Ulta Beauty

This review is mainly for my experience at The Salon (which would be 5 stars but … we will get there). In the past year, my hair has been purple, blue, pink, green, bleached, dyed, henna’d… murdered. In attempting to get the green out, I used a permanent copper blonde all over. I succeeded only creating the most god awful color ever, orange on top, with streaks of blue green to the bottom. I scheduled a hair cut with Mikaela. Going to let go of the bottom four inches and moisturize until I felt comfortable processing my hair again. Mikaela has a WONDEFUL personality. The first words out of my mouth were «The color is awful; we are not talking about.» She laughed and asked what happened so I told her the whole saga and she recommended a brown glaze. For $ 45, I said go for it. Throughout the entire process, she was warm, funny, and honest. My hair looks just like the photos I had pinned for the cut (though I still don’t look like Olivia Munn…). I honestly, literally, went from the worst hair day of my life to one of the BEST! Strongly recommend you go see Mikaela; she knows her stuff.
This review loses one star because the sales associates on the floor were disinterested and at the end of the night very clearly ready to get out (I was the last customer, I was out the door at 9:07). I have worked retail for over 2 years and know the annoyance of customers in the store at close. However, when everyone is already at the registers (aka no longer browsing etc), take a deep breath and still be hella helpful and polite. All in all, I will most likely return to this Ulta.

Okay, nothing great. They’ve stopped carrying products that they used to; specifically Kenra’s Smoothing Cream. Super frustrating.
Also, they seem to have a lot of perfume, which is not bad but I expected to find more beauty products than grab grandee.

Had an appointment here for a month when I showed up they told me the girl was «busy» and «booked up“but she could try to squeeze me in. This is after she didn’t do my hair the way I wanted the first time. I liked her so much I thought I’d give her a second chance. Never going here again!

A few weeks ago, I had the misfortune to get my makeup «professionally» done at this Ulta salon. I paid $ 40 for a supposedly 45-​minute service, and it was a disaster. It started off that morning with the store calling and asking if I could come in at a different time than my appointment because they had overbooked their schedule, which isn’t very professional, but is forgivable. However, everything else wasn’t.
I showed the makeup artist a photo of my dress for my recital that evening (a dark orange) and asked her to use browns and golds for my eyeshadow. I also told her that I tend to have oily skin, so she should use long-​wear products that would stay on well. Her response to this was to use black eyeshadow, which wasn’t even blended with the cream colored shadow she also used, and she also gave me thick, clumpy mascara on both top and bottom eyelashes, plus inner eye eyeliner on my lower lashes. It looked AWFUL. To make matters worse, she made no attempt to cover up my acne spots and actually put highlighting powder over my acne, which made the bumps appear larger. The altogether effect was grotesque. I had to go home and wash my face and start over, which is not how I wanted to be spending my time prior to my last recital of college.
The employee spent about 15 minutes, tops, working on my makeup for what should have been a 45-​minute service. She did not apply primer, did not do any contouring, and only used a tiny amount of bronzing power because I asked her to. She didn’t tell me which products she used or explain to me what she was doing. All that she used was foundation, eyelid primer/​concealer, blush, highlighter, bronzer, eyeliner, mascara and eyeshadow.
I also had several hygiene concerns. When she did my mascara, she did not use a disposable wand, but instead used the wand that came with the mascara tube. She also used a pre-​used eyeliner to line the inside of my lower lids, and, when she did my lip stain, she used a disposable applicator but dipped it into the tube repeatedly. The whole experience left me very concerned for my health.
When I filed a complaint about it online, the national organization said that someone from the store would contact me «in the coming days.» I heard back from that representative over a week ago, and nobody from the store has reached out to me, yet, either.

I have been to this location on multiple occasions and let me tell you the service sucks! One associate walked right by me, looked me square in the eye and didn’t say a word, or even crack a smile… no acknowledgment what so ever! There’s always a «beauty specialist» floating around but they are never able to render you any credible beauty advice on most of the products here. Where do you guys get these ladies from? The gals/​gents who didn’t make the cut and now they hate life and their existence?! Almost on every occasion I’ve asked an associate a question regarding a product and they never know, never!!! For the most part all they enjoy is standing up painting people’s faces. There’s always a million and one associates standing at the checkout counter and no one verbalizes a salutation or anything when I walk in. At least at Sephora and MAC most associates are beauty experts and/​or have a passion about what they do. This is just a clown show! They do not sell half the high end products that Sephora sells. Just terrible!

