Lacey T.
Yelp
When shopping for makeup and skincare I usually choose Sephora, but Ulta is closer to my house, so if I need something quickly, I'll stop by.
They carry a mix of traditionally drugstore along with prestige brands, a decent selection of fragrance, and also have a salon, and some sort of skincare boutique through Dermalogica. Their best offerings are the large selection of Benefit products along with the Brow Bar, Essie nailpolish, cute Tonymoly K-beauty products, and Becca makeup. Oh, and they carry Lipstick Queen, which Sephora doesn't have, so they've got that going for 'em!
Customer service is mixed. On my most recent visit there was one girl wandering around the store who asked me, and several other people, more than once if we needed assistance. She was not pushy, but made it clear she was available if needed. That's great. The two people at the cash registers, however, were both very curt, and not friendly at all. It was sort of busy, but only with a line of maybe 4 or 5 people, so there was no reason they should have been stressed or felt they needed to rush customers. I noticed the cashier who assisted me sign up a customer for their rewards program without actually telling her she was doing so until it was completed. When it came time for me to check out I was greeted with, "And what's your phone number?" in the most bored tone of all time. She never once smiled. I'm not a stickler for perfect customer service, but at least make an effort to be friendly and not let everyone know that you hate your job.
I still think Ulta is worth checking out on occasion, but there are so many places to buy makeup, it's really too bad they don't make a little more of an effort to carry better products and have nicer employees.