Wellness Brand Moon Juice Has Plenty of Haters -- and Its Founder Is Cool With That
A January chill tunnels through the streets of Manhattan as Amanda Chantal Bacon walks into ABC Kitchen early for lunch with investors, shaking off Los Angeles jet lag and her most recent troll. Before she got on the plane, the 35-year-old founder of Moon Juice says, she spotted a comment on the company Instagram: “This person was cursing, ‘I don’t like your content anymore. I used to buy you; now I don’t. Get your shit together, Amanda Chantal Bacon.’ ”
She’s thinking about it still, but she’s not stuck on it. Bacon is, in the booming parallel universe of alternative medicine–slash-wellness that’s been defined by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, one of the most visible stars outside of Paltrow herself. And she has other things on her mind. Investors to check in with. Stores to visit. Plus, she volunteers, “My boobs are fantastic!” (She’s a radiant four months pregnant.)
As an entrepreneur, Bacon is as offbeat as the herbal supplements her buzzy company makes, a medley of exotic ingredients that have led to $20 million in annual sales, and placements in Sephora, Nordstrom, and Urban Outfitters. For her, talk of trolls, money, and boobs over ginger soup is business as usual—because her success (and celebrity) seems to stem from an ability to combine retail savvy with unabashed oversharing.
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Sitting at lunch, cozied up in a baggy, faux-mothy sweater that brings out her lapis eyes, Bacon shows a confidence honed from years of blowing off haters. One might even say she’s fed them fodder. This is a founder who describes her company as “a cosmic beacon.” She drops astrological references (“It’s probably my Scorpio rising”) as easily as she talks capitalization and revenue. Her face appears constantly in the press. Her wedding cake (baked with Sex Dust, one of her products) became a news story. When someone stole a giant pink crystal from one of her stores, she begged for its return on Instagram and chided: “You do not want the energy of a stolen crystal, please
