Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products with nearly 340 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora Collection, and includes beauty products such as cosmetics, skincare, body, fragrance, nail color, beauty tools, body lotions and haircare. The company was founded in Limoges in 1969 and is currently based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Sephora is owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH as of 1997. The name comes from the Greek word meaning beauty, sephos, and the Greek spelling of Zipporah (Greek: Σεπφώρα, Sepphōra), wife of Moses, described in midrash, aggadah and Targum Onkelos as beautiful.
Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragrances, nail products, bath and body products, beauty tools and haircare products. Each store also has a beauty salon.
The difference between Sephora brand and Ulta brand is that Sephora only keeps a collection of luxury brands, but Ulta brand offers both drugstore brands and luxury brands, which means it has costly as well as an affordable set of products. Sephora is a much more spread brand than Ulta. Sephora has a worldwide presence, but Ulta does not.