Jules Miller and the morning capsule count that started it all

Take two capsules each morning. Printed on the Pre + Probiotic jar, that direction sums up much of The Nue Co. approach, a short ingredient list at stated amounts, lot paperwork on file, and no added fillers to fill the shell.

Two capsules every morning, used day after day for the long term. That instruction appears on Pre + Probiotic, 60 capsules for 75 dollars, and it gives Half Life a clear entry point with Jules Miller. The amount is stated, the quantity is stated, the intended pattern is stated.

Miller started The Nue Co. in 2017 after several years of IBS in her early twenties. She recalls trying natural and drugstore options that left her feeling worse, then assembling her own pattern around food and a small group of supplements. The company name builds on nue, defined as stripped back or naked, and the first premise stayed narrow. As a rule, she estimated that about half of what filled market supplements was synthetic filler and bulking material, and she wanted formulas made without those extras.

What the line covers now reaches well past gut capsules. The portfolio includes ingestibles, topical magnesium, hair formulas and a large functional fragrance arm built with perfumer Frank Voelkl and houses that include Givaudan and Firmenich. By 2024, after a rebrand built around mood states, fragrance represented 65 percent of revenue. What many readers miss is how much that turn concerned delivery kinetics. Capsules and powders could not offer speed, so Miller moved toward smell, which she frames as a direct path to awareness, memory and mood.

You closed a 25 million dollar fundraise in 2021, entered Sephora that year, released Forest Lungs after COVID and sold three months of inventory in one week. How did that scale test your testing cadence and lot discipline.

My strength in that first year was probably naivety plus inexperience. At that point, and for some time after, little else in my life held weight. Then scale came fast. We entered Sephora in 2021, we closed a 25 million dollar round, and we introduced Forest Lungs after COVID and moved three months of inventory in a week. When volume rises, controls must stay intact. That requires fixed specifications, allocated raw lots, kept retention samples and release only once lab data arrive. It also requires declining a shortcut that might speed shipment. I prefer not to overcomplicate health in a manner that breeds worry. Our products are meant to live across each segment of your day. That functions only when one batch matches the prior one. Forest Lungs drew on the Japanese custom of forest bathing and was assembled through olfactory chemistry. The demand surge tested forecasting, not values. We kept the order unchanged. Source, produce, test, release, record.

Your Magnesium Ease spray combines magnesium chloride with lavender oil and arnica oil for joints and stomach before bed. What can you trace in that bottle, and what is still harder to prove.

Magnesium Ease remains a topical spray, 60 ml for 45 dollars, and it acts as a bestseller that connects fragrance buyers to ingestibles and body care. The panel names magnesium chloride with lavender oil and arnica oil, though absorption data stay thin. Application is to joints and stomach before bed as an evening ritual. What we can follow is mineral origin, lot identity, essential oil vendor and heavy metal assays on the completed batch. Lavender and arnica flow from botanical chains with harvest dates plus distillation or extraction logs. What stays harder to demonstrate, frankly, is complete field level tracking for each minor aroma constituent at every moment, since fragrance and botanical markets combine lots to hit specification. I prefer translating niche practices for wide use over keeping wellness narrow, and I prefer gaining customers through fragrance rather than through supplements alone. Yet the bar remains. When we cannot identify the grower or present the assay, we state that gap, and we continue pursuing the paper.

You started The Nue Co. in 2017 after developing IBS in your early twenties and finding that market supplements left you feeling worse. What did those early labels teach you about fillers and formula quality.

Health always seemed instinctive to me. I was raised in a Colombian household grounded in plant based remedies, I visited the herbalist alongside my mother, and I first learned about vitamin B12 from my grandfather, who worked as a chemist. Once I developed IBS, I devoted substantial time and funds to products that left me feeling worse. As a rule, I calculated that 50 percent of ingredients were synthetic fillers and bulking agents. My grandfather had exposed me to probiotic supplements and shown me that formulation plus ingredient quality determine the outcome. I had been employed in the supplement trade and I observed the shortage of transparency and effectiveness. I sense that I used my entire life collecting lessons for The Nue Co. No available role truly fit me, so I chose to build one. Nue translates as stripped back or naked. That formed the brief. Pure efficacious ingredients at proven dosages, nothing additional to pad the capsule.

You say nue means stripped back or naked, built around pure efficacious ingredients. How does that idea appear in the other ingredients line on a jar like Pre plus Probiotic.

At The Nue Co. the founding rule is to make supplements that avoid harm to people or the planet. Sustainability sits at the core of our work, since we view health as a single linked ecosystem. We merge science and nature through sustainable and clinically proven ingredients to build health products that serve people and the planet. On pack that policy 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 maintain a roster of over 200 prohibited ingredients. Pre + Probiotic was one of our first formulas and it remains a bestseller, so we checked the dose behind the demand. It combines a prebiotic with spore bacteria, which remain dormant until arrival in the small intestine where they become active. Take two capsules daily in the morning for sustained gut health. That appears on the label, and the file behind the batch allows us to support it.

Your brief claims more than half the ingredients are organic or community sourced and that each formula is checked for efficacy, purity and potency. Where exactly does the Pre plus Probiotic material start, and what occurs between harvest and encapsulation.

We select clinically studied and ethically sourced ingredients at proven dosages, and more than half are organic or community sourced. Each lot receives testing for efficacy, purity and potency. For probiotics, the chain carries weight because live organisms react to heat, moisture and shear. Our probiotic blending relies on a special slow blender to preserve bacteria stability. That detail may look minor, yet it determines whether the fill weight inside the capsule aligns with the count on the Supplement Facts panel when you ingest it. The botanical fraction begins on farms listed in our sourcing records, then moves through drying to a defined moisture limit, milling, and extraction where an extract is specified. Extract ratio and standardisation show on the certificate of analysis, where potency should be confirmed. Next the material is blended, encapsulated, and sealed jars are quarantined until third party laboratory values return for heavy metals and microbes. I favor tidy and trial backed ingredients over synthetic fillers and additives, with the amounts stated. Clean, in our usage, must rest on a document behind the term.

