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A new boyfriend has a way of putting into stark relief the pros and cons of a predecessor. Until recently, Alessandra Salvatore, 27, happily made a beeline to the nearest Sephora when she craved an $18 lip plumper or her favorite scent, Giorgio Armani's Emporio She.

But because Sephora with its Parisian pedigree doesn't sell drugstore makeup, Salvatore required another stop to grab a $7.29 Maybelline Full 'N Soft mascara. That was before she moved from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., to Charlotte, N.C., and discovered Ulta, a national chain of beauty stores that brings together designer fragrances, drugstore staples, salon-only hair products, as well as a growing selection of prestige cosmetics like Benefit and Smashbox.

''When you walk in, it was really clean and easy on the eye,'' said Salvatore, an administrative assistant at a health care company. Cavernous enough for 21,000 products and cut-and-color hair salons, Ulta stores are often in strip malls, a convenience she appreciates. ''I like that you pull right up and boom there's Ulta,'' she said.

Sephora may have pioneered the concept of glitzy stores as playgrounds where women could dab and smear prestige lipsticks and face creams. No longer was a salesclerk a gatekeeper to the makeup, nor a cheerleader for the single brand that paid her commission. Instead, roving experts helped as needed.

Now Ulta, with 331 stores nationwide, is trying to go Sephora one better. It offers inexpensive beauty staples found at the likes of Target, along with easy access to prestige treats that used to be trapped behind glass. There are also hair salons in each Ulta store and stylists to help navigate the rows of professional hair products. Ulta has several stores in the Bay Area including San Jose, San Mateo, Fremont and Dublin.

Lyn Kirby, Ulta's chief executive, likes to call the company a ''category killer,'' as if she wants to tear down the walls segregating L'Oreal in pharmacies from high-end skin care in department stores and beauty chains.

Only recently has Ulta wrangled enough prestige cosmetics to give a beauty powerhouse like Sephora, with more than 230 free-standing stores in the United States, a run for its clientele, said consumers and retail analysts.

''They have a critical mass of prestige brands,'' said Liz Dunn, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, adding: ''Part of the off-mall appeal is convenience. They're trying to target the time-starved woman who wants an easy shopping experience.'' Critics say Ulta is hardly within Sephora's universe. Until Ulta stores offer beloved standards like Clinique Dramatically Different lotion and more adventurous niche makeup brands, they say, it cannot be considered one-stop shopping.

More at: http://www.mercurynews.com/submitanevent/ci_12909176