WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark Corp. plans to shutter its Beauty 360 outlets in order to focus on its core beauty ­business.

The drug chain is slated to close its 25 luxury beauty outlets, as well as the beauty360.com website, by May 19.

Beauty 360 debuted in November 2008 alongside a CVS/pharmacy store at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. The website was launched in January 2010.

The company decided “to refocus our efforts on the growth and development of our core CVS/pharmacy beauty business in order to satisfy a wider group of our customers,” said a spokeswoman.

Last year saw the successful launch of the CVS Beauty Club and the private label beauty brand Nuance Salma Hayek, she noted.

The Beauty Club, which CVS said represents the first mass retail beauty loyalty program, has attracted 10 million members since getting under way in January 2010. Nuance Salma Hayek, which was introduced last August, has drawn “both customer and industry accolades and also exceeded sales expectations for the year,” according to the spokeswoman.

“This kind of success within our core beauty offering clearly demonstrates the tremendous opportunity we have to maintain and grow our leadership position in beauty through our over 7,300 CVS/pharmacy stores,” she explained.

Conceived as a luxury boutique, Beauty 360 served up a wide array of prestige cosmetics, skin care