Target Beauty Studio Replaces Ulta at 5 Upstate SC Stores This September

Five South Carolina Target stores are swapping out their Ulta Beauty shops for a new, entirely in-house beauty concept this fall, with Upstate shoppers getting their first look on September 26. Target Beauty Studio will roll out at the Woodruff Road Target in Greenville, the Fairview Road Target in Simpsonville, and the Boiling Springs Road Target in Boiling Springs, alongside locations in Columbia and Myrtle Beach.

The national rollout of Target Beauty Studio launches September 10 at more than 600 stores and on Target.com, according to Greenville News. South Carolina's five participating stores will hold their local celebration event on September 26, part of a broader schedule of nationwide launch parties running from noon to 4 p.m. local time, where the first 100 guests at most locations will receive Target Circle bonus offers, according to Target Corporation.

“Target Beauty Studio is an inspiring destination to discover what's new, now and next in beauty,” said Amanda Nusz, per the Greenville News report. The new department will stock more than 1,600 products spanning skincare, haircare, cosmetics and fragrance, drawn from 90 prestige, emerging and global brands.

What's Replacing the Ulta Shelves

More than two-thirds of those 90 brands are entirely new to Target, according to Retail Dive, including prestige names like Sunday Riley, Dyson, First Aid Beauty and Boy Smells, plus K-beauty labels such as Kaja, Rom&nd and Purito Seoul. Familiar names are staying in the mix too — Target Beauty Studio will also carry BondiBoost, Coach, Joico, Kenra, Paul Mitchell and Mario Badescu, per the Greenville News report.

The physical layout is changing as much as the product mix. Standard aisles are giving way to dedicated Beauty Advisors in signature uniforms, interactive central sampling tables, rotating trend displays labeled Editors' Picks, and a section devoted to mini-sized travel items, the Shelby Report reports. The redesign is meant to mimic a specialty beauty boutique experience inside a big-box footprint.

Why Target and Ulta Split

Target and Ulta Beauty launched their shop-in-shop partnership in 2021 with a goal of expanding into 800 Target locations, but the companies mutually agreed in August 2025 not to renew the deal beyond its August 2026 expiration after reaching roughly 600 locations, according to a joint statement from Ulta Beauty and Target Corporation. Target has since ended that partnership, replacing the Ulta footprint with its own beauty concept nationwide.

Foot-traffic data may help explain the split. Location analytics firm Placer.ai found that in the third quarter of 2022, 14.5% of California Target shoppers who visited an in-store Ulta shop also shopped at a standalone Ulta, compared to 10.8% of Target shoppers statewide, as reported by Glossy. That overlap suggested the shop-in-shop model was cannibalizing potential growth for Ulta's standalone stores rather than expanding the customer base for either chain.

Ulta, for its part, has leaned into standalone growth since the breakup, reaching approximately 1,500 U.S. locations by late 2025 while executing a turnaround plan called Ulta Beauty Unleashed. That pivot away from partner-managed store space has already shown up in Ulta's expansion elsewhere, including a new standalone location that opened in San Antonio earlier this month.

Beauty's Growing Weight for Target

The timing lines up with strong numbers for Target's beauty category. The retailer's beauty sales rose 7.2% year-over-year to $3.64 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up from $3.40 billion a year earlier, according to BeautyMatter. Total beauty sales reached $7.04 billion over the first six months of 2026, making beauty one of Target's best-performing categories heading into the transition.

The launch is also part of a much larger capital push. Target announced a $5 billion investment plan for 2026 that includes opening more than 30 new stores, remodeling over 130 existing locations, and carrying out its most extensive set of in-store operational changes in more than a decade, per the Shelby Report. Target Beauty Studio has also drawn digital-native brands into physical retail for the first time, including anti-acne skincare maker Clearstem — which generated $50 million in sales in 2025 — and hair-serum brand Remilia Hair, according to Modern Retail.

What It Means for Upstate Shoppers

South Carolina has 23 Target stores statewide, including locations on Woodruff Road in Greenville and Fairview Road in Simpsonville. For shoppers there, the September 26 celebration marks the moment the Ulta-branded shelves they've browsed since 2021 give way to Target's own curated department, guided by dedicated beauty staff rather than a third-party retailer's inventory.