When Ulta made the decision in 2019 to launch in Canada, my first reaction was… What are you thinking?

Why head north to wage an extremely expensive beauty war against both Sephora and Shoppers Drug Mart?  I questioned whether the potential return could justify the investment given Canada’s relatively small, but mighty spending population.

My first thought was…. why not go south and join the Queen of telenovelas? Mexico’s always camera ready for its drama queen performance, and we thank them for still wearing their full glam and crown to breakfast!  Mind you, Mexico is a 65% larger beauty market than Canada and with less major like-like players.

But will Ulta’s granted Mexican Passport gain them permanent residency, or will they be deported?

Fast forward to August 2025, Ulta Beauty officially crossed the border, opening its first location at Antara Fashion Hall in Mexico City, followed just nine days later by Galerías Metepec. By January 31, 2026, Ulta had already expanded to nine stores across Mexico.

And that first location? It was an obvious opening shot at Sephora’s bow. I personally attended the store opening and PR gala when Sephora entered the Mexican market back in 2011.  

Now meet Grupo Axo.  Ulta didn’t simply pack up its U.S. model and head south, rather It effectively chose the same Grupo Axo playbook Sephora used to enter Mexico 15 years earlier.

Ulta Mexico operates through a joint venture with Grupo Axo, one of Latin America’s larger multi-brand retail operators, representing 60+ international brands across more than 7,000 points of sale. Ulta Beauty licenses its name and operating model, while Axo provides the local retail infrastructure. Ulta earns royalties from international sales and recognizes its share of the JV’s financial results through equity-method accounting.

Translation: Mexican register sales do not roll directly into Ulta Beauty Inc.’s consolidated U.S. top line.

Ulta brought its familiar mass + masstige + prestige + emerging + exclusive + services formula to Mexico, but not a carbon copy of its U.S. assortment.  At launch, Ulta introduced 35 brands to Mexico for the first time, including Isima by Shakira, Peach & Lily, Orebella and Ulta Beauty Collection, alongside Morphe, Bubble, about-face, OUAI, Half Magic and Kitsch.  

Those imports sit beside Mexican and Latino-founded brands including AHAL, AloeVida, Bailando Juntos by Yuya and Sarelly Creativo Lab by Anna Sarelly.

So What’s Hot?

Ulta is leaning heavily into fragrance, skincare, makeup and hair, with dedicated luxury and K-beauty destinations and merchandising around names including Kylie Jenner, Shakira, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Orebella, e.l.f., OSEA, amika, Good Molecules and OUAI.

The strategy follows the market. Circana reported 2025 prestige beauty growth across its measured Latin American markets of +30% hair, +16% makeup, +15% fragrance and +13% skincare, while fragrance represented a massive 65% of measured prestige beauty sales during the first half of 2025.

Nine Stores In, but are they making money?  

Not yet, at least from what Ulta has reported.  For fiscal 2025, Ulta recorded a $3.9 million equity net loss related to its Mexico JV.  And here’s the important part: that $3.9 million is Ulta’s equity-method loss associated with the JV, not necessarily Ulta Mexico’s total operating loss.  Ulta itself cautions that building international operations is costly and that they may not become profitable on a sustained basis. (ulta.com)

For now, Mexico is exactly what an expansion market should be at this stage: an investment, not yet a victory lap.  So, what happens when those nine stores mature, the door count grows and Ulta starts taking market share?   That’s where the math can get interesting.