Page 12 - Money - November 2018

you do not want the energy of a walked by our table just to get a
stolen crystal, please trust me!” But good look at her—the second time,
for all of Bacon’s, um, whimsical he announced that he was flying Š(-+)78-2+
eccentricities, her influence proves back to France in a few hours and ;)002)77š
that those who dwell on them are she was welcome to join him. This is
missing the point. not a relatable experience. 'PIZIV FVERHMRK ERH E
In just a few years, the 35-year- Still, cut through the hype, and REXMSR[MHI HIEP [MXL
old has taken Moon Juice, a small you’ll find someone who’s as en- QEOIYT TS[IVLSYWI
chain of juice bars frequented by grossed and dedicated as any CEO. 7ITLSVE LEZI LIPTIH 1SSR
.YMGI WEPIW WO]VSGOIX
L.A.’s patchouli crowd, and made it Investor meetings, presentations,
mainstream. Her “dusts,” designed and cross-country flights now
to dredge over your favorite bever- dictate Bacon’s nine-to-five. She’s at
age (coffee/tea/vanilla mushroom an age that, for many women, is
adaptogenic protein smoothie), now marked by the arrival of crow’s-feet,
have a cult following. They come in gray hair, and all the other cosmetic
six varieties—Beauty, Brain, Sex, considerations that get more and
Power, Spirit, and Dream—and retail more formidable with time. Now that “Realizing how quickly it turned
for about $40 for a jam-size jar at she’s in the business of beauty, it’s no around, with daily practices and
Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, small advantage that she looks things I could find on a dusty shelf at
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, and cafés better than ever. a health food store, is really where
and yoga studios across the country. Bacon points to the “probably the company comes from,” she says.
This past summer, Bacon debuted $500 worth” of Sex Dust she keeps Bacon opened the first Moon
a new line of skin care and supple- on her person. “I’m overworked,” she Juice store in 2011 with help from a
ments, now available at Sephora says, “but I’m not exhausted.” $150,000 “friends and family loan”
stores nationwide. The linchpin Born in New York City, Bacon (her mom, Chantal Bacon, worked as
product, SuperYou, a capsule of started studying medicinal plants fashion icon Betsey Johnson’s CEO
distilled herbs said to promote in 2006, she says, after Western and business partner for nearly 30
wellness and beauty, sold out in the medicine failed to heal a hypothy- years). In the beginning, she sold
first week. roid condition and a myriad of other cold-pressed juices made from the
It’s easy to see why people want health issues she had struggled with ingredients she’d fallen in love with,
whatever Bacon sprinkles into her for years. She was working as a chef but by the end of 2016, Bacon had
matcha (Sex Dust, for the record, in fine dining at the time but decided already opened two more Los
has half a dozen plant ingredients; to switch to a diet of vegetables, Angeles locations, written a cook- OPENING SPREAD:
“organic shatavari root powder” and healthy fats, and adaptogenic book, and launched a host of Moon
“horny goat weed” being two of the herbs—plants that adherents say Juice–branded products: snacks like
six). She’s got a permanent little can help your body deal with “green fermented seed crisps” and
half-smile, baby-blue eyes that physical and emotional stress. “activated turmeric, coconut, and
literally sparkle (it’s infuriating), and After a few months, Bacon says, lime pepitas”; powdered plant
a charm that captivates whomever she felt radically different, and blood protein; and the now infamous dusts. AMY DICKERSON—THE NEW
she happens to be around. Twice work revealed that her hormone Since 2016, Moon Juice product sales
during that first meeting, a tourist levels were back to normal. have doubled, according to the
company.
From a distance, Bacon’s story YORK
has an air of “white girl goes on a
-ŞQ E LYRKV] FYWMRIWWTIVWSR [LS vision quest”; eat, pray, dust, if you
will. Like much of U.S. wellness
WXYQFPIH YTSR XLMW GYPX] MHIE culture, Moon Juice borrows heavily TIMES/REDUX PICTURES
from Eastern traditions, where
%RH - [ERX XS XEOI MX FI]SRH GYPX WXEXYW š plants like ashwagandha have been
used as healing herbs for millennia.

MONE Y. C O M NO VEMBER 2 018