First off, I'm a big fan of the art of make-up. I love experimenting with different looks and mixing colors. That being said, I don't often get to attend very many beauty events because here in San Antonio, Tx, we don't have widely advertised events. The few that I've heard of passed before I knew about them. So when Ulta Beauty announced its first annual Beautyfest, I was excited to say the least.

My sister text me two days before the event and I was super pumped. All the articles I read were advertising raffles, swag bags, free salon services, giveaways and more! I love Ulta, I go there way more than I care to admit and there are so many products I would love to sample. However, I'm not a wasteful person so I don’t like buying expensive products and take a chance on not liking them. Anytime I get samples, I'm happy! So I was expecting to receive lots of samples and discover great products. I was hoping the brow bar would be doing free services and I could maybe do a brow tint. I even thought that maybe they would give out some gift cards or something.

Fast forward to Saturday November 16th and I'm up at 6 am getting ready and excited for the day. I'm texting my sister and friends to see if anyone wants to come with me. As often as I go to Ulta, I honestly didn’t know when they opened. A quick Google search tells me they open at 9 am. Ulta's website shows that stores will open an hour early to accommodate crowds. So, taking into account that people will probably be lining up about 30 minutes before the early opening hours, I plan to be there around 7:30 am to get in line.

Well, I decided not to wash my hair which of course means I was ready way to early and in my excitement, I decide to head out to the closest mall to me, South Park Mall. I get there and I'm literally the 1st person there. After sitting there for 30 minutes wondering why a line isn't forming, I see the hours posted on Ulta door say that the normal opening time... is 10 am. I was there nearly 2 hours early. I was annoyed, being that I had checked the opening time online on google and Ulta.com and both said 9 am. Ulta's website DID NOT have any messages saying that this was in fact the early opening time and not normal business hours.

So here we have strike one- I'm here 2 hours early because the opening time one the website was not properly explained.

Ladies and gentlemen, not a single soul showed up until 8:30 am. I was alone. I even did a few laps around the mall with an elderly couple. My sister actually dropped off my niece around 8:30 am so I wouldn't be so lonely.

At around 8:50 am, an Ulta employee comes halfway out the door and explains that she needs us in one single file line (there was only 6 people in line including my niece and I). Of course, this makes me excited because I'm thinking that whatever they are giving out is going to be awesome if they are worried about 6 people rushing in!

At 9 am, the doors open and we are greeting by the doorway employee telling us to grapple a coupon from an Ulta shopping bag that she is holding. So I grab one, my niece grabs one and then we just stand there waiting.

And waiting.....

The employee finally asks us if we need help and I ask her where the swag bags are. She says to me that the only thing they are giving out is coupons. 😱

I stood there in disbelief for a few moments while my niece is cracking up laughing and the 4 people stand there in shock. I explain to her what was advertised and her response was "Well this is what we are giving, we also have someone here from Skyn Iceland that would be doing demonstrations....but that’s it.”

When I tell you I turned into the "Let me talk to you manager" lady so damn quick! I could have changed my legal name to Karen and cut my hair in that backward mullet looking style. The supervisor/employee , whoever it was, was unhelpful and unsympathetic to the fact that I had just lost 2 hours on a SATURDAY! So, I called customer service.

The woman that answered was so sweet. She explained to me that Ulta Corporate did not send out any form of promotional material/products to give out/instructions of any kind to ANY of the store fronts! In fact, most stores found out about BeautyFest the same way the consumers did...on social media.

She graciously sent me a $20.00 gift card via email that I was able to use right away. I'm grateful for that but I would have rather stayed in bed. Luckily the location I went to was indoors but some people were OUTSIDE in cold ass weather!!! And they also got mixed up with the hours and so they also were waiting for over an hour. Ulta later posted on social media that the hours posted on their website was accounting for early opening. However, they posted this HOURS after the stores were already opened and people had already waited an hour extra.

I am deeply disappointed with Ulta and the way they took a potentially amazing event and turned in into a steaming bag of dog shit. I cannot believe I went and waited for a freaking store to open for nearly 2 hours and got a $5.00 off coupon. They were ZERO "beauty treats", no swag bag and no free salon services. they met ZERO of my expectations and ruined a perfectly good Saturday.

So, I would definitely NOT recommend this event if if even survives to see a second year. I wouldn’t go anywhere near it with a 10 ft pole UNLESS Ulta provides clear information on what they will be giving out AND they use social media to actually display what exactly they will give out. I need to know EXACTLY what my time is worth to them, because it definitely IS NOT a $5.00 off of $5.00 coupon

If you're in the San Antonio, TX area and you know of any worth while beauty events PLEASE comment below!