Target is making its most ambitious beauty play yet with the launch of Target Beauty Studio, a dedicated retail concept bringing more than 1,600 products from 90 prestige, emerging, and global brands into over 600 stores across the U.S. starting September 10. Unlike a standard beauty aisle, the format is built around discovery and guidance: dedicated beauty advisors, testing stations for select products, and a central activation table designed for rotating brand takeovers, the first of which spotlights fragrance label Lake & Skye.
The move puts Target in more direct competition with the specialty-beauty experience long associated with Sephora and Ulta, at a moment when mass retailers are fighting to keep beauty shoppers from defecting entirely to specialty stores or DTC brands. For emerging labels, a slot inside Target Beauty Studio's rotating activations could become one of the more valuable distribution wins available outside a Sephora shelf.