You describe probiotic blending in a slow blender that is said to protect stability. Why would blending speed matter for a two capsule morning dose?

Because the capsule must supply the amount stated on the label when you swallow it. Elevated shear generates heat and fractures particles in a manner that may lower viability. A slow blender preserves bacteria stability across the blending operation, then we regulate moisture and fill weight during encapsulation so every capsule contains the target amount. That reflects what my grandfather meant when he taught that formulation and ingredient quality make all the difference. A recipe may appear sound on paper and still shed potency during manufacture if the method proves too forceful. We assay for purity and potency and we archive batch records, so when a buyer asks about a 60 capsule jar, we can reference the lot and the lab page. Our products are intended to sit within each portion of your day and each room of your home. They are meant to register as a pleasure to use, not a chore. The morning serving illustrates it best. Two capsules, consistent hour, consistent glass of water, no tangled stack.

In 2019 you launched Functional Fragrance direct to consumer with perfumer Frank Voelkl, expected it to do nothing, and watched a small order sell out before Black Friday. What did that result teach you about smell as a delivery system.

When we first introduced functional fragrance, I anticipated zero response. The year was 2019. We sold direct to consumer. Many mentors and investors advised me that discussing stress or mental health made no sense because those topics sat outside wellness. Capsules, powders and tinctures failed to give the rapid onset we sought, so we looked elsewhere. That led us to the olfactory system, which functions essentially as the highway to your brain. The debut scent was warm, smoky, fresh and spicy, created with Frank Voelkl, intended to calm the nervous system. Application is to pulse points before stressful moments alongside slow breathing. It sold out. That result showed us that people sought instruments for stress and sleep and mood that slot into a day, not another regimen to oversee. Although our fragrances place function first, I wanted them to endure as icons. Fragrance later expanded to 65 percent of revenue following our 2024 rebrand around six mood states and eight fragrances, and in 2025 we aligned with Ulta Beauty as exclusive retailer focused on fragrance.

I would prefer clean and clinically proven ingredients to synthetic fillers and additives.

Jules Miller

You work with Givaudan and Firmenich and you reject phthalates, nitromusks, polycyclic musks, parabens and synthetic fixatives in fragrance. What does that refuse list alter at the compounding bench?

It alters the palette plus the file. We compose fragrances with Givaudan and Firmenich and world class perfumers, and we decline phthalates, nitromusks, polycyclic musks, parabens and synthetic fixatives. Those inputs often provide tenacity and lift, so in their absence the perfumer must reconstruct structure from alternate aroma materials and evaluate stability across the 50 ml and 10 ml presentations. Functional Fragrance sells at 125 dollars for 50 ml and 38 dollars for 10 ml. First Milk, Us, Good Spirits and the rest sell in matching sizes, which makes label comparison easier. Every version carries a stated mood intention on its page, and ingredient disclosure adheres to cosmetic rules. I founded The Nue Co. to circulate that viewpoint, guiding people to connect with their bodies via products and rituals that prove both beautiful and effective. In fragrance terms that calls for a scent worth wearing, with an identified perfumer, an identified house, and a formula record that logs refusals as well as inclusions.

You often say that health is an ecosystem and you speak about whole body health. For a careful buyer reading Supplement Facts, what should they check on your labels to judge that claim.

Start with the Supplement Facts panel, then inspect the other ingredients line. Seek the amount of each active, the capsule quantity, and the use directions. Pre + Probiotic directs two capsules each morning for long term gut health, a claim we measured against its trial. Debloat Plus offers 60 capsules for 55 dollars with digestive enzymes and listed actives to audit. Growth Phase offers 90 capsules for 65 dollars with daily use for 90 days inside a 360 hair approach. Then note the absences. We decline artificial colors, flavors, fillers, GMO ingredients, refined sugars and preservatives in ingestibles, plus over 200 banned ingredients across the range. I hold that we should join science and sensibility through products that support the physical and emotional body. Support remains the correct term. The label discloses capsule contents, quantities, administration, and refusals. The rest is routine, sleep, food, movement, the variables that often outlast any single scoop. Health forms an ecosystem. Take great care. That code is The Nue Co.de, and the practice of feeling well, stated plainly.

Closing note from the desk

What remains after this exchange is Miller comfort with numbers. She cites a dose, a quantity, a perfumer, a house, a blender speed decision, a refusal list. The chain is not vague. It covers farms and distillation dates, ratios on a certificate, a slow blender that guards viability, a laboratory hold prior to release, a lot code connecting each element.

The Nue Co. aimed to rework the link with health by stripping what was unneeded and declaring what stayed. Stripped back or naked, to use her phrase, which is a fine aim if the dose sheet stays complete. The capsule, the spray, the scent, all must earn their place on the label.

Product spotlight

Pre plus Probiotic, 75 dollars for 60 capsules in a jar. A prebiotic plus probiotic built on spore bacteria, among the earliest formulas and still a bestseller. Take two capsules daily in the morning for long term gut support within a consistent pattern.

Functional Fragrance sells at 125 dollars for 50 ml and 38 dollars for 10 ml, so we priced it per ml. A warm, smoky, fresh and spicy unisex scent developed with Frank Voelkl and centered on stressful moments. Apply to pulse points while pairing with slow breathing.