Starting in 2021, Ulta introduced a wellness selection it calls The Wellness Shop and is now doubling down on it based on a thesis that it can own wellness in the beauty retail space and has demand for it from its shoppers. At Beauty Independent’s Beauty Loves LA last week, CEO and president Kecia Steelman said, “The consumer is saying that they trust Ulta Beauty to come to get their wellness needs met.”

Ulta is also strengthening its offering for gen alpha and picking up brands that have been popular at Sephora both to intrigue young consumers and ensure its customers don’t feel the need to visit Sephora for their favorite brands. In investment bank Piper Sandler’s biannual surveys of teens, Sephora leapfrogged Ulta as the beauty retailer of choice beginning in 2023, and Ulta is out to win back the title.

Winning back the title means Ulta has to stay on top of trends. It’s growing its product stable in a fragrance arena that’s been on fire and continuing to enlarge its K-Beauty caboodle after moving to showcase a number of K-Beauty brands such as Rael, Ma:nyo, Mediheal, Skin1004, Dearcloud and Knours last year.

Sales will be the true barometer of whether Ulta’s moves are working. Steelman, who recently took over the CEO post from Dave Kimbell, has a mandate to improve the retailer’s performance. In April last year, Kimbell sent shockwaves throughout the beauty industry when he warned of a beauty sales slowdown. Ulta’s same-store sales dipped .3% in the second quarter of 2024, marking the first time in four years it missed Wall Street’s expectations.

As Ulta course-corrects, we highlight 13 beauty brands that have made their way to the retailer’s digital and physical shelves.

Launched in 2021 by Jenni Kayne, the lifestyle entrepreneur the media outlet Business of Fashion pegs as wanting to be the “California Ralph Lauren,” Oak Essentials’ minimalistic luxury skincare, body care and fragrance products priced from $36 to $110 have entered 250 Ulta doors as part of the retailer’s emerging brand program, Sparked, after a digital rollout on the chain’s website last year.

Oak Essentials securing series A funding last year from Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures. According to reporting by the publication Women’s Wear Daily, the brand generated $1.5 million in sales in its initial five months on the market and $7 million in 2022 sales. Along with Ulta, it’s available at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. Overall, Jenni Kayne’s business has hit $140 million in sales, per information provided to Business of Fashion.

Another Sparked brand, Wildfleur has landed at 600 Ulta doors with seven skincare products priced from $18 to $26 targeting common skincare concerns such as brightening, hydration, clarifying and renewal with common skincare active ingredients such as retinol, salicylic acid, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. A spanking new brand, it’s owned by Cove Brands, a digitally native incubator that’s pushing into the physical space.

Tanushri Shah, former senior manager at SpoiledChild, has been tapped as the founder and product developer of Wildfleur, which touts that she discovered a lab in South Korea that stabilizes 15% l-ascorbic acid using xanthophyll, an antioxidant from marigolds (hence, the flower nod in the brand name). Wildfleur touts its accessible price points as well at a moment when masstige is a dominant force in the skincare segment.

A graduate of Ulta’s MUSE Accelerator program in 2023, Octavia Morgan Los Angeles has become the first Black- and woman-owned prestige fragrance brand to launch at the retailer. It’s in the Sparked assortment in roughly 110 doors to start before expanding to 600 doors in March. Octavia Morgan Los Angeles’s fine fragrances are designed to be clean, unisex and suitable for consumers sensitive to synthetic perfume ingredients. The brand is grouped into Ulta’s Conscious Beauty designation.

Dark Rose, a fragrance combining black rose with notes of pink peppercorn, plum, cumin, vanilla, patchouli and labdanum, is Octavia Morgan Los Angeles’s bestseller. Other fragrances in its arsenal are woody Legendary, fruity Midnight Orchid and floral amber L’Affaire. Full-size 50-ml. sizes are priced at $150 and 10-ml. travel sizes are priced at $45. Ulta sells a $28 discovery set with 2-ml. samples of the four fragrances.

Ulta is trying to nail the nail category. It’s added Holo Taco to its nail products assortment in over 650 doors along with Digi Beauty, a gen alpha press-on brand from the maker of Glamnetic. In Ulta’s Sparked roster, Holo Taco has a social media pedigree. It was founded in 2019 by Christine Rotenberg, a Canadian beauty influencer known as Simply Nailogica whose YouTube channel was active from 2014 to 2022 and amassed over 7 million subscribers.

