Function of Beauty vs Ulta Beauty
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
Algorithm-driven personalized haircare brand available at Target and CVS across thousands of US store locations; pioneered mass-market hair customization at accessible price points, expanding personalized beauty from premium DTC to mainstream retail.
About
Function of Beauty is a New York-based personalized haircare brand founded in 2015 by Zahir Dossa and Hien Nguyen. The company uses a proprietary algorithm and quiz-based system to formulate custom shampoo, conditioner, and hair treatment products from a matrix of active ingredients, fragrances, and color dyes. Products are manufactured to order and shipped directly to consumers with their name on the bottle.\n\nFunction of Beauty differentiated from Prose by targeting a broader, more price-sensitive consumer segment and aggressively expanding into mass retail. The brand entered Target in 2020 and later CVS, growing to thousands of store locations nationwide. This retail-first expansion made personalized haircare accessible at drugstore price points rather than premium DTC-only tiers. The company has also launched personalized skincare and bodycare lines.\n\nThe brand faced market headwinds in 2024 as consumer interest in personalized beauty matured, but it retains its position as the most widely distributed customized haircare brand in the US. Function of Beauty has raised over $150 million in venture funding and continues to iterate on its personalization engine with AI-driven ingredient recommendations and expanded formula options.
NASDAQ-listed (ULTA) largest US beauty retailer with 1,400+ stores and 44M loyalty members; prestige-to-mass-plus-salon format competing with Sephora and Target shop-in-shop for total beauty spend.
About
Ulta Beauty is the largest US beauty retailer — operating 1,400+ stores across 50 states that combine prestige, mass-market, and salon product sales with in-store salon and beauty services in a single destination format that no other beauty retailer matches. Listed on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: ULTA), Ulta generated approximately $11.3 billion in net sales in fiscal year 2024 and operates the Ultamate Rewards loyalty program with 44+ million members, which is among the largest loyalty programs in US retail.
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