Richland Ulta Beauty store opens, Sephora doubles in size at mall

National beauty retailers Ulta Beauty and Sephora are expanding in the Tri-Cities as the beauty industry continues to grow nationwide.

Ulta Beauty opened its doors May 26 in the Vintner Square development at 2911 Queensgate Drive in Richland to a large and enthusiastic crowd of shoppers.

Sephora — located inside JCPenney at Columbia Center mall in Kennewick —  recently doubled the size of its store and plans a grand opening later this month.

There’s a growing demand nationwide for these kinds of beauty businesses. The “prestige” beauty industry grew by 6 percent last year, reaching $17 billion in sales with the makeup category experiencing the greatest sales growth at 12 percent, according to The NPD Group, a market research group. The cosmetic industry totaled more than $62 billion in 2016, according to Statista.com.

The Ulta Beauty grand opening attracted hundreds of shoppers with long lines of those hoping to score free gifts and makeovers throughout the Memorial Day weekend.

This is the second Ulta Beauty store in the Tri-Cities. The first opened in 2012 off Columbia Center Boulevard in Kennewick.

Ulta Beauty operates 990 retail stores across 48 states and the District of Columbia.

“At Ulta Beauty we look for locations that offer guests convenience, which includes easy-to-access, off mall locations. We’re excited to be the premier beauty destination for Richland beauty lovers,” said Jaime Schiff, the store’s general manager.

Ulta Beauty’s new store is 10,000 square feet and carries more than 20,000 beauty and cosmetic products, as well as products for bath and body, skin care, fragrances, hair care, hair styling and nails. The store carries products from more than 500 brands, including bareMinerals, Benefit, Urban Decay, Dermalogica, Maybelline, Neutrogena, as well as Ulta’s own private label.

In addition to the retail side, Ulta offers a full-service hair salon and a station for facial waxing. There’s also a Dermalogica MicroZone Treatment Center for mini facials, which cost $20 for a 20-minute treatment.

“The Richland store also offers full salon services, including haircuts, coloring and styling. Additionally, the new location will offer skin services and brow services,” Schiff said.

The store’s staff and makeup artists are available to answer questions on application of beauty products, best beauty practices and latest trends.

“The ‘unicorn’ beauty trend and holographic hair continue to be highly popular,” Schiff said. “from Tarte Spellbound Glow Rainbow Highlighter to Splat Hair Chalk in Violet Sky, the Richland location offers products and services to get the latest looks.”

The company also offers Ultamate Rewards membership program — a loyalty program which lets shoppers earn one point for every dollar spent on products, hair services, Dermalogica skin or Benefit brow services, and at ulta.com. Rewards members can redeem points on any of Ulta Beauty’s 20,000 products with no restrictions. Members also receive access to exclusive offers, special event invites and a free birthday gift.

Hours are from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Sephora expands in JCPenney

The newly expanded Sephora inside JCPenney is nearly 50 percent bigger than it used to be after a recent expansion. Woods Construction was hired to do $260,000 in remodeling work, bringing the total square footage to 4,000 square feet, according to public building records.

“Sephora is expanding their location inside JCPenney in order to provide customers a greater variety of beauty offerings,” said Erin Brown, a spokeswoman for Simon Malls.

Though Sephora, founded in France, is an independent company, it is operated by JCPenney. Sephora began opening stores inside JCPenney in October 2006. Today, there are Sephora locations in more than 574 JCPenney stores across the country.

“Columbia Center is the regional shopping center of the area and we’re seeing tremendous growth,” said Barbara Johnson, general manager at Columbia Center. “We have a lot of customers who come from Oregon and surrounding markets, so expanding popular retailers such as Verizon Wireless (See story on page 28) and Sephora, will give shoppers greater variety and opportunity to find things they can’t within their individual markets.”

The Sephora inside JCPenney features products from more than 200 beauty brands. These include color from NARS, Bare Escentuals, Make Up For Ever and Urban Decay; and innovative skin care lines such as Peter Thomas Roth, Shiseido, Ole Henriksen, Murad and Philosophy.

Sephora’s beauty studio offers shoppers complimentary walk-in services like contouring, smoky eye color, conceal and reveal, lip and cheek and everyday eye.

Also, complimentary with a $50 purchase, Sephora offers a 45-minute, one-on-one custom makeover with a product consultant. With the JCPenney Salon and Sephora, JCPenney aims to be a one-stop destination for beauty, hair styling and fashion.

Sephora’s grand opening is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 23.

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.