Holo Taco discloses on its site that it’s sold millions of bottles of polish. Marketed as 10-free or without formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde resin, camphor, ethyl tosylamide, xylene, triphenyl phosphate, methylisothiazolinone and parabens, the brand’s formulas are designed to be long lasting and often deliver sparkly effects. Ulta is carrying polishes, top coats and nail toppers priced from $12 to $14.

Seemingly every beauty retailer is riding K-Beauty’s second wave. To identify a brand excelling at surfing that wave, Ulta peeked at Amazon, where Anua entered the U.S. market in 2022 and has been a beauty consumer magnet, especially for its Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil. Since its launch in the U.S., Anua has reportedly registered more than 200% in annual sales growth.

At Ulta, where Anua is described as a “top viral K-Beauty brand” with gentle, yet effective skincare, its assortment contains serums, cleansing oils and foams, toners and lotions that range from $7.99 to $25. Along with Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil, a few of its products are Niacinamide 10 TXA 4 Serum, Heartleaf Quercetinol Pore Deep Cleansing Foam, Heartleaf 77 Soothing Toner and Rice Enzyme Brightening Cleansing Powder.

Led by co-CEOs Lee Sunhyung and Lee Changjoo, incubator The Founders launched Anua in 2019. Haircare brand Fromlabs and pet supplies brand Project 21 join Anua in its brand stable.

Following an exclusive retail debut at Target in 2023 and subsequent launches at CVS and Amazon, haircare and body care brand California Naturals has extended its retail presence to Ulta, where it’s selling across the store network with eleven new products and updated packaging and formulas. The new products include Re:GRO Anti-Thinning Shampoo and Conditioner, Light & Gentle Sensitive Shampoo, Glow Oil Body Wash and Super Moisture Body Wash. All California Naturals products at Ulta are priced at $11.99. Four additional products from the line are available on Ulta’s website, too.

Backed by actor Owen Wilson, who’s California Naturals’ spokesman, the brand is the second from founder Shelby Wild, who previously created Playa, a haircare brand shuttered by Morphe owner Forma Brands after acquiring it in 2020. According to the publication Glossy, California Naturals ended 2023 at 220% above its sales forecast. Last year, the brand projected its sales would increase 800%.

California Naturals has raised $4 million in seed funding from L Catterton, Sandbridge, Midnight Venture Partners, Elizabeth Street Ventures, Eric Ryan, the entrepreneur behind Method, Olly and Welly, and Roth Martin, co-founder of Rothy’s. In addition, it’s raised undisclosed series A funding.

Solid beauty brand Ethique is out to prove that sustainability remains an appealing attribute in beauty. After an overhaul informed by conversations with 5,000 people across New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.S. and United Kingdom, it’s simplified its products names, reformed its bars into an ergonomic crescent shape and conducted clinical tests to show results that compare its solid haircare favorably to liquid haircare.

The upgraded Ethique has arrived chain-wide at Ulta with products priced at $14 to $17. All its solid haircare, including Clarifying Solid Shampoo Bar, Scalp Health Solid Shampoo Bar, Curl-Defining Solid Conditioner Bar and Hydrating Solid Conditioner, is $17. The color-coded packaging guides consumers to products for their hair type and concern. Products with purple packaging, for example, are for frizzy hair.

Launched in 2012 by New Zealand entrepreneur Brianne West, Bansk Group, the private equity owner of haircare brands Amika and Eva NYC, acquired Ethique in 2020. Industry sources cited by WWD estimate Ethique could reach $15 million in sales at its first year in Ulta.

Daise pinned down a retail twofer at its launch, Ulta and Target. In December, the gen alpha fragrance and body care brand premiered nationwide in Ulta with body mists, scrubs and washes for under $8 each. The products are intended to be mixed and matched. In a press release, Daise divulged it sold 25,000 units per day—or an average of 1,000 units per hour—in two weeks at the chain. Subsequent to its Ulta entrance, the brand stretched into Target doors around the country. It’s set to rake in over $50 million at retail this year.