Walked up to the store and patiently waited for them to open up at 10am. When an employee opened up the store, I smiled and was greeted by a vampy lipped scowl. Okay, no worries we all have a bad day however, I’m met with yet another scowl at the cash register. Different person. I was returning a hairspray which had a crooked sprayer. No hello, no good morning just a, «Return? Did you use it?» I showed her the crooked sprayer. She then proceed to inform me that my card wasn’t needed to return the item just the receipt. After she scanned it, the screen informed me that I needed to swipe my cc. When I informed her she said, «No, no, my computer’s just slow since we JUST opened, it just needs a moment to clear». I wasn’t aware that computers knew what time of day it was? The computer timed out and again, she informs me that my card isn’t needed. I ask her again, «Ma’am are you sure? It asks me to swipe.» She finally says, «Um yeah, uhh try THAT and maybe that will work. It’s just that with all the new chips in the cards now things are the different with the returns.» Sure enough it works. Let me just add that at this point she has yet to smile. Not even a crack or a smirk. I mean, it’s 10am, not 5am! Smiles are free, they don’t exert that much extra energy. Plus, I just LOVE explaining to other people how to do they’re job. This isn’t the first time I’ve been met with lackluster service at this location. This time just broke the camel’s back.
I walked away vowing to NEVER come to this location again. I live on Upper Kirby, but I’ll drive to the Richmond location just to avoid the poor customer service. No WONDER it’s gotten such bad reviews. Ummmm, ULTA –ever heard of customer service training? Makes a BIG difference.

I got my hair and make up done for barrister’s ball (law school prom) at ulta. It was actually very unexpected– I had set up these appointments with my regular salon who cancelled on me the morning of. Thankfully, I was able to set up a hair appointment that morning. What could have been rather disastrous ended up being a really great experience, to the point where I’m actually Unilocaling about it.
For my hair appointment, I was very pleased. I can’t remember the girl’s name, but she did a beautiful curly side ponytail. I arrived not knowing what I wanted and ended up pinteresting while she was curling my hair. It came out great, and it stayed in place all night.
I didn’t make an actual make up appointment. Apparently you can make an appointment with an ulta makeup artist for $ 50, but you can also have an artist do your makeup for free if you buy three products. I liked the idea of going home with some makeup, so I chose the latter option. It did take a few minutes to get a makeup artist’s attention, as it was a Saturday afternoon and I did not have an appointment, but it was well worth the wait. The makeup artist I ultimately ended up with was a Smashbox rep, and she did a fabulous job. I had told her I was wearing a gold sequin gown, and she played with that. She did a smokey eye and covered that with gold glitter. What I especially liked was she asked me what I wanted every step of the way. Overall, this was an amazing experience, and I will definitely be returning for future formal occasions.

I know Ulta isn’t known for great customer service, but WOW, this Ulta location really needs to learn how to treat their customers… I came in about a half hour after they opened, so the store was relatively empty. When I was at the register checking out, Mariel, the woman who was ringing me up, had about as much personality as the bag that she put my products in. Here’s a helpful tip: when I walk up to the counter, your greeting to me should not be «phone number??». An indifferent «hello» would be more appreciated from a customer perspective.

Worst Ulta ever! I came in here and thought it was a nice store and was going to buy a item and asked if she could do my eye makeup and she said let me ask my manager and her manager said no! Ok well I’ll go buy my makeup elsewhere then! What a joke!

Recently bad.

It’s an Ulta. Lots of cosmetic reps it seems at this one trying to sell you something. I admit that kind of annoys me. I was just going in for some Bare Minerals foundation which I was sure they would have, but decided to look at perfumes as I am getting low in all of mine. Their selection of perfume is pretty thin compared to my local Ulta. I couldn’t really find anything that I loved at first smell so I bought one of the smaller volumes that I liked.
In all, I wouldn’t come to the Upper Kirby area to go to this Ulta even if I still lived in the loop.

I am not a fan of these types of stores and I guess after visiting I know why. Customer service is key to me. When I make eye contact with an employee I expect some sort of acknowledgement. Tell me to give you a second, tell me to wait, hell, tell me off. But don’t just ignore me.
These employees are either too busy gossiping or just utterly hate their existence and therefore want others to feel that hatred through their poor customer service.

They do terrible hair there. I went there on a trip and I have strips different colors of Brown when she was done with me,.
I had her put in one color and I came out with strips.
My roots were light and middle was dark and then my ends were darker. I had to have my hair redone with high lights that i didn’t want just to mask the colors .that cost me 160.00.
The manager said it looked fine and if I didn’t like it i would have to go back to the same girl that messed my hair thank you but NO WAY.

