Rare Beauty is one of the event's featured brands.
Big changes are coming to Sephoria, Sephora's annual beauty sale extravaganza. The two-day event is moving south, leaving New York for Atlanta’s famed Pullman Yards.
Held in late September, it has a new theme: Beauty Funhouse. And it’s promising ticket holders “sensory, transportive, prismatic activations, which extends to the many amazing brand booths and masterclasses on-site,” it says in its announcement.
General admission in the first wave of ticketing costs $135 per session or $420 for VIP tickets. Attendees get a 3-hour session plus a swag bag, and there are also masterclasses from such brands as Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare.
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The company says the event will also put its “We Belong” campaign in the spotlight, emphasizing inspiration and inclusion.
The event started in 2018 in Los Angeles, where it was also held in 2019. It shifted to a global virtual event for 2021 and 2022 and made its IRL return in 2023 in New York, when it sold out.
This year’s extravaganza comes at a time when the beauty business -- one of the hottest areas of consumer spending even in faltering economic spending -- is losing a little shine. For the first quarter, market researcher Circana reports that sales of prestige cosmetics, the kinds often sold at department stores and specialty retailers like Sephora and Ulta, gained 9%. Sales of mass-market beauty products grew by just 2%.
“The slowdown in growth that we are seeing in the beauty industry is a reflection of an industry stabilizing after strong double-digit performance for the past two years,” writes Larissa Jensen, Circana’s global beauty industry advisor, in her note. “But we should not underestimate its strength, as sales grew by over $600 million in the first quarter.