August 2, 2021

Sephora Came In Like a Wrecking Ball and Ruined Kohl’s Beauty Department In My Humble Opinion

Sephora ruined Kohl’s beauty, fragrance, and makeup department in my humblest opinion. As you may Sephora will be located inside Kohl’s starting Fall 2021. There will be 200 Kohl’s locations as of the start of the back to school season that will have a built in Sephora store with its own entrance and over 2500 square feet of space dedicated to beauty, makeup, and fragrance. This big move is in direction competition with Target’s deal to move Ulta into their stores.

I haven’t been to Kohl’s in a while now but I do tend to navigate around their website from time to time because they have a really good beauty section with a lot of cool fragrances and brands. Plus a lot of it is always on sale which makes for some interesting pick ups.

I was talking to my friend the other night about Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely and she was like, “Oh I don’t know it!” and I was like, “Dude it’s lovely!” Yeah, that came out of mouth sounding dorky AF but whatevers….! Anyway, suddenly I found myself craving Sarah Jessica Parker BORN LOVELY. I wanted to blind buy it for some reason. I remember seeing it on the Kohl’s website at Christmas but never dove in. I actually like Lovely a lot even though I’m not much of a floral fan so surely a blind buy of Born Lovely wouldn’t be a great chore.

I quickly whisked my way over to the Kohl’s website only to realize the early Summer sale they had that was bomb dot comb meant that they technically cleared out of all beauty. Lorac, Real Techniques, Jennifer Lopez fragrances, and yes, Sarah Jessica Parker was all gone. No, Juicy Couture, no Pixi, it all vanished! They still carry some drugstore brands like Neutrogena but 99.9% of the beauty brands they did carry before Sephora are now gone.

I’m actually really sad about this as I thought the Juicy exclusives, the cool Escada fragrance launches, and all the other little brands they carried were awesome. Hell, I’ll go ahead and say they seemed to have more of a beauty department before Sephora than they do now that Sephora will be located in stores (and online).

This is likely part of the contract between Sephora and Kohl’s as I’m sure Sephora doesn’t want attention taken away from their beauty department. I’m not sure what’s happening in stores but I imagine Kohl’s will dismantle the larger beauty and fragrance section they have in stores as they have online.

Sorry Sephora but I think you ruined the Kohl’s beauty department!

Has anyone noticed this?

34 Comments

About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

  • Susan

    Our town doesn’t have a Kohl’s but I recently visited one when I was out of town, and was all “Where da makeup?” I understand about Sephora moving into another major retailer because I think JCPenney is not long for this world.

    On a different Sephora note, I was at ours this morning during my usual Monday morning runaround, and they had all their Urban Decay palettes on sale. They even had half a dozen — wait for it — Born to Run palettes! Talk about doing a double-take. That was one I never picked up but was having serious FOMO so you can bet with the sale price I grabbed one.

    • Isabella Muse

      You have experienced it in store! Wow! I haven’t been and was wondering what was going in stores. I know online it’s pretty bleak! Interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought Born to Run was gone for good as it doesn’t even appear on Nordy’s site! I hope you got it!

      • Susan

        I did get one Born to Run, and my evil self was tempted to buy them all and re-sell on eBay, but I didn’t. Do I get points in heaven? 😉

  • Rina

    So, is this confirmation that JCPenny will cease to exist? How is that working out?

    • Isabella Muse

      I think at some point a pull out of JCPenny will happen! Prob at the start of the New Year not to mention JCpenny really has no sustainability in the department store world! It’s only a matter of time before it goes belly up.

  • Liz

    I agree 1000%. I don’t like it and I don’t get it. I loved it when Kohls had their own exclusive brands. Then they brought in Bliss, Lorac, the Balm, Real Techiques, Loreal…why would they take all of that away? They bring in Sephora and now we’re just seeing the same things over and over…

    • Isabella Muse

      YASSSSSSSSSSSSSS! exactly! I loved the big variety of stuff they had!

  • Miriam

    I noticed last week that the Beauty tab was missing from the Kohl’s website. I’m totally bummed. I can get Sephora stuff at…Sephora. I really liked Kohl’s beauty department and their sales and clearance were awesome. Booooo.

    • Isabella Muse

      yeah now they only have a health and personal care tab which has a crappy line up 🙁

  • Susan

    My Kohl’s always had a horrible beauty section, they rarely had anything in stock, so I am looking forward to them actually having something. I live in a kind of small town, so the only Sephora within 100 miles in in JC Penney.

    • Isabella Muse

      WOW no kid! I never really go to Kohls tbh! But I did always check out the selection online and it was epic!

  • Dee

    I haven’t been in a Kohl’s for a few months but I LOVED their beauty department. Now I’ll stay way.

