Five Ulta Beauty Store Managers on What Their Days Are Really Like

Ulta Beauty operates nearly 1,500 stores across the U.S. — each led by a general manager with a story of their own. Here, Beauty Inc meets five of them to learn about their backgrounds, their respective beauty “aha” moments and what guests are buying most at their stores.

1. Derenisse Infante

General manager, Upper East Side, New York City

Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Derenisse Infante was 17 years old when she fell in love with beauty — or, more accurately, when her late grandmother, Sarah, made sure she would.

“I graduated high school and she was like, ‘I need you to learn now; we’re going to teach you the ways,’” she recalled. “My grandmother was a fancy girl, and a Clinique girl, and I learned beauty through her.”

From there, Infante rose through the ranks of beauty retail — at one point, helming the Clinique counter at Macy’s Herald Square — before landing at Ulta in 2021, where she now serves as general manager of the retailer’s Upper East Side store in New York.

“Learning about my skin, learning the proper steps of makeup application and about hair — it empowered me in a way that I want to share with people,” said Infante, who doubled down on her beauty education during the pandemic, attending the Bronx’s Brittany Beauty Academy to obtain her aesthetics license.

“The most rewarding thing about being in this space is having the opportunity not just to see how people engage with beauty — but how people change because of it; how they feel more confident through it,” said Infante, who describes herself as a “people-centric” leader and her daily beauty regimen as one of strategy.

“Day-to-day, I want efficacy and I want streamlined,” she said, adding that Dermalogica’s BioLumin-C is her go-to vitamin C serum, while makeup-wise, she can typically be seen wearing a full face of Dior, barring her holy-grail E.l.f. Cosmetics blush. She knows what she likes — much like her fellow New Yorkers.

“New Yorkers are very particular about what they want,” she said. “Right now, our store is seeing a lot of movement for Cécred; our legacy brands — MAC Cosmetics, Benefit and Clinique — continue to have that stronghold, and we see Method and Snif moving and shaking, too.”

In her own family, the beauty bug hasn’t skipped a beat: “My 9-year-old son, Isaiah, is into Donna’s Recipe for his hair because he likes the way it smells, and now he’s getting into cologne, too — I’ll give him a little spritz of Polo Ralph Lauren on his shirt,” laughed Infante. “He’s loving it.”

2. Andrea Davenport

General manager, Dania Beach, Fla.

For the last year and a half, Andrea Davenport has kicked off most days with a mini-trampoline jump session.

“It’s called rebounding,” said the general manager of Ulta’s Dania Beach, Fla., store, adding that the practice is “for your lymphatic system, when, first thing in the morning, you want to get everything moving.”

As you might guess, Davenport’s gateway to the world of beauty wasn’t makeup or skin care, but rather, wellness.

“I’ve always been into health and wellness more than the cosmetics and artistry side of beauty,” said Davenport, who nonetheless has an appreciation for those aspects of the industry as well. “You wouldn’t want me to do your hair, but being able to be a part of that process, perhaps in an indirect way, is very rewarding for me.”

An Ulta veteran of nearly 10 years, Davenport has served stores across the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas, but has found particular charm in Dania Beach. “The city itself is very quaint — about eight square miles — and so I’ve had even more opportunity to tap into the community,” said Davenport, who serves on the board of the local Historical Society and is a member of the Dania Beach Lions Club, the city’s community service organization.

Typical guests of the store range from Dania Beach’s mayor and city commissioners, to year-round tourists seeking seaside getaways. “We definitely sell a lot of sunscreen — Neutrogena in particular — and mass skin care more broadly,” Davenport said. “The Ordinary, Byoma, Bubble — those brands have been hot as people have been focusing more on catering to skin health at an accessible price point.”

This past year has been “one of growth,” said Davenport — who would have it no other way. “One of the things I am an advocate for is that you have to reinvent yourself every year, or you’re going to be left behind. That’s one of the things that makes my job so exciting; every day is a new challenge, every day is something different.”

3. Erika Bracken

General manager, Pflugerville, Texas

A Squishmallow stress ball, Star Wars merch and motivational quotes are just a few of the ways in which Erika Bracken brings her work space to life.

“My favorite quote right now is, ‘success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure,’ by Aisha Tyler,” read aloud Bracken, who has been general manager of Ulta’s Pflugerville, Texas, store for six years, and has worked at the retailer for nine.

