NEW YORK — It’s the beauty aisles themselves getting makeovers now.

Department stores are being forced to rethink how they sell higher-end makeup and perfume as competition intensifies from discounters like Target, specialty chains like Sephora and Ulta and online brands. So stores like Saks and Macy’s are promising workouts for your face, augmented reality and beauty treatment concierges as they try to attract millennial customers and make the cosmetics aisles more of a destination than a stopover.

To expand its beauty area to the size of a typical grocery store, Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship location is even bumping cosmetics from its position near main-floor entrances to the second level, breaking from a century-old tradition in retailing.

“Department stores have to reinvent themselves, and that’s not an easy thing to do,” said Larissa Jensen, an analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm. “Everyone has an eye on beauty. It’s an area that consumers continue to be excited about.”

But shoppers are changing the way they buy beauty products, fueled by social media, the explosion of new trends and emerging brands. Customers want to experiment with products beyond the brands to which they’re loyal. And with information online, they’re more knowledgeable when they approach the cosmetics counter.

Specialty chains like Ulta and Sephora overtook department stores by share of the U.S. beauty and personal care market in 2009, according to research firm Euromonitor International. By last year the specialists had more than 15 percent of the market and department stores fell below 9 percent.

Department stores, already trying to keep customers coming through the doors, are freshening up the face they present to shoppers.

J.C. Penney, still scarred by a disastrous makeover a few years ago, has been expanding its highly successful partnership with Sephora and will have those shops in 75 percent of its stores this year.

“We are all thinking of new ways to innovate,” said Nata Dvir, Macy’s general business manager of beauty.

Sephora and Ulta had already shaken up the longtime pattern of shoppers going to department stores and talking to advisers for higher-end products or finding low-priced offerings at drug stores.

Their success has pushed discounters like Walmart and Target as well as drugstores like CVS to revamp their cosmetics areas with more open spaces, brighter lighting and more attractive fixtures. Discounters have also been working with suppliers to jump on new trends and get items in stores in a few months later instead of in a year.

Target now has sales assistants who specialize in beauty, and will soon be launching a concierge service on its site that lets shoppers chat with experts and virtually try on makeup. Customers can also text a beauty expert, and at 10 stores they can try augmented reality technology.