• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 27, 2016

As JCPenney continues its attempt to reclaim relevance at the local mall, it says it’s celebrating the 10-year-anniversary of its Sephora partnership with 60 new locations. 

The Sephora-inside-JCPenney concept has been a consistent bright spot in the retailer’s wild ups and downs in the last decade and is currently operating in about 600 of its 1,000 stores.

The Plano, Texas-based chain says about half the new shops are opening this week, and most will be ready by mid-June, which it says is key to grabbing more sales during the back-to-school and holiday periods. 

Each Sephora unit, about 2,000 square feet and with roughly 50 brands, replaces the company’s traditional beauty counters. Stores with the Sephora shops inside perform better than those that don’t have them, and the company also says the Sephora units represent a healthy chunk of its online sales.

The partnership “has been an incredible partnership that has yielded both business growth and unmatched exposure in numerous markets across the U.S.,” says Satish Malhotra, EVP for Sephora inside JCPenney, Canada and Latin America, in its announcement. “We are excited to continue introducing our unique interactive concept to millions of beauty enthusiasts.”

In its most recent quarterly results, JCPenney’s comparable-store results climbed 4.1%. 

Sephora, which owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, has just 360 stand-alone units in North America, while competitor Ulta is increasingly storming the suburbs. With 874 stores and soaring sales, it plans to open 100 new stores in the coming year. And Macy’s is continuing its expansion of Blue Mercury, planning 42 new stores, with 18 of them tucked inside existing Macy’s locations.