Ulta Corporate must not be reading any of these reviews. I have to echo what lots of people said. This is staffed with a bunch of bored people who are trying to do anything other than work. I looked for a product today and couldn’t find it but thought maybe I overlooked it so I looked around for help and found someone just sitting down and asked them for help and they dramatically sighed and frowned and said «yes» in this amazing way where it couldn’t have sounded more like «no.» It was so absurd that I actually started laughing and said «i mean… you don’t have to help me.» Which is true. The employee didn’t have to help me. If they were going to pout like a toddler about it.
What a waste of space this store is. This isn’t even the first time I’ve gotten bad service. It’s just a bunch of young people with dopey looks on their faces. I bought a flat iron and the girl tells me «I love this one, this is what I use.» And I ended up bringing it back (unopened and unused) because I decided to go with my second choice. When I bought that one back on the SAME day the SAME girl told me «I love this one, this is the one I use.» Jesus that sales pitch/​lie only works if you are smart enough to remember who you said it to.
Ypu can find all of what they sell online or elsewhere without having to stop foot in here and disturb the breaks everyone is taking.

This Ulta is great! Friendly, Clean, and usually fully stocked with any beauty product you need. I have visited this store multiple times and finding a staff member can take a few minutes, but they are polite and knowledgeable, so if you have a question about a particular product, it’s worth the wait. I have not had any issues with products not being in stock, except some of the brushes that I was looking for, so I will definitely continue to use this Ulta as my go-​to makeup store.
The one negative is that it is located on Kirby, right across the street from a Whole Foods in a busy shopping center, so traffic can be a bit of a bear — but then again, where in Houston is it not?
Cheers!

I really like this location of Ulta. It’s convenient for me to get to and it has a decent parking lot. The employees are always super friendly and helpful. Most of the time when I stop in I’m just living the gym, so the fact that they aren’t grossed out by my sweatiness and still willing to help is always nice.
Ulta also finally has a good rewards program that allows you to earn points (dollars) to spend on future purchases. I think the old program limited you to their in-​store brand (which I could really care less about), but now you are able to actually apply the dollars towards the première brands — you know, the good stuff that you actually want!

This review is for the salon – I just moved to Houston and needed a haircut but didn’t want to pay out the wazoo for one. So I went to Ulta. I had Deanna for my stylist. She was great. Before cutting we talked about what I wanted. I basically wanted a trim and to clean up the ends about an inch off. Before cutting anything she made sure to show/​ask me if I was ok with her cutting at a certain spot. I actually thought she was conservative and gave her the ok to cut a bit more off. When she angled the front of my face framing layers she explained what she was doing BEFORE she did it so I felt totally comfortable and knew where she was going to cut.
The only thing that «fell short» was the hair washing. She did a fine job shampooing and conditioning, but it was a little sloppy. I got water splashed on my arms and face and had suds leftover in my ears (a lot of it… a little wouldn’t have bothered me), and I had water go down the back of my neck down the back of my shirt.
Not the end of the world, but it could’ve been a little tidier.
All in all, I will go back to see her because a little water thrown around never hurt anyone! We also chatted about possibly going darker in color with my hair after my wedding and I feel comfortable that she is knowledgable enough to do the job and do it well.

While I was last in Ulta I found myself wondering why it is I come here at all? The staff are unavailable and unhelpful when you do finally track someone down. Generally they’re just talking with each other about their social lives off by the Benefit area leaving the rest of the store unattended. The lines are always killer, I find myself twiddling my thumbs in a 10 minute line because there is ONE cashier working, if they have two it seems that they aren’t able to churn out customers any quickly. Overall, they move without a sense of purpose.
On a go-​forward I’ll be stopping in at the mall on my way home from work and saving myself some time and frustration.

This Ulta has left me disappointed with each visit I’ve given it. The staff here is unfriendly and unhelpful. They’re not knowledgeable of their limited stock and there are far too few sales reps on the floor to help customers. The store is always sparse and disheveled looking. I know Ulta’s can be hit and miss, but this one is definitely a huge miss. Do yourself a favor and go to the one off of Richmond– it’s cleaner, there’s more staff and their items are always fully stocked.

Not very helpful sales associates and I rather order online or from Amazon prime with 2 days shipping and pricing is comparable or cheaper compares to Ulta.
Parking is a hassle too since they share the same parking with Texas pediatric group and 2 restaurants.