Anyone who knows anything about makeup, knows there are two “go-to” places to purchase cosmetics, Sephora or Ulta. They are both well-known beauty stores that sell high-end cosmetics. They both have friendly workers who assist customers with making their beauty purchases. The makeup in both stores are on display with testers available for anyone who wishes to try products before making a purchase. Unlike Sephora, Ulta not only carries prestigious makeup brands, but drugstore cosmetics and hair products.

Both stores have reward programs that people are eligible to sign up for, where points are awarded for each product bought in the store. For both reward programs $1spent = 1 point. The prizes for each, however are different. In Sephora, there are prizes as your points hit a certain number that you can choose to cash in or save. For example, at 100 points, there are three prizes that you can choose from to cash in your points, but you can also save them so that your points can continue adding up and accumulate to an even bigger prize. Ulta, on the other hand, allows their points to be cashed in for money off a purchase where 100 points equal $1. A perk for both reward programs are birthday presents. On your birthday, you will receive an email from both stores telling you to come in to the store and receive your birthday present. Ulta’s changes every three months while Sephora keeps the same present all year long.

Makeup can be very expensive so another thing to consider when choosing what store you would like to go to is the types of sales they have. Ulta sends out emails almost every day with new releases and any sales that they might be having. Sephora, on the other hand, mostly sends out emails on their products and offers for people on their reward programs to receive a deluxe sample of a product with a $25 purchase. On their website, however, Sephora does have a sales tab that features products on sale from brands like Urban Decay and Tarte. To many people, these stores are the same with the brands that they sell, but they each have special perks that make them differ.