Ever wonder what it\u2019s like shopping with a beauty editor? Welcome to Counter Service, a series where we visit our favorite beauty boutiques IRL. We\u2019re visiting the curated spaces and places that make shopping in person oh-so worth it\u2014and you\u2019re coming with. Up next, Sarah Felbin, Allure\u2019s senior commerce editor, visited Ulta Beauty on the hunt for Mother\u2019s Day gifts that her mom will love and use on the daily.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ve always been super close with my mom (think Lorelai and Rory from Gilmore Girls,<\/em> but with less boy drama). She was my introduction to all things beauty, from helping me perfect my eyeliner before a dance competition to choosing the right mani-pedi color combination for my senior prom. And most lessons started the same way: with a trip to our local beauty store. In our case, that was Ulta.<\/p>\n My mom and I have spent hours roaming its hallowed beauty halls, tossing new launches into our bags to discuss in detail later. So, when I was at a loss for where to pick up a Mother\u2019s Day gift she\u2019d actually love, I decided to swing by my local store first\u2014and I\u2019m so<\/em> glad I did.<\/p>\n The author with her mom<\/p>\n <\/span>Sarah Felbin<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Hoping I can find everything on my list.<\/p>\n <\/span>Katie Gunderman<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Stepping into the 86th Street location in New York City (past the rainbow lipstick mural) takes me right back to those childhood shopping sprees. You know the vibe: massive sales floor, bright lights (perfect for swatching\u2014and you know we’re testing everything<\/em>), and seemingly endless, with rows of pristinely organized prestige beauty brands and drugstore favorites alike. As a beauty editor, this is my dream. I literally can\u2019t wait to dive in\u2014even the playlist, stacked with Beyonc\u00e9, ABBA, and Dua Lipa, gets me in the mood to do some digging.<\/p>\n Ready to shop ’til I drop!<\/p>\n <\/span>Katie Gunderman<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n As I pace the aisles, browsing, swatching, and chatting with the store associates, I find some things I already can\u2019t live without that I know Mom will love, and some new things I can\u2019t wait to introduce her to. Almost without realizing it, I\u2019ve filled my bag with a pile of presents ranging from skin-care devices to makeup to fragrance\u2014and I\u2019ve barely even made a dent in all of Ulta Beauty\u2019s offerings. (There\u2019s always her birthday\u2026and Christmas, too.) Here’s what my haul looked like.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ever wonder what it\u2019s like shopping with a beauty editor? Welcome to Counter Service, a series where we visit our favorite beauty boutiques IRL. We\u2019re visiting the curated spaces and places that make shopping in person oh-so worth it\u2014and you\u2019re coming with. Up next, Sarah Felbin, Allure\u2019s senior commerce editor, visited Ulta Beauty on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Ulta-Beauty-Mothers-Day-Counter-Service-lead-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"https:\/\/media.allure.com\/photos\/69f2310f41f3ebfb09981b18\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/Felbin%2520and%2520Mom%25201.JPG\"\/)
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