Daise is spearheaded by Jaimee Lupton, who’s involved in a growing cohort of beauty brands at Zuru Edge, an offshoot of multibillion-dollar toy company Zuru and incubator specializing in brands aimed at millennial and gen Z consumers. In addition to Daise, its beauty brands are Monday Haircare, Being, Laura Polko Los Angeles and Osāna Naturals, and it extends beyond beauty to baby care, pet and wellness brands.

Joylux has landed on Ulta’s site within The Wellness Shop in the subcategory Intimate Wellness. The sexual wellness brand’s offering at Ulta includes six products for spicing things up in the bedroom, including $395 vFit Red-Light Intimate Wellness Device, $45 Let’s Spin Intimacy Gel and $13 SHEbar Intimate Cleansing Bar.

Launched in 2014, Joylux has pulled in $22 million in funding as of last December and counts actress Halle Berry and Kathy Fields, one of the dermatologist founders of Proactiv and Rodan + Fields, as investors. According to the technology news publication GeekWire, Joylux’s direct-to-consumer business grew 162% year-over-year in 2024. The brand is also carried at Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.

Although Khloé Kardashian previously fronted Unbreakable Bond by Khloe and Lamar, a perfume developed in partnership with Lighthouse Beauty that sold at Ulta, with her ex-husband Lamar Odom, XO Khloé is the first signature fragrance she’s done without Odom and her first with celebrity fragrance company Luxe Brands. The woody floral fragrance launched exclusively at U.S. retail in all Ulta stores in December following a November debut at Harrods. A 3.4-oz. bottle is priced at $78 and a .33-oz. travel size is $32.

Firmenich master perfumer Alberto Morillas and senior perfumer Clément Gavarry concocted XO Khloé. It’s forecast to generate between $80 million and $100 million at retail in its first year, according to industry sources relied on by WWD. Ariana Grande’s fragrances, which are at Ulta, too, also fall under the Luxe Brands umbrella.

Milk Makeup is heading to 600 Ulta stores in March, marking the brand’s second retail partnership since it launched in retail exclusively at Sephora in 2016. It formerly rolled out to Urban Outfitters, but is no longer available at the lifestyle chain. Milk Makeup is placing more than 180 stockkeeping units at Ulta, including bestsellers Cooling Water Jelly Tints, Hydro Grip Primer and Kush Mascara.

In 2021, Milk Makeup and professional skincare brand Obagi were acquired by special purpose acquisition company Waldencast Acquisition Corp. to create a beauty and wellness platform valued at $1.2 billion. In the third quarter last year, Milk Makeup’s revenues increased 23.5% to $31.5 million and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) doubled from the same period a year ago to $8.5 million.

Proctor & Gamble-owned clean skincare brand Farmacy has launched in all Ulta stores with eight products and a kit, including $48 Honey Halo Ultra-Hydrating Ceramide Moisturizer, $34 Honey Milk Hydrating Essence, $52 Filling Good Hyaluronic Acid Plumping Serum, $52 Honey Grail Ultra-Hydrating Face Oil and $28 Honey Glow Up Kit.

David Chung and Mark Veeder founded 10-year-old Farmacy, and similar to Milk Makeup, it started in retail in the U.S. exclusively at Sephora. The brand was acquired by P&G in 2021, when WWD reported it was on course to hit $80 million in sales. On top of Ulta, the brand is sold by Sephora, Amazon, QVC, Beautylish, Boots, Cult Beauty and BeautyBay.

Another former Sephora exclusive, Tatcha launched at Ulta online and in stores last month with its full lineup of over 25 products, including bestsellers $72 The Dewy Cream, $29 The Kiss Hydrating Lip Mask and $54 The Silk Canvas Protective Primer. The Japanese-inspired skincare brand founded by Vicky Tsai in 2009 was purchased by Unilever in 2019 for a reported $500 million. It’s housed in Unilever’s prestige beauty division with Hourglass, Paula’s Choice, K18, Living Proof and Murad.

Beauty and well-being was the second top performing consumer category at Unilever during the third quarter last year. Its volume advanced 5.5% to 3.2 billion euros or approximately $3.3 billion. However, growth for the company’s prestige beauty division softened in the period due to a beauty slowdown in the U.S. and China.