Online Beauty Shopping Guide

Thanks to an increase in niche beauty brands, the rise of the natural beauty industry, and an insatiable enthusiasm for Korean beauty products, we are in a golden age of beauty shopping right now. And there have never been more ways to get your hands on all of these products thanks to online beauty shopping.

Here, we’ve rounded up the 25 sites that are killing the beauty retail game, whether you’re looking for products for curly hair, hard-to-find sheet masks, or vegan lipstick.

Now grab your phone and go shop.

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Best Variety

Sephora: No list would be complete without the OG beauty retailer that arguably took beauty out from behind the department store counter. Its online experience is just as good, with hundreds of passionate, candid product reviews and an app that’s worth downloading for the exclusive deals alone. The retailer has been killing it lately by introducing new brands and offering tons of exclusives that no one else has.

Ulta: Ulta is growing in leaps and bounds, and a lot of that growth has been due to an improved online experience and a revamped rewards program that allows you to score all sorts of free stuff. It’s also still the only retailer totally dedicated to offering prestige and drugstore brands right next to each other; plus, there’s a huge haircare and hair tools department.

Dermstore: While not as large as the previous two, this underrated gem has a nice mix of natural brands and heavy-duty clinical skincare brands. (You can get harder-to-find brands like Skinmedica, Skinceuticals, and organic brand Eminence, too.) The makeup selection is also well-edited, featuring smaller brands like Pur and Jouer. As a bonus, Dermstore tosses in a generous handful of samples with every order.

Bluemercury: Another incredible skincare giant, Bluemercury is worth checking out for its best-selling peel pads from the house brand, M-61. You can also find crowd-favorite makeup brands like Bobbi Brown, Tom Ford, and Hourglass, as well as a huge selection of candles and home scents.

Natural

Credo: Credo, which was started by a former Sephora exec, is growing and now has stores in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and soon Boston. It carries a huge variety of natural and organic skincare, but most importantly, it also stocks several natural makeup brands. Good natural makeup is a bit of a unicorn still, but check out Nu Evolution and Rituel de Fille. It also offers a “clean swap” service where you can put in a current product you use to find a “clean” alternative.

Cap Beauty: This New York City jewel-box shop has a pretty whopping selection, and it now also ships globally. Cap has brands like Tata Harper, Vintner’s Daughter, and RMS Beauty. Most notably, it carries tons of beauty edibles, a quickly growing category in beauty.

Follain: This East Coast-based chain of five shops is growing, with a new pop-up in New York and a really robust selection of brands online. Follain carries several organic skincare and bath/body brands, as well as faves like RMS and Ilia.

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Indie/Hard-to-Find Products

Beautylish: Beautylish’s strength is its huge and engaged online community, which includes forums, tutorials, user product reviews, and interviews with brand founders. It also sells products, particularly those that have found fame on Instagram and that you won’t find anywhere else, like Jeffree Star cosmetics and Wayne Goss brushes.

Cult Beauty: This UK-based beauty e-commerce site is an incredible deal for US shoppers now thanks to the pound/dollar exchange rate and not having to pay VAT tax. It also has an incredible assortment of indie and natural brands, and it focuses on the products from each brand that have a lot of buzz. The curation is some of the best we’ve seen on either side of the pond.

Ricky’s: Ricky’s is an institution in New York City for pretty much any product you need, from backstage hairdresser-approved bobby pins to Manic Panic. Its website is admittedly a bit of a mess, but one that’s worth digging through because Ricky’s is not afraid to pick up an obscure brand. It’s also committed to finding viral Instagram products like Morphe palettes and Ardell lashes. Finally, check out its impressive RickyCare collection, a house brand featuring beauty and hair tools.

Marjani: Marjani, the beauty e-comm site specifically for women of color, was born out of founder Kimberly Smith’s frustration with the lack of diversity from mainstream beauty retailers. The site stocks haircare, skincare, makeup, and more catering to various skin tones, ethnicities, and hair textures. Some brands, like Beauty Blender and The Wrap Life, might already be familiar, but for the most part, Marjani delivers some truly under-the-radar names full of promise.

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