Ulta Beauty — Local services in Saint Augustine

Called to book an appointment for a blowout, explained to the woman on the phone that I was looking for a very big voluminous blowout and was hoping to work with someone who does them often (or at all) and preferred a senior stylist. She recommended Sammy I believe her name was. Short rainbow colored hair. The woman booking my appointment told me she was going to block out an hour for this appointment to leave us time to have a consultation for what I was looking for before the appointment. I get there right on time to Sammy and another employee finishing a conversation before approaching me. The time it took for me to have my “consultation,” hair wash, and “blow out” took a total of 35 minutes. She sprayed ONE product in my hair, that I asked about because it smelt good and she said it was blow dry spray. When she completed the “blow out” she allowed me 10 seconds to look in the mirror where I squeaked out a “looks good” before she said ok follow me upfront to get my payment receipt thing. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t realize how bad until I got in the car and took a photo. I hate confrontation, but ultimately decided for $45 maybe I at least deserved an explanation of why it looked exactly how it did when I walked in with straightened hair lol. I asked for my stylist, asked her if she used any products and why my hair looked the same as it did when I walked in, she got an attitude over me saying this was just a blow dry not a blow out, and when she disagreed (snotty with rolling eyes and awful demeanor) I asked for her manager. I was then greeted by the manager Megann, who chalked it up to me having unrealistic expectations. Which MAY have been the case, but it’s also why there was additional time added to the appointment to ensure a proper consultation!!!! When I mentioned that, Megann’s poor response was “well she is one of our most experienced stylists she’s been here a long time so sometimes her appointments go quicker than expected” …. So she just doesn’t have to do consultations to avoid an upset customer like myself? After the rude and unfulfilling response from both Sammy & Megann, I told her I’d like a refund for my $10 tip. I NEVER leave this low of a tip to begin with but I was so upset leaving initially I did, and then decided even the little $10 was more than what was deserved. Megann gave me my refund for $10, then said “I’ll get you a gift card that can be used at any Ulta Beauty Services” and I should’ve asked clarifying questions apparently bc I assumed it was for the wasted $45 I spent. Instead it was two 10% off coupons. Shouldn’t have even bothered waiting at the front for her to get them. All in all, this whole situation could have been potentially avoided had Sammy done a proper consultation, or spent more than 5 minutes total talking to me at all. No before consultation, no real conversation after the service, and a half witted, attitude filled discussion when my concerns were raised. I understand Megann wanting to have her employee’s back, but at some point when I’m standing in front of you with pin straight, flat, soft hair… we may have wanted to switch the tune and realized the service I paid for was simply not provided. 0/10 recommend Sammy, will never return. (Not that she would want me to...

Managers made my pickup experience more complicated than needed to be. The cashier was super nice and understood me from the beginning. I placed an online order for 4 things, one of them being a hair dye which turned out to be out of stock. No big deal, I figured it would be resolved easily so I was not upset. Went to pick up my order and just simply asked the cashier, “Since the hairdye color I wanted was out of stock, am I able to replace it for just a different color?” Cashier saw no problem with that, so I grabbed the other color I wanted, and she called a manager up. First red flag, the manager said “Oh you haven’t bought anything with us since December so I can’t pull up your account.” That had nothing to do with what was going on especially since I just placed the online order. So I simply just asked again the same question, and the manager told me “Well you haven’t paid for anything so you’ll have to pay again.” I told her that I already paid for the items, so the very unprofessional manager mumbled under her breath saying, “Well that’s not how that works but okay.” So the cashier tried explaining the situation again, the manager said “Oh okay I get you! Yeah we can do that!” But again, I was going to be charged for what I already bought. So all I said was, “I’m not paying again for this, I just want to take my other items then.” So ANOTHER manager comes into picture and me and the poor cashier explained the situation again. This manager was much nicer but also couldn’t grasp what we told her. So then I was finally told I couldn’t exchange my item, which was fine I wish I was told that in the beginning. But then they wouldn’t hand me the rest of my items. Claiming again I did not pay for the items. Even though I showed them receipts of everything, they still asked if they could see the transaction through my bank. So I was now fed up and asked for a full refund due to feeling like these managers were treating me like I was the dumb one, but out of nowhere the managers finally got their common sense and told me. “Oh wait, these are your other items? You just picked these up? Oh well you can go ahead and take these!” Me and the cashier told them several times I was picking up an order. SEVERAL TIMES. Stop sugarcoating things, if it was going to be a no on exchanging something that I paid for but turned out to be out of stock, then you should’ve said no in the first place like all other businesses do. I wasn’t even mad or anything at first I was totally fine with the item being out of stock but once they started making things complicated then of course I got frustrated. I wish the managers also had name tags so I could put their names in the review. But whatever, never buy a pickup order from...

Kashanda at the brow bar is awesome! I've never gotten my brows done before, but she made it a really comfortable process. She maps out your brows and shows you along the way how it looks to make sure you're satisfied. I've been to her twice for my brows now and I can't imagine seeing anyone else! She also fit me in for a chin wax even though I was only booked for the brows. She didn't hesitate to add on the service for me. I give her a 5/5 stars if I could rate services separately.

The reason for four stars instead of five is for the ear piercing station. I went here not realizing they used a piercing gun. I should have gone with my gut and left but I went through with it anyway. The heart shaped earrings used were WAY too small to pierce an ear with, and gave no room to accommodate swelling. The earring became so tight and nearly embedded in the ear that I ended up having to go elsewhere to get them all replaced with proper flat-back studs with long bars. Looking at the length of the heart earrings from ulta, they were shorter than even a standard size earring, as if they were child sized. Far too small for a new piercing. Please do not get your ears done here or any place that uses a gun. It's worth the extra cost to go to a reputable piercer who uses a needle and high-end jewelry made for piercing. I may also need my ears re-done again in the future to fix placement issues as well. The girl who did them was very nice and it's nothing against her, she was just doing her job, but a piercing gun is just bad...