Report
The Ulta Quarterly: Q3 2026
By Jacob St. John, Founder & CEO
A look back at July through September on Ulta.com, covering which departments, categories and brands gained or lost ground with shoppers.
+87%
K-beauty skincare's share of Ulta attention vs last summer
−29%
Fragrance's share vs last summer, to 5.6%
11.4%
hair color's share of Hair, the highest on our records
16.0%
of tracked Ulta search visibility was sponsored, from 10.3%
What changed this summer
- 01K-beauty skincare went from 2.1% to 3.9% of shopper attention on Ulta.
- 02Fragrance lost 29% of its share, a much bigger drop than at Sephora or on Amazon.
- 03Makeup grew to 33.3% of attention while nails gave up ground inside it.
- 04Derm brands like La Roche-Posay and CeraVe lost skincare bestseller share.
- 05Sponsored listings rose to 16.0% of tracked search visibility, from 10.3%.