  • TC

    I always think of target as fresh modern and inexpensive and kohl�s are a bit staid and overpriced – I think Sephora has done itself a disservice on this brand alignment, although it�s exactly where I think the brand is heading. Target and ultra seem so much more vibrant and exciting imho

    • Isabella Muse

      Kohl’s is one of those weird price jabbing places that prices everything hide than proceeds to say it’s 50% off so you get it for original retailer but feel like you got a steal! LOL! I thought JCPenny was the real disservice! What a weird pairing that was!

  • Kelly

    I am a �maybe once every two months customer of Kohl�s�. And, yes. That was the only place I ever purchased �the Balm� highlighter, which I still love and wear…
    But, KOHL�S has never cared for or respected or given attention to the BEAUTY section. It was always in disarray. And most things out of stock. ((Even though I, for no good sane reason ,still look at…))
    Could NOT compare to JCPenney�s Sephora section. That was CRAP. But, still better than Kohl�s.
    So. This explains how something TERRIBLE got even worse. Maybe…
    I�d like this change. As long as Kohl�s provides the attention and care SEPHORA products deserve…
    I guess we�ll see…

  • Lori L.

    The only reason I ever went to Kohl’s was for Lorac and for candles. I guess my reason for visiting just went down 50%. Since Sephora is in all of the major malls already, how does replicating that in a Kohl’s help them to attract customers?

    • Isabella Muse

      I think there goal is to reach people won don’t readily have access to a Sephora. Personally, I prob wouldn’t go to a Sephora at Kohl’s but there are many people who don’t have a Sephora or live hours away from one so it’s a novelty to have it in kohl’s!

  • jill

    it could be that i�m just not awake yet (highly likely, it�s only 10:30 ) but am i missing something? is sephora going into ALL kohl�s stores? i thought i read 200 stores above, but i�m too tired to scroll back. anyway, my question is this: unless sephora will be �the� beauty department in ALL kohls stores – what do you suppose kohl�s will do regarding the beauty department in the non-sephora stores?

    okay, if this is a dopey question, don�t laugh where i can hear you. i�m only one coffee in.

    • Isabella Muse

      I think they have plans for more! 200 to start, more to follow! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great question in fact! It seems they started carrying a few off brands like Method and Neutrogena now (not that Method is beauty really but…) maybe they’ll design the beauty department around some of those brands!

  • Lisa D

    They always had great sales at Kohls, so, I’ll miss that. I always got a lot of Cargo goodies at Kohl’s, maybe that time has passed gut Cargo is impossible to find at Ulta or Sephora so that will be missed.

  • Jay

    Kohls locations are so weirdly placed. People talk bad about JCP but its always reasonably occupied whenever I�ve visited. I don�t know anyone who shops at Kohls in real life. Literally not one lol. I go seasonally for candles, so 3 times a year? But If I needed a work shirt or new bedding I�d check JCP. I guess it also depends where you live. Its a bummer Kohls cleared out the beauty stuff�especially since they carried non-Sephora brands. This merger doesn�t seem to have much of a benefit unless you’re already a shopper there.

  • Patty

    Years ago Kohl�s had their own beauty brands. American Beauty and Flirt were two of them. They were very good quality and reasonably priced. They were made by Est�e Lauder. I miss those brands a lot.

    • Isabella Muse

      I totally remember both and even have reviews on here of those ;-D Haha!

  • kjh

    If S blows into Kohl�s near me, maybe they�ll close the S that is ~3 stores down. I mean WTF and why? I thought the house brands by EL were great,too. In my location, there are two Us closer than Target. Of the two close-ish Targets, One Target is a perceptual nightmare and the other is laid out sensibly with a good staff. But it�s clothes heavy and makeup weak. Going to stick with the freestanding, not the store-in-stores.

  • anita goldbort

    I think Sephora taking up space in my local Kohl’s ruined the whole store. I still will go, but mostly order on line now.

  • MK

    Agreed. Not only did it ruin the Kohls makeup, beauty & fragrance department it banished the jewelry counter inside (those people lost jobs) and their cool accessories like bags & such have been shoved into a sad corner of woman’s clothing like an afterthought. This was my mom & I’s favorite area to shop. I despise these big beauty stores going into other stores! So I’ve visited my local Kohls a few times since & it’s not near as busy anymore. NO ONE was shopping in their big, new so-called exciting Sephora store. Nobody cares. This basically caused Kohls to lose a lot of my business.

    • Isabella Muse

      Gotta admit that the sephora thing is puzzling and you are so right! sephora took up such a huge CHUNK of Kohl’s! Like why!!?

  • Pam

    I shop online mostly. But I go into Kohls to pick up my order. Every time I go in I look to see if anyone is in the big dominating area of Sephora, and rarely do I even see a person there. On occasion I see a 2 teens looking and laughing and walking away. WHY did Kohls let them have so much space?

  • Lydia Masterson

    Kohl’ Beauty department was trashy and unkempt. Sephora has levelled up the beauty experience 1000X over.

  • Tracy

    Sadly don’t shop Kohls much since Sephora came in! I hate it…like you said…ruined the store in my opinion as well! And they used to be my go-to store.