Ulta Review

Hello Friends!

I had the opportunity to go to Ulta yesterday. From what I understand, it's a fairly wide-spread chain across America, but I had never been before. Here's a little about my experience.

When I first walked in, I was surprised by the size- the store was huge. Then I was surprised by the contents of the store. I expected something like Sephora (high quality makeup, well organized, well lit store, etc.), but what I found was pretty different.

As far as I can tell, Ulta (at least the store that I visited) is divided into fourths- high quality makeup, drugstore/high street makeup, perfume, and hair/nails.

The high quality makeup selection was fairly small, I think, though they had a lot of top notch brands. The set up was very much like Sephora, wide aisles, lighted display shelves, etc. Although the selection of brands they had was limited, they had large selections within the brands that they did have, wider than Sephora carries, in some cases (Tarte, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and Cargo, for example). They also had several that are not easy to find around here, like Butter London and Iman. I was disappointed with the lack of several staple brands though, like Make Up Forever.

The drugstore/high street section was a whole other kettle of fish. In keeping with the drugstore theme, I guess, it looked a lot like a drugstore, with narrow aisles and the shelves all jumbled up and crammed together. I was happy however, to see that they carried a lot of brands that I can't find anywhere else! I've never actually found Nyx cosmetics in a store before, so that was exciting. I also was able to buy some Real Techniques by Sam Chapman (of Pixiwoo fame) brushes.

The customer service was so-so. The attendant was willing to help, and helped me find the products I was looking for (reviews to come!), but was a little distracted by her friends. Maybe I'm spoiled by the treatment I get by having friends at Sephora, but she seemed like she was trying to go fast to get back to whatever she had been doing before.

One thing I really liked, however, was that Ulta does sales! Sephora really doesn't- they'll do special sets with discounted products, but Ulta does true "buy one, get one half off" type sales. I got a Lorac Pro mascara (normally $23) for $10. Ten dollars. That would NEVER happen at Sephora.

Overall, I think I was impressed by Ulta, but not that specific store. I think, since the sales are so good, I will continue to shop Ulta for the products that might be cheaper there, but online only. Maybe I'll try another location sometime, we'll see.

Review of the products pictured above will be spread out over the next few weeks... As you can see, I took advantage of the trip!

Always,

Nani xx