Growing up, the Texas native had an aunt who would periodically stay with her family, each time bringing along “this huge case of MAC eye shadows — I swear she had every color — and I would just sit and watch her do her makeup,” said Bracken, who found the pastime relaxing in the same way that she would later come to feel about watching YouTube beauty gurus of the 2010s. “That era of YouTube struck a passion for beauty in me — it was almost therapeutic to watch.”

Bracken began at Ulta as a beauty adviser in 2016 and, “through a lot of grit and determination,” worked her way up to her current post. At her store, which counts more than 40 associates, bestselling products include Snif’s line of fragrances — Rose Era and Crumb Couture, especially — as well as YSL and Valentino Beauty scents. In terms of skin care, “Drunk Elephant is always a hot commodity, and Lancôme as well,” said Bracken, who describes her leadership approach as one that emphasizes both empathy and accountability.

“Building a strong in-store culture is very important to me,” said Bracken, whose pre-work rituals range from listening to movie-reviewing and leadership podcasts to catching up on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” “We have good days most days, and even on those tougher days, we have a sense of community in our store that allows us to persist.”

4. Angela Hagan

General manager, Anaheim Hills, Calif.

Angela Hagan loves to keep up with TikTok trends, but her own beauty ethos remains consistent: “I want to get out of the house in 30 minutes,” said Hagan, general manager of Ulta’s Anaheim Hills, Calif., store.

Her current go-to look? Lancôme’s Teint Idole natural-matte foundation; a dash of concealer, and a rosy-bronze flush courtesy of Nars’ Afterglow Liquid Blush in Orgasm Rush. “I like simplicity — but I also like to know what other people are doing,” said Hagan, whose curiosity, she believes, comes with the territory of her role.

“There’s such an emotional connection that comes with working in beauty, and in retail overall — you have to have a passion for connecting with people of different backgrounds,” said Hagan, who joined Ulta in 2022 following stints at Neiman Marcus, Aveda and Nordstrom.

Bestsellers at her store include Kopari’s sunscreen assortment (“Kopari is killing it — it just does SPF in a way that’s relatable to everyone,” said Hagan); Clinique’s makeup, particularly in the brand’s Nude Honey shade, and fragrance mists from Sol de Janeiro and Saltair. “Hair and body mists are definitely the new thing guests are looking for when they enter the store,” she said.

As far as Hagan’s best Ulta memories, opening the Anaheim store is a favorite. “Having the opportunity to open a brand new store; recruit and build the team, walk in when it’s completely empty and see the transformation happen and being able to say, ‘wow — we did that,’ — this [store] is my baby, so that’s definitely one of my best and most memorable experiences,” Hagan said.

5. Jessica Johnson

General manager, Oak Brook, Ill.

Asked what she likes most about living in Chicago, Indiana native Jessica Johnson’s response is simple: “I’m never bored,” said the general manager of Ulta’s Oak Brook, Ill., store, who has been living in the city for about 11 years, and working at Ulta for five. “It’s home to such a diverse group of people, and you have everything at your fingertips.”

While she began at Ulta in 2020, Johnson’s love of beauty kicked off long before then.

“I’ve always had a passion for beauty — I shopped at Ulta so many times before I actually worked here, and I always felt this magnetic energy that made me want to come back,” said Johnson, a longtime lash enthusiast (“I never leave the house without them on,” she said) who counts Estée Lauder’s Double Wear foundation and Stila liquid eyeliner among her holy-grail beauty products.

At her store, popular offerings include all things Bubble, Sol de Janeiro and Anua; Peach & Lily sheet masks; Divi’s hero scalp serum and Sacheu’s TikTok-viral lip stains. In terms of fragrances, Billie Eilish’s eponymous line and Valentino Beauty “have continued to be bestsellers for us,” said Johnson, adding that offerings from Jean Paul Gaultier and Drake’s Better World Fragrance House are also hits.

“I’m a people person, and for that reason I’ve always gravitated toward retail,” said Johnson, adding, “at Ulta, our job is to make people feel beautiful, and that’s just fun.” Guest interactions are one of her favorite aspects of the job, and one of her favorite traditions is the store’s annual potluck-style holiday party. “Our skin therapist brings tamales each year — they are amazing,” she said.