Wednesday, June 17, 2009

ULT(im)A

On the way back from work today, I strolled past Chicago's newest ULTA store, and I must say...I'm very impressed. Supposedly this shop is one of ULTA's newest ventures, as it is more of a Sephora-esque beauty center (with a hair salon built in!) than a little beauty boutique.


One of the things I was most surprised by was the section for drugstore makeup. First of all, I was able to find NYX there! Granted, it wasn't the most extensive selection, but I've been hoping for an opportunity to try it out without having to pay shipping, and I'm so excited that they carry that line.

But what shocked me even more was the whole section dedicated to drugstore-priced makeup, which included testers. Usually the way I differentiated drugstore makeup from high-end makeup was that for high-end makeup, you could test it out on your skin and do trial and error with various colours before buying, but that it cost more. With drugstore makeup, you paid less, but unless you did some swatch homework or found a store with a good return policy, you were probably bound to be stuck with some dud shades. So seeing brands like Revlon available for testing was a huge surprise for me. I could see this as the future of makeup...much cheaper lines that allow people to get a great foundation without having to go to a department store. Target was getting to this point, but brands like Revlon and Maybelline aren't testable -- only lines like Boots and Jemma Kidd.

I didn't buy anything in this go-around, but I will definitely let you know when I purchase something.

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