Ulta Beauty — Local services in Fargo

Today I went into the Fargo location, in hopes to find the perfect makeup for my wedding (09/10/2022). I explained to the SUPER SWEET Ulta Employee my face is dry/sometimes oily, but dry at the moment. She was very personable, kind and patient. But… She kept pushing her $49 Lancôme MATTE foundation. Which is an amazing brand/makeup for a natural look that I was going for. But, It was making me look so flaky. I didn’t appreciate that she was trying to make me feel like it was my fault and telling me to “hydrate twice daily” like I have time… and she also had me go exfoliate my face in the ulta bathroom…. I felt targeted when I just went in there to feel pretty and excited for my wedding day. I left with nothing and empty handed and had tears in my eyes upon leaving. I was there for two hours and only tried 2 different brands (same matte formula). MAC & Lancôme, but 8 shades of the Lancôme matte foundation. Keep in mind she was applying these foundation on my face with ZERO moisturizer and zero primer. Her coworker eventually came over and even told her “Use moisturizer and primer.” Also…. For a color match, why are we even worrying about how the skin looks. You should find the closest color match, then worry about if we need matte or dewy. When I got to my car, I noticed I still had exfoliant on my face and she still had been putting foundation on my face after this. My skin is raw because she was using these rough cotton pads/literal Kleenex to wipe my skin with and she did this about 10-15 times over my entire face. I want to reiterate that she was very nice, and pleasant to be around. But don’t be so pushy about selling her products to reach her “numbers” if it doesn’t benefit the customer. I’ve spent $1,000s at this ulta alone, and will continue to do so. I will probably just avoid ever getting advice from employees...

On 5/2 I made a purchase for 60.09 at the fargo location. I had bought some fake eyelashes and a few other things for a trip.

I had requested an email be sent to me, I never received such an email. I thought that was odd and immediately went back to the store, they couldn't provide a receipt at all and told me to reach out to corp. I work in tech, so I get that sometimes things happen with emails.

I contacted their corporate office, who told me ulta could look up the transaction. When I came into the store, they couldn't find any transaction associated with my account or phone number. They offered me $10 for the $50 some odd merchandise. I said nope, and contacted their corporate office. Their corporate office could not locate any transaction and continued to point me back to the store.

I requested a conference call as the store vs corp had different ideas of this transaction and providing a receipt. It's crazy to me that menards somehow posses the ability/technology to look up receipts by credit card number and ulta can't?? Corp never emailed me back.

Unfortunately, I had to dispute the transaction. ULTA provided back "proof" of a gift card transaction that occurred on 4/11 which is wild to me because I literally was not in the state and I provided that proof back to my credit card company, dates do not match and neither do the memebrIDs on the receipt. IDK who is doing the dispute work at this location/corp but come on.

Therefore, I am speculating that the cashier entered in their own phone number/memberID to get the points - which is why they can't find the transaction in question.

Lesson learned: Don't shop here and if you do, get a physical...

So so disappointed with my salon experience. Unfortunately today was actually my second time with the same stylist and both times had 2 very bad experiences. My fault for not remembering her name and coming back to her.

I come to ULTA salon as back up when my original salon artist is not available, mainly for root touch ups only.

First time I asked for a full root touch up. It was poorly done that she asked me to come back again and she would touch up the areas for free. Waste of my time- sitting there for 2 hours in the same week twice!

Today was even worse. I again went back for a full root touch up. She was so messy that there was hair dye all around the edges of my face. She washed my hair within 5 mins and I could tell she didn’t thoroughly wash out all the conditioner. I asked for facial framing and my bangs are the shortest and ugliest they have ever been. Then she used almost every product on the counter in my hair while blow drying. Curled my hair and half the curls on the right side of my face were out by the time I stood up. Then she says “I deep conditioned your hair, that’s why it looks like a layer of wax” No honey, you did an extremely poor job. Then I noticed dye on my hands and sweatpants. Came home to wash my hair again because it was SOOOO GREASY and DISGUSTING!

I’m so upset but it’s my fault for returning to that salon. Unfortunately I’m a diamond member at ULTA and get good perks with the salon but really not worth the money. I’d rather pay double and go to someone who knew what they were going.

Here’s to waiting months for it to grow back……

Update: Still annoyed. Just don’t go to Michelle if you...