Ulta vs Sephora

On Monday, I had stopped by Ulta with the intention of only returning the eye shadows that I had ordered online. That didn't happen, I mean, I returned the eye shadow but didn't just leave the store to finish up my errands. I made the mistake of looking at the sale fliers that they hang in their windows and saw the nail polish sale that they were having. Buy two, get one free and I could mix and match brands. So what did I end up doing? After my return, I did take a look at the Iceland collection. Sometimes you really need to see the color of anything in person before purchasing. I will maintain that this fall/winter collection from OPI, while nice, is a little on the drab side. I expected at least one red but they had a brighter pink and that was it. But I did fall in love with the Check Out the Old Geysirs and This Isn't Greenland because they were pretty unusual for OPI.

I have never spent a whole lot of time with Ulta and have always been pretty dismissive of Ulta. But being broke ha made me reasess my elitism when it comes to places like Sephora and Ulta. I always thought that Ulta was a poor man's Sephora but I don't think it's the case when I took a closer look. Ulta is a place that sells much more than fancy make up and skin care. Ulta is not like Sephora in that respect. I think Ulta figured out that Sephora seems to cater to a wealthier demographic and not everyone wants to spend tons of money on make up, hair care and body care. But there are people like me, who are tired of the drug store stuff and have a little more to spend on quality. I had found most of my favorite brands (SkynIceland, Urban Decay and Too Faced) at Ulta to win me over from the Sephora camp. I haven't really looked at the perfume section the few times that I have been in the store but didn't really have a whole lot of time to look at them.

Sephora isn't what it used to be, I don't think. It seems like they have raised their prices and the selection has gone down in the stores. Online is a little different due to the fact that they have online exclusives and most of the time, they are sold out of them. I don't see as many full Sephoras in malls and find more free standing Ultas. Well, I'm not really in Sephora's target demographic and I'm okay with that.

The biggest difference between the two is that Ulta runs a lot of sales and I do like a good deal on stuff I am going to use. Sephora never seems to run too much in the way of sales and when they do, it's not a good sale and something that I am not interested. So at the end of the day, it's going to be Ulta for make up and some body stuff.