Beauty
Where to buy makeup in Dubai: drugstore finds, homegrown brands and what is worth the money
Buy drugstore makeup at Carrefour, Life Pharmacy, Boots and Watsons or on noon; prestige at Sephora, Ulta Beauty and the Dubai Mall boutiques. Spend on base and setting spray, save on everything that washes off by dinner.
Where to buy makeup in Dubai depends on the price bracket. For drugstore brands, go to Carrefour and the pharmacy chains (Life Pharmacy, Boots, Watsons), or order on noon. For prestige, it is Sephora, Ulta Beauty since this year, and the brand boutiques in Dubai Mall. For the homegrown names, Huda Beauty and Kayali are at Sephora and Ounass, and Mikyajy has its own shops. My rule: spend on base and setting spray, save on everything that washes off by dinner.
Where do you buy cheap makeup in Dubai?
Your supermarket, honestly. Carrefour carries L'Oréal Paris, Maybelline, NYX and Wet n Wild, usually with something on promotion, and the bigger branches have a proper beauty aisle rather than a shelf. Some supermarket branches also stock Essence, the cheapest brand that is still genuinely good, though stock moves around, so check before you drive. Life Pharmacy, Boots and Watsons cover the L'Oréal Paris and Maybelline ranges and run their own rolling offers. Mikyajy, the Gulf budget brand, has its own stores in most big malls. KIKO Milano sits a step up and is the place for a good fixing spray or a single bright shadow.
Online, noon is the default for both drugstore and prestige, and its beauty sale days are worth waiting for. Namshi and Amazon.ae fill the gaps. Buy from the official brand store on a marketplace rather than the cheapest third-party seller, because that is where the fakes live.
Where do you buy prestige makeup in Dubai?
Sephora Middle East is still the anchor. Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates both have large branches, and most other big malls have one. Ulta Beauty arrived this year with Alshaya: the first store opened at Mall of the Emirates in January 2026 and Dubai Mall followed in March, with mass and prestige brands in the same aisle, which is the Ulta difference. MAC has standalone stores and, since the MAC x Sephora launch in June 2026, is inside Sephora too. Then there are the brand boutiques in Dubai Mall, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, Hermès Beauty and Louis Vuitton Fragrance & Beauty among them, and the counters at Bloomingdale's and Galeries Lafayette. Online, Ounass for the designer brands and the Sephora app for everything else.
Which makeup brands are actually from Dubai and the Gulf?
Huda Beauty is the big one. It was founded in Dubai in 2013 and the first product was false lashes sold at Sephora here; I remember the lashes being the thing everyone bought at Sephora in Dubai Mall long before there was a complexion range. The Easy Bake powders are in my routine now, and the brand is at Sephora, Ounass and its own site, not only Sephora. Kayali is Mona Kattan's fragrance house, launched under Huda Beauty in 2018 and run as a separate company since February 2025; I cover it in my guide to the best Arabic perfumes for women. Wishful is the skincare sister brand, best known for its enzyme scrub.
Mikyajy is the one people forget. The name means "my makeup", it started in Jeddah in 1999, it is run out of Dubai, and its colour cosmetics range is halal certified. It is cheap, it has stores everywhere, and the kohl and lip colours are a sensible first stop if you are building a kit on a budget.
Which drugstore brands are worth it?
- L'Oréal Paris for foundation and mascara. True Match is the drugstore foundation with a shade range that actually covers South Asian skin.
- Maybelline for mascara and liner. The Sky High mascara and the Tattoo Liner were in a reel of mine last summer, and the liner did not move.
- NYX for lips and brows. It reads almost professional for the price.
- Essence and Wet n Wild for trend shades and anything you use up fast. The Wet n Wild tinted lip oils are the cheapest good lip oil in the city.
- Mikyajy for kohl, lip colour and nails.
- KIKO Milano for fixing spray. The Power Shake spray is in my current lineup next to far more expensive things.
Save or spend?
Save on anything that sits on top and comes off by dinner: lip colour, single shadows, liners, brow gel, setting powder. Spend on what touches your skin for ten hours: foundation, concealer, the SPF underneath, and a setting spray that works in 40 degrees. My own lineup this spring was a mix, a YSL All Hours foundation and Huda Beauty correctors next to a KIKO fixing spray, and that is the point. Nobody can tell which half cost what.
When is makeup cheapest in Dubai?
The calendar matters more than the shop. Ulta Beauty's 21 Days of Beauty ran from 23 April to 13 May this year with daily deals, some up to half price, and I expect it to come back next spring. Sephora runs sale windows a few times a year and the app shows them first. noon has its own beauty days and its big November sale, and the malls run White Friday at the same time. Dubai Shopping Festival, from December into January, brings discounts across the malls. Between those, the supermarket and pharmacy promotions rotate weekly, so the same mascara can swing in price from one week to the next. Buy the expensive base products in a sale window and the cheap things whenever you run out.
What I have actually been to
My feed is mostly launches, so here is the honest picture. I did four hours at Sephoria in November 2025 and played every game. I was at the MAC x Sephora launch night in June 2026. I filmed my picks from the Ulta Beauty 21 Days of Beauty sale in May, and I shot a L'Oréal Paris creator feature in July, which is about as drugstore as my feed gets. The Huda Beauty launches are the ones I get invited to most. None of that makes me a bargain hunter, but I have handled most of what is on these shelves.
Disclosure: Sephora Middle East, Ulta Beauty Middle East, MAC, L'Oréal Paris and Huda Beauty have all invited me or gifted product. My opinion is my own.
Mistakes I see
- Buying foundation under mall lighting. Swatch on the jaw, walk to the nearest window or the car park, then decide.
- The big haul. Buy one new thing at a time. Half of every haul is never finished.
- Cheap dupes of things you would not wear in the original either.
- Ordering from an unknown seller on a marketplace because it is AED 30 cheaper.
Once you have bought it, how to stop makeup melting in Dubai heat is the method that makes cheap and expensive products last the same. For where the big Sephora, Ulta and boutique branches are, see my guide to the best malls in Dubai, and for the fragrance side of the shopping trip, where to buy perfume in Dubai.
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