POV Beauty hit $1M in subscription sales by building for retention from day one

POV Beauty is a skin prep brand for people who wear makeup. Founded in 2025 by creator Mikayla Nogueira, the brand makes skincare that prepares the face for makeup — hydrating and protecting the skin barrier so makeup looks better immediately and performs better over time. When POV Beauty launched, they treated retention as a founding decision — not something to bolt on once the data demanded it.

Challenge

POV Beauty launched with something most new brands spend years building: demand. Founder Mikayla Nogueira’s massive social media following meant real purchase intent from day one.

However, strong acquisition driven by social momentum can mask a leaky funnel — customers who come in excited may not build POV into their routine. In the crowded beauty category, keeping those early fans and adopters is essential.

The challenge was compounded by a lack of data. As a new brand, POV had no purchase history, no benchmark cohorts, no playbook of what would work.

“

We didn’t wait until we had a churn problem to solve it. We built for retention early to earn our customers’ loyalty.”

Kathleen CunninghamDirector of Ecommerce + Digital, POV Beauty

Solution

The team activated the retention basics in place first. Cancellation Prevention ran from day one, Failed Payment Recovery caught passive churn, and the team added Checkout Upsell once subscriber volume supported it.

From there, the team ran deliberate experiments to both test hypotheses and collect information about their customers at a rapid pace. 

One program that has shown strong success is their gifted minis program designed around a specific insight about POV’s subscriber behavior: if the team could keep a subscriber through three orders, that subscriber was likely retained long-term.

The gifted minis program has two levers. First, a free product sample with a subscriber’s first recurring order, giving customers a reason to stay for their second shipment and introducing them to complementary products. Second, any subscriber who entered the cancellation flow between their second and third orders was offered a free mini of one of the brand’s best sellers, Whip It, in place of a discount, allowing POV to keep the subscriber without training them to expect a lower price.

“

If we can keep a subscriber for three orders, we really know we’ve got them for life. They have seen the benefits. They’ve fallen in love with the products.”

Kathleen CunninghamDirector of Ecommerce + Digital, POV Beauty

Results

The bet on retention paid off. In their first year, POV Beauty crossed $1M in subscription sales. Churn fell 54% over the same period, even as the subscriber base grew.

This is the result of a team building a retention-first program: activating the foundations, running deliberate experiments, learning what their subscribers find valuable, and building programs that fit the brand. Each improvement compounded.

The Recharge team was a consistent part of that process. Weekly strategy sessions gave POV Beauty access to benchmarks built around their specific category and growth stage, so decisions about where to push and where to hold were grounded in relevant context.

Now POV Beauty is launching in every Sephora across the US and Canada. The team sees it as an opportunity. Sephora will drive discovery, and the brand’s DTC experience can offer perks that retail can’t, delivering subscribers a reason to come back. 

“

We need to offer something special on the brand site, and that specialness is going to come through subscriptions. That is going to be our key lever as we grow.”

Kathleen CunninghamDirector of Ecommerce + Digital, POV Beauty