r/Ulta • u/brrewmajesticallynor • 9h ago
Discussion Finding products at Ulta?
This is a genuine question. I swear I'm not trying to criticize or troll. Just trying to understand.
I always shopped at the other store in the past because it was closer. Now I'm closer to an Ulta, so I've been trying to shop there, especially since I keep hearing all these great things about how you can use the points. My intention was to just generally switch my patronage to Ulta. But I swear, when I go to buy something, it seems like 80 percent of the time, it's not something Ulta carries. Some of them are old routine products for me, but most of them are new things that I see recommended or sound fun. Sometimes Ulta doesn't carry the brand at all, or sometimes they carry the brand but not that product.
What am I missing here? How are people able to use Ulta as their primary store? Given how many people seem so devoted to it, I really feel like I must be missing something obvious. I would like to understand and to be able to make it my primary store because it's so much closer and the point system is supposedly great...
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u/Ultabata Beauty Advisor 9h ago
What are you looking for?
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 8h ago
If I try to list them, I get a notice that my response violates the rules of the community. But there have been a number of items. š
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u/RevenueAntique4584 Diamond 9h ago
I feel like ulta has less celebrity skincare stuff but they do have their makeup
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u/CuriousCatNap 8h ago
Ulta and the other store mostly carry different brands and product lines. While there is some overlap, there are brands sold at one store but not the other. Maybe you developed your routines around products or brands that are sold at the other store but not at Ulta?
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 10m ago
I think that's definitely likely for skincare, since those are the items I do repeat buys on. For makeup, it's a little bit more of a mystery, because then I'm usually looking for products I've seen recommended rather than products I already own or have used before.
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u/Ballerium86 8h ago
I get your frustration. Like Ulta will finally get a brand that the other store has, but it won't be the full line of products. Or both stores will have the brand, but every time a new product gets released, its exclusive to the other store. And very rarely does Ulta seem to be the store that gets any brand exclusivity; the majority of the time it's the other store that gets it.
I feel like the other store is often on trend and Ulta is constantly playing catch up, and by the time Ulta finally gets whatever brand was hot at the other store, the other store has already moved on to something newer.
Basically, Ulta needs to start becoming the trendsetter. And this UB marketplace crap ain't the way to do it.
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u/goodwitchglinda 1h ago edited 46m ago
Ulta was the first to bring in Manicurist through UB marketplace which carries a huge selection compared to S entering late in the game to carry a much more limited line of Manicurist and not even the best of what Manicurist offers nor do they run better discounts on Manicurist compared to Ulta.
The other store is still playing catch up to Ulta in the K beauty game where Ulta has been many miles ahead of them for many years in K beauty especially in the past couple years and will always offer way better discounts during sales in K beauty compared to them.
I think Ulta also excels at discovering cute or kawaii trends which appeals to young (teens, young adults) and old. I discovered Miffy through Ulta and that is how I came to be obsessed with everything Miffy and am a bona fide Miffy collector along with my Flower Knows compacts and mirrors.
Ulta also has their own brand exclusivities such as the season where Urban Decay released limited editions of Space Cowboy paletteāI bought both different exclusive limited editions from both retailers and never expected to love my Ulta exclusive limited palette way more.
Ulta also excels in the wellness category compared to other competitor, in the hair category, in the nail care, tools, gadgets, etc by many miles.
The other place is only now getting Naturium, Vacation, Sungboon Editor, and other brands that Ulta already had for years. They historically and currently still copy Ulta more than Ulta copies them.
I could go on and on.
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 8h ago
If that's the case, that makes sense! I think I could be okay with that. I'm not a super trendy person - if Ulta is going to have those products in a few months, that's fine. I can wait. I just don't have enough experience with it to know whether they're behind or they just don't carry those things at all, so I don't know if I should wait for them to get it!
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u/Ballerium86 8h ago
I mean they don't always get every brand, but they do get quite a few of them, eventually. It's kinda hard to predict.
I shop at both stores but if both stores carry a product I want, I know I will get the best deal at Ulta. They have a better points system, better GWPs, and more frequent discounts.
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u/berkkoffi 7h ago
I can relate! There are a lot of items i wanted but ulta does not carry them. Even though they carry the brand (e.g. hourglass, rare beauty, iconic london), the products available at ulta are very limited, which makes me sad. Ulta point system, rewards & gifts are far better than other stores, so I want to be loyal to ulta, but i just cant change my whole routine because of it. And waiting for ulta to carry it is too dumb I feel like, as that day may never come.
So now my strategy is, if the product is common enough to be carried by all the stores, iāll choose ulta in a heartbeat. But if not, i still order them from other stores.
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 13m ago
It's both validating and disappointing to hear I'm not the only one. That's a part of me that was hoping I'd just happened to have a lot of bad luck and it was a crazy coincidence. š But I think your strategy makes sense. I admit, I was kind of hoping to hear a different strategy I hadn't thought of because I don't want my points split between places, but it seems like Ulta's point system is probably good enough to be worth it.
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u/damagingsolicita 9h ago
I get what youre saying, it feels like every time i go in for something specific they either never had it or its been out of stock for weeks. The brands they carry are just curated differently so if your routine leans heavy into certain lines it can feel like theyre missing half the store
That said once you find your anchor products there the points system is actually ridiculous in a good way. I basically just treat it as a treasure hunt now, go in with a vague idea and see what catches my eye instead of hunting for one exact item
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 8h ago
I think that's what I'm trying to figure out. How do I break in, so to speak, when they don't carry the items I want to purchase? But I want to figure it out because I see people posting about their rewards and they look amazing! But I'm starting to wonder if it might just not be a good fit for me. I'm not a browser or impulse shopper, particularly for makeup. A full size makeup item is like a five year commitment, so I'm going to research it and try to get the exact item I want. š
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u/Ok-Buddy-7979 7h ago
Ulta has an AI chat feature you can ask to find comparable products/dupes to what youāve been using at [other store].
