AWFUL - Keyholder Ulta Beauty Employee Review

1.0
Jun 25, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salon Discount Gratis Friends and Family Discount

Cons

Only being part of the "management team" when it suits them More responsibility than most of the senior management and making half of what they make. Took 3 years to be promoted to keyholder from prestige consultant. Was denied a promotion I was promised because I asked not to work a close/open every Sat./Sun. after eight weeks in a row of doing so. Low pay compared to other cosmetic companies. If you actually have to support yourself then you definitely cant do it here. The 25% discount sucks and most of the public coupons are a better discount unless you spend over $15. Lots of empty promises and no recognition for going way above and beyond. Most of the management are incredibly lazy and just pawn their job off on others. So much is expected that's its very taxing and you are never rewarded for a job well done just scrutinized when you miss goals. They want to have a "big" team but hiring more people means that most associates get less than 10 hours a week when the good associates should just be getting more hours. You also cannot get benefits unless you are a manager (keyholders although full time are excluded) and the ones you can buy for being a full time employee are a complete joke and ridiculously expensive for the coverage you get.

Explore other reviews about Ulta Beauty

5.0
May 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

everything about the job was great. the people and work and i was fine with the hours 5am-11am sometimes

Cons

i hardly got days to work

2.0
May 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good benefits for full time employees from what I hear. hourly pay if commission goal isn't met which is nice for those building clientele

Cons

this could just be the case for my store, especially because it's a very high volume store, but as a stylist I don't feel valued at all. I expected this to some degree coming to a huge corporate salon, but the biggest issue is that they try to pretend they care about you. but at the end of the day, if you're not meeting the sales they want/growing quickly enough, they don't care about you as a stylist. if you don't already have an established clientele, business is highly unreliable as there is no late cancellation/no show policy. many services are underpriced in my opinion, making it hard to meet their sales goals as an entry level part-time stylist unless fully booked every day. all they care about is getting as many clients in and out and quickly and possible and they hire more stylists than there are chairs, making every day inconsistent and chaotic. the relative stability of hourly pay is commission threshold isn't met seems enticing for stylists still building a clientele, but the hourly pay is wildly inconsistent between stylists, even those of the same tier. as a stylist of over 3 years who moved and is starting over with no clientele, I make over $2 less per hour than a fellow stylist who just got her license a few months ago and started taking clients for the first time last week. you're better off working at a place like Great Clips or Hair Cuttery because at least they're honest about what they are.

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