I don’t have any personal experience of shopping at Ulta. They are more prevalent in the suburbs. But our family does shop in Sephora (owned by LVMH), which sells higher end beauty products than Ulta. The usnews articles compares the two. Both seem to have popular membership rewards programs which promote loyalty and higher spending. Sephora has stores in many countries, while Ulta is in US only.

I have followed the beauty retailers, LVMH, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, Ulta, for a while, but never bought them due to high valuations ( 30-50 PE). They have done extremely well, individually and as a group for the last couple of decades. Recessions don’t seem to hurt the luxury end of the business, but Ulta may be hurt more as it sells more lower and mid range brands.

money.usnews.com - Sephora versus ulta which is better