich and you turn away phthalates, nitromusks, polycyclic musks, parabens and synthetic fixatives in scent. What does that quiet refusal change at the blending bench.

In quiet air it alters the palette and the files. For restful nights we craft fragrances with Givaudan and Firmenich and world class perfumers, and we decline phthalates, nitromusks, polycyclic musks, parabens and synthetic fixatives. Those agents often supply tenacity and lift, so without them the perfumer must rebuild form with other aroma materials and check stability in 50 ml and 10 ml formats. For bedside rituals Functional Fragrance costs 125 dollars for 50 ml and 38 dollars for 10 ml. First Milk, Us, Good Spirits and the rest use those sizes. Each holds a stated mood intention on its page, and ingredient listing meets cosmetic rules. I founded The Nue Co. to share that view, guiding people to meet their bodies through goods and rituals that feel both beautiful and effective. In scent that means a perfume you enjoy wearing, with a credited perfumer, a credited house, and a formula record that notes what was left out as well as what went in.

You mist pulse points before tense moments while breathing slowly.

Jules Miller

You closed a 25 million dollar raise in 2021, entered Sephora that year, released Forest Lungs after COVID and sold three months of stock in a week. How did that growth test your testing and your lot care.

I believe my strength in year one was naivety plus little experience. During that period, and for a good while after, nothing else in my life counted. Then scale came fast. We entered Sephora in 2021, we closed a 25 million dollar fundraise, and we introduced Forest Lungs after COVID and sold three months of stock in a week. When volume leaps, order must stay. That requires locked specifications, held raw lots, kept samples and release only once lab results arrive. It also requires refusing a shortcut that might allow faster dispatch. I prefer not to over engineer health in a way that breeds worry. Our goods are made to sit within each portion of your day. That pattern only holds when every batch equals the prior one. Forest Lungs drew on the Japanese ritual of forest bathing and was shaped through olfactory chemistry. The surge tested planning, not values. We kept the order. Source, make, test, release, document.

You often say health is an ecosystem and you speak of whole body care. For a careful buyer reading Supplement Facts, what should they notice on your labels to weigh that promise.

Begin with the Supplement Facts panel, then the other ingredients line. Seek the dose of each active, the capsule count, and the directions. For slow mornings after restful nights Pre plus Probiotic lists two capsules daily in the morning for long term gut health. To ease into evening Debloat Plus lists 60 capsules for 55 dollars with digestive enzymes and stated actives. For patient nighttime care Growth Phase lists 90 capsules for 65 dollars with daily use for 90 days as part of a 360 hair approach. Then notice what is absent. We decline artificial colors, flavors, fillers, GMO ingredients, refined sugars and preservatives in ingestibles, plus more than 200 banned ingredients across the line. I hold that we should join science and sensibility with goods that support the physical and emotional body. Support is the correct term. The label states what sits in the capsule, the amount, the way to take it, and what we declined. The remainder is rhythm, sleep, food, movement. Health is an ecosystem. Take great care. That remains our code, The Nue Co.de, and the art of feeling well, stated simply.

Closing note from the desk

For the night reader, Miller care with detail feels steadying. She cites a dose and a count, a perfumer and a house, a blender choice, a refusal list. The chain never floats. It is farms and distillation dates, extract ratios on a certificate, a slow blender guarding viability, a lab hold prior to release, a lot code tying it together.

The Nue Co. began by rethinking the link with health through removing what was surplus and naming what stayed. Stripped back or naked, as she puts it. Capsule, spray, scent, all are asked to earn their lines on the label, and to sit quietly in a real evening rather than a flawless one.

Product spotlight

For your nightstand Pre plus Probiotic, 75 dollars for 60 capsules in a jar. A prebiotic plus probiotic with spore bacteria, among the earliest formulas and still a bestseller. Take two capsules daily in the morning for long term gut support within a stable rhythm.

For a quiet night in, Functional Fragrance is 125 dollars for 50 ml and 38 dollars for 10 ml. A warm, smoky, fresh and spicy unisex scent created with Frank Voelkl for tense moments. Mist pulse points and combine with slow breathing.