Plants, Science, Wisdom

Review #19 - Moon Juice 🌜

I need a haircut, I know. Any NYC recs are encouraged.

If you’ve heard the word adaptogen, chances are you have Moon Juice to thank.

Review #19 - Moon Juice 🌜

What Is It

Moon Juice makes adaptogenic supplements, skincare, and foods that “synergistically heal and nourish”. Inspired by a health transformation of her own, Amanda Bacon founded Moon Juice to help others with their lifelong quests for optimal wellbeing.

Their initial products (read: Sex Dust) received their fair share of jade egg adjacent backlash, and while their deeply fascinating ‘Moon Dusts’ are still popular picks from the website, they’ve since forayed into skincare staples and more recognizable supplements. Their top-seller these days is Magnesi-Om, a mineral we could all use more of, and as a known magnesium-head (…), it’s the perfect one for me to review.

BACK STORY!

Moon Juice (1.0) is the epitome of the crunchy hippie archetype. Actually, on second thought, no. Moon Juice defined the crunchy hippie archetype. To understand how impactful this company, and Amanda, was/is, we’re going to have to time travel back to the mid 2010s for a second.

Picture this: your favorite influencer is starting her gut health journey, matcha is now on the menu at all your favorite places, and you can’t go a day without hearing about the need for ‘clean skincare’. If you live in Los Angeles, or, at the very least, are familiar with its social media-enhanced wellness scene, then you know Amanda Chantal Bacon as a pillar of the community.

the cafe, courtesy of Goop’s Health-Conscious LA Guide

She created the company in 2011 as a result of transforming her health by putting an autoimmune condition into remission after being told it wasn’t possible. While decreasing her biological age (whoa) and essentially eliminating her Hashimoto’s symptoms, she embraced “lifestyle, spirit, and traditional wisdom” and studied culinary arts. This led her to open her first Moon Juice café in none other than Venice, California.

Amanda has been deemed a Gwyneth-adjacent ‘lifestyle guru’ by the New York Times, who attempted to equate the products she “peddled” to Alex Jones’s far-right snake oil. I understand, and typically agree with, the case for wellness’s position in horseshoe theory, but this one feels like a cheap shot to me — one that ignores centuries of traditional eastern medicines.

My job here is not to defend lion’s mane-loaded Brain Dust to the general public, although if you ask nicely, maybe I will. What I will say is that Moon Juice brought a ‘fringe’, far-out category of wellness products to the mainstream by making mushrooms — and nootropics (cognitive enhancers) in general — cool and sexy. Moon Juice walked so Alice Mushrooms and Wooden Spoon Herbs and Recess could run. Now, 7/10 American dads have heard of Reishi. I made that stat up, but you believed it.

I bring up their Goopy origins not to reopen an old wound, but to give the context of my first interactions with the brand. They’ve seemingly had a resurgence in the past year or so thanks to their new product offerings and viral “sleepy girl mocktail” recipe, but some of us have been sprinkling ashwagandha in our coffees before it was for ‘hot girls’. Basically, this was a long-winded and sort of pathetic way of saying, I was here first. Before the algorithm could serve me anything, my low-FODMAP teenage self was deeply entrenched in the world of white woman wellness where Moon Juice was the brand on everyone’s minds. It also means I’ve had a front row seat to their inevitable progression.

Since that 2017 NYT magazine profile, they’ve only gotten bigger and their brand has evolved. They entered with an adaptogenic bang, and have since moved towards accessibility (product-wise) to meet consumers where they’re at with offerings like magnesium, electrolyte powders, and moisturizers. So while other brands are finally helping out with the heavy-lifting of mushroom-speak, they’re taking their company to wider audiences, and therefore new heights.

Brand

We’re (mostly) done with dwelling on the past now that the necessary prologue is out of the way. From here on out, I’m talking about modern-day Moon Juice PSC (post-Series C, duh).

One thing that’s remained through this evolution is their personality. They’re fun, irreverent, well-meaning. Maybe I’m conflating the two, but I’d imagine it’s what Amanda is like as a person. The sense of humor, the compassion for their customers, and the deeply-researched knowledge all come through in the tone of voice. While their messaging strategy has naturally matured (This is a good thing: I’m a firm believer that brands should have regular updates like an OS. The world changes, your customers change, and so should you.) their core essence remains the same. BTW, I’m going full spirit junkie mode this time. It feels fitting.

Part of that maturation is the emphasis on efficacy. They’ve always been at the forefront of nutrient absorption, but they’ve since doubled down on it as a differentiation technique, relying on the slogan “The Best Source, Dose, Form™️”. Smart.

They taught me so many things back in the day, one of which being the importance of bioavailability

It’s 2024 and it’s about time we realize that pills aren’t cutting it any more if you actually want to feel something from your supplement. I’m not a health care professional, nor do I want to be, so I’m going to cut this rant here. I highly recommend you google around about liposomal supplements though. Just promise me you’ll pick a peer-reviewed article, please.

A final note on copy. It’s so good. They’re truly experts at high-impact taglines that keep a semblance of fun. Brevity icons.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, contrast in our copy is all the rage

Let’s get visual for a moment. Their photography features a good amount of high contrast, bold maximalism that feels commonplace now, especially among beauty brands, with a healthy dose of moody film shots and ethereal haziness. I don’t do intensive timeline research here — someone’s gotta pay me for that first — but I’ll go on record saying Moon Juice was a creative forerunner in the space.