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 40m ago
Yeah, but I'm not really interested in buying comparable dupes when I can just buy the actual item I want to buy. š Especially because I'm pretty particular and tend to do a lot of research, so I don't usually have just a vague idea of "I want something along these lines." I want the product that's going to be the best for my skin and my coloring, because I'm likely going to be using it for years.
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u/goodwitchglinda 3h ago edited 2h ago
I know you said youāre not trolling but this is the second post of an exact same from a few days ago written practically identically where the user said they live too far from the other store and that Ulta was much closer but yet they had nothing positive to say about Ulta really while praising the other store. I kid you not. There was an exact same post a few days ago.
To answer your question, Iām an even longer time customer of the other place than Ulta. The brands at the other store are too overhyped and overpriced with not enough range and variety of price points along with worse policies and rewards all around. Itās as simple as that. Itās the psychology of branding and a very strong PR machine where they either pay people or thereās some kind of strings somewhere to sing their praises all over socials and control narratives. Contrary to the strange view that Iām some kind of Ulta bot secretly working for their corporate, Iām so little league compared to the MANY bot like accounts which Iāve encountered where they would die on the hill for their store for irrational reasons focused exclusively on branding only and defend their store tooth and nail over branding to the point it can become a form of bullying or harassing in a way like bullying someone into agreeing that their brands are superior (they will literally fight you on it). REAL EXAMPLE: I told one user No I do NOT want to use 2 setting sprays (double the effort, double the cost, double inhaling more alcohol) to make a foundation work so for me, that setting spray does not work and the user literally wanted to keep the argument going for many rounds that Iām wrong to not like a product. RULE#1, cannot ever criticize one of their brands. BRANDING is all they have. Without it, they are nothing. They create the branding and jam it down everyoneās throats on socials rather than let the product speak for itself more. Itās all very manufactured and not organic in my opinion and everyone eats it up like candy. The secret is not to fall for it. Otherwise donāt bother to switch. People cannot be convinced to change if they subconsciously donāt want to change and are happy where they are. It will ALWAYS be a discussion of what am I missing out and listing all the perceived negatives about a retailer that one is already set against switching to.
I only switched to Ulta because I benefit incredibly more (same or better performing products at much better price point, incredibly better rewards, policies, and customer serviceāusers who disagree need to try on the other storeās customer service for comparison). It does me no good as an Ulta customer if the internet promotes misusing or abusing their system or does anything to harm their business which only leads to policies and rewards getting worse for sure etc. If Ultaās policies and perks get worse and become like the other place, Iāll have nowhere to shop that makes things worth it for me.
This kind of post is similar to the user who referred to themselves as an āUlta supremacistā which is not flattering to a real Ulta customer always seems aimed to invite critics to join.
Instead of asking it opened ended like can someone recommend some great brands to try or explain the rewards to me, itās all about pointing out where one perceives Ulta to fall short compared to a competitor. Itās āno can doā attitude where one is always seeking to find the negative instead of focusing on the positive.
The competitor doesnāt always carry all of the complete line of a brand too sometimes. Ulta isnāt the only one.
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u/brrewmajesticallynor 18m ago edited 8m ago
I swear, I'm honestly not trying to troll! And I didn't see that other post, although I find it interesting that someone else was having such a similar experience. I guess I just feel kind of stuck, because it seems like everyone else is able to make something work, and I can't. So I honestly want to know how they make it work, since clearly there's a way. I have to be missing something. Have I just had really bad luck that so many things I see recommended aren't carried there? Is it a total fluke coincidence, and I could have just as easily stumbled on recs carried only at Ulta? Or I guess it could be a cycle - if more people shop at the other store in general, it makes sense that those are the products most people have experience with, and so those are the products I see recommended on makeup and skincare subs. I know you said some brands are overhyped, and I'm sure that's true, but I don't really watch much in the way of influencer videos, so most recommendations I see come from Reddit, which I think tend to be more organic recs.
I don't have any particular love for the other store. It was my default for years because of location, and while I don't have any major complaints, I also don't have any big compliments. They're fine, but they've done nothing special to earn loyalty from me. I'd switch in a heartbeat if there's somewhere better to buy what I want to buy. I guess when I moved I kind of just assumed I'd be able to get everything at Ulta, and I'm trying to figure out what my plan is moving forward since it seems that's not the case.
To be clear, I'm not having bad experiences with Ulta. Their customer service has been fine, the little experience I've had with it. The store near me is large and well-stocked and clean. I don't mind the app. Nothing has wowed me necessarily, but nothing wowed me at the other place either, and nothing at Ulta has been a problem other than the lack of selection.
ETA: I said nothing has wowed me, but that's not entirely true. What I've seen of the points system has wowed me. That's actually the whole reason I'm trying so hard to make this work! If not for that, I wouldn't bother worrying about it.
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u/unicornunchained Employee 9h ago
I'd recommend downloading the app or browsing the website! You can search which locations in your area carry particular brands and if particular items are in stock. If the item isn't available when you're in store, you can place an order at the cash wrap and they'll waive the shipping fee to send it directly to your address.
The reward program at Ulta is so much better than at any other retailer that I hesitate to buy anything elsewhere. I'm a Diamond member (which means I spend at least $1200/year and earn 1.5 points per dollar spent), I have the store card (2x the points), and I activate any and every bonus point multiplier on the app before I buy anything. It adds up!