Ulta Beauty Invites Tweens And Teens To Celebrate Birthdays In Its Stores With New Party Program

Ulta Beauty is making many teens and tweens’ birthday wishes come true by letting them into its stores for birthday parties packed with skincare demos, makeup tutorials, games and product giveaways. 

The beauty specialty retailer initiated a birthday party service this summer at 10 locations in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. The parties last for 75 to 90 minutes, can have between four and 12 attendees, and are priced at $42 per person. 

Attendees receive gift bags valued at $100 filled with skincare, makeup and body care formulated for tweens and teens from brands such as Bubble, Daise, CeraVe, E.l.f. Cosmetics, Milk Makeup, Starface, Sol de Janeiro and Touchland. Attendees receive 20% off coupons to shop during the birthday parties. Hair services, including braiding, heat styling and tinsel, can be tacked on starting at an additional $13 per attendee. 

“While Ulta has had a really good run of growth, the brand is now lapping some tough comparatives so they need to be more creative in how they drive future growth,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at data analytics firm GlobalData. “Parties are a way of engaging more deeply with consumers…I don’t see it as financially meaningful in the wider scheme of the business, but it helps, and everything that helps is needed right now.” 

Spas and nail salons have long been venues for parties, but gen Z and alpha beauty obsessives began unofficially organizing birthday parties at Sephora in 2024 as the “Sephora kids” phenomenon took off with teens and tweens stampeding the Ulta competitor’s stores for viral products from the likes of Drunk Elephant, Glow Recipe and Rare Beauty.

Ulta has been aggressively taking pages out of Sephora’s playbook, appointing Martin Brok (ex-global president and CEO of Sephora) to its board, pursuing international expansion with a global merchandising strategy led by Jessica Phillips, formerly Sephora’s senior director of merchandising, according to Puck, and bringing in Sephora brands like Sol de Janeiro, Ole Henriksen and JVN Hair. The birthday party service is the latest example, however small.

Although it’s only offered in a tiny fraction of Ulta’s 1,473-store fleet, it could be influential in forging relationships early with teens and tweens who will go on to have bigger beauty budgets. Ulta store associates contacted by Beauty Independent report that the response so far to the service has been strong, with two to three parties booked in the first week it was available at Ulta’s location in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Saunders says, “The bigger play here is about creating stickiness around the Ulta brand.” Agreeing, Kelly St. John, founder and CEO of beauty strategic growth consultancy KSJ Collective, says, “If Ulta can position themselves as a destination for a tween’s first makeup or skincare moment, that loyalty can have lifetime value. It’s less about the one-time event fee and more about acquiring a future Ulta shopper that can translate into years of spend.”

Ulta is hosting birthday parties as it’s been laser-focused on regaining market share with teens after slipping behind Sephora as their favorite beauty destination and tripling down on in-store events. Sephora has occupied the No. 1 spot since fall 2023, with Ulta at No. 2, in investment bank Piper Sandler’s semi-annual survey of teens. Amiee Bayer-Thomas, chief retail officer at Ulta Beauty, told Women’s Wear Daily last month that the retailer aims to execute over 70,000 events this year, up 40% from last year. Gen Zers gravitate to in-store experiences over digital shopping. 

“While Sephora has been the default destination for this age group, the birthday party initiative gives Ulta a chance to feel inclusive and approachable,” says St. John. “The key will be execution, so the experience feels authentic and not just transactional.”

Ulta’s second quarter results were glowing. Driven by an increase in transactions, same-store sales for the period rose 6.7% compared to a 1.2% decline in the year-ago period. Net sales climbed 9.3% to $2.8 billion from $2.6 billion last year, with healthier same-store sales, new store contribution and Ulta’s recent acquisition of Space NK cited as contributors. Operating income was up, too.

The retailer’s fiscal outlook for the year improved, and net sales are now expected to land between $12 billion and $12.1 billion. Previously, they were expected to be between $11.5 billion and $11.7 billion.

“The bigger play here is about creating stickiness around the Ulta brand.”

Ulta’s birthday parties are sure to have detractors. At Sephora, some store associates and customers have questioned whether beauty stores that sell expensive products with strong active ingredients not meant for kids are an appropriate place for youth birthday parties. And then there’s the issue of adult shoppers possibly encountering noisy, giddy girls during their shopping visits. 

In a SephoraWorkers Subreddit thread, a Sephora associate with the handle localgoobus complained, “Sephora isn’t a kids place with pizza, cupcakes, and kids running around…Kids parties should be about games and playing with friends as fun and not shopping. I’m also not a babysitter and none of us are qualified to host children.”

Sephora employee and Redditor Limp_Scheme8610 was cheerier, writing, “My store had a party last year, it was a small get together for the tweens and their moms and we get some fun age appropriate makeup for the birthday girl. We just made sure they were ok but we didn’t really interact much. Was easy money on a Sunday morning before opening.”

The reaction of Ulta employees to the birthday parties has generally been positive. Chantal, a TikTok user who identified as an Ulta employee, commented on an Aug. 7 video uploaded by a user with the handle jamies_daily_deals, “i do the parties at my store. first of all theyre SO FUN!!! first half is an (age appropriate) skincare/makeup demo. bday girl can pick brands they wanna learn about or are more interested in to use or we’ll pick. then they shop/eat/cake/etc. we do them before/after store hours so they have the store to themselves.”

However, another Ulta store associate confirmed birthday parties have occurred during normal business hours. On Ulta’s birthday party booking page, morning, afternoon and evening times are listed as options. Saunders and St. John argue that balancing services that involve potentially boisterous young shoppers without disrupting the flow of store traffic and alienating core shoppers is a challenge for Ulta. Saunders notes, “Retailers that hold parties, like Michaels, usually have dedicated areas.” 

St. John points out Ulta’s latest bid to win teen and tween shoppers illustrates how beauty retailers are reimagining brick-and-mortar environments as online giants Amazon and TikTok Shop continue to siphon their customers.  She says, “Consumers expect entertainment, education and community under one roof and at times these things are as important as the product itself.”