EXCLUSIVE: Ulta Beauty Goes Into Allure Store

One year after its opening, The Allure Store has looked to specialty retail for its newest partner.

Ulta Beauty, the country’s largest beauty retailer, is taking its big ambitions to The Allure Store’s small-format boutique in SoHo, New York.

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For both retailers, the partnership made sense.

“We launched a year ago with the vision of bringing media, content and Allure’s authority into retail to build a stage for Allure’s favorite brands to tell their stories,” said Sonny Gindi, cofounder and creative director of The Allure Store. “Ulta approached us with this idea and vision.”

To that end, Ulta will be bringing both up-and-coming brands and its core business drivers to the space. It’s not the first time the Condé Nast-owned Allure and Ulta have partnered, with the latter bringing “Shop Like a Beauty Editor” displays to over 1,000 Ulta doors in 2017.

“We can really pull together two powerhouses in beauty,” said Karla Davis, vice president of integrated marketing, Ulta Beauty. “This gives us an opportunity to really take what is awesome about Allure and their presence, and what’s awesome about Ulta Beauty – our unrivaled assortment and our ability to really help people discover and play in new and interesting ways – and do it at scale in an interesting and experiential way.”

Among the products featured will be celebrity brands Fenty Beauty, Ariana Grande’s R.e.m. Beauty and Halsey’s About-face, in addition to Olaplex and Black Girl Sunscreen.

“It’s a nice, balanced assortment across categories in a way that makes sure it brings things that people would be interested in discovering, or grabbing closer to their homes for New Yorkers,” Davis continued.

The partnership comes at a time of continued success for both entities. Gindi noted that The Allure Store has hosted over 500 in-person events in its first year of business, roughly two to three a day. “This is the future, this is how brands succeed going forward, and this is how they cut through the noise,” he added.

Similarly, Ulta is full steam ahead with its shop-in-shops in partnership with Target Corp., and is slowly moving into urban areas, too. “Especially as we think about New York City where we have some of the most engaged beauty consumers, consumers have loved shopping at Herald Square and the Upper East Side store,” Davis said. “We need to continue to add convenience for those given how large the footprint of New York City is.”

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