My praise is palpable already, but they need to be given a lot of credit for what they’ve built, beyond their brand. I’m talking culture. Think about it: it is SO hard to educate an audience on an entire new category. So the fact that they caught attention, maintained it, and adapted to current-day conversations is incredibly impressive. A huge, huge part of it is through social media — Instagram specifically — which brings me to my next section.

Marketing

First let me acknowledge that they’re in a tricky spot with marketing because their brand has so many tentacles to touch on: powders, capsules, snacks, the shops, and skincare. There’s an obvious throughline conceptually, but I’d imagine it makes their content strategy a bit more complicated. Because I live in NY and can’t go to any of their physical cafés (where some very cool collabs are happening), Instagram is the primary medium through which I interface with the brand.

The next sentence that comes out of my mouth is going to be insane, so brace yourself, but I genuinely love their Instagram presence. And knowing that Alivia is the vision holder here, well, as the kids say — the math is mathing.

Speaking as someone whose built out quite a few of these things, it’s no surprise why so many brands I’ve worked with cite it as ‘insta inspo’, not unlike Ghia. At its core, their Instagram content is an extension of their brand identity. Like I said earlier: fun, irreverent, well-meaning. Sounds like a description for a Netflix-produced buddy comedy.

It’s a great balance of educational content — in the form of infographics, reels, and QUALITY captions (more on that in a sec) — aesthetically pleasing photography, and a secret third thing, which can only be described as fascination/humor/boundary-pushing.

If you scroll through their feed, you’ll see what I mean when I say that it’s clear that they’re having fun with the whole thing. They have a sense of humor (as a brand named Moon Juice should), and it shows. They do memes in the sexiest way possible — an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one. Also, sourced content is inexpensive and, I’ll say it, fun, so now that brands have to be content machines, they leverage Tumblr-esque videos and images in a unique way that adds value, not just for filler crap.

Product aside, I go to Moon Juice’s instagram as a resource. Between their straightforward infographics and expert interview clips, the account is like a library of wellness knowledge. This is a vastly underrated portion of social strategy: giving your followers actually good content that improves their lives instead of just shilling products.

My last and final note about their Instagram. I know what you’re thinking — how much does this girl have to say about a brand’s instagram? Yeah, I don’t know what’s happening here either. Moon Juice is a masterclass in caption writing. They get the point across quickly and effectively, often with a subtle wink. They’re not trying too hard, but they’ve put thought into it. Like I said, brevity icons.

This section accidentally became a weird and unnecessary plug for m*ta, but I want to make sure to give some love to the other great things they’re up to.

• The Expert Series

  • A beautiful way to demonstrate their commitment to education that lives on their blog (SEO win), socials, and email. Basically, they’ll ask what questions their community has about on a topic (sleep, sex, etc.) and use them to direct a conversation between Amanda and an expert. The final product is essentially a free webinar.

• Edible collaborations

  • Not that kind of edible, but I can’t blame you for thinking that way. Unfortunately, I’ll continue to beg for a NYC café, but in the meantime, I’ll admire longingly from afar. A few recent standouts:

  • This smoothie snapped me out of my brat fatigue.

  • A mochi brownie with Organic Oren, the meal delivery that I can’t stop thinking about after Mitzi told me about their mouth-watering sweet potatoes.

  • Not edible, but an actually good giveaway, for once.

Alright time’s up. Now for the big reveal.

Efficacy

I’ve tried a lot, and I mean A LOT, of magnesium supplements.

If you’ve ever listened to an interview with an insta-dietician or a doctor to the stars, you know that magnesium is the one supplement they pretty much recommend across the board. While it is a jack-of-all-trades sort of thing, my entrée to the mineral was mainly sleep support and gut regularity (get over it).

Just what you’ve always wanted, a bird’s eye view of a magnesium drink

In my experience, most capsules do absolutely nothing in both of those departments. So I was particularly intrigued by Moon Juice’s Magnesium Chelate Blend (Gluconate, Acetyl Taurinate and Citrate) which was specifically formulated with “high bioavailability” and “easy absorption into the gut” in mind.

And guess what — it delivers. I’ve been drinking a glass of the berry flavor most nights after my dinner, and it’s now an evening ritual I find myself looking forward to (sorry, forgot to do a corny alert, but I told you I was full spirit junkie today). My sleep is noticeably better on the nights that I drink it, and the same for my digestion.

I will say, at first I was a bit thrown off by the Monk Fruit Extract*, a taste that I usually have a 0 tolerance approach towards, but I was determined to try again. Good thing I listened to my dad’s advice to be persistent, because after a couple days, I forgot it was even there.

Since I always like to keep my finger on the magnesium pulse, I’ve tried a few others since, but every time I come back to Moon Juice. None of the others compare.

*They did recently launch a flavorless, Monk Fruit-free option called naked, but I haven’t tried it yet. I’ve grown to love my berry drink.

Overall Thoughts

Moon Juice has achieved what so many brands strive for: the difficult balance of aspirational and relatable. They were ahead of their time from the jump and they continue to innovate which means they’ve got legend status in my book. Plus, the Magnesi-Om really is all that.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

(the half a point will be added once I can go to a NYC café 😉)

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In Other News…

• Another point for LA: Purely Elizabeth banana bread.

• Tyler the Creator sleeps on linen bedding.

• Just as mascara should be… goopy.

• The official new scent of Tribeca moms.

That’s all for now. If there’s a product you want reviewed or just want to chat, reply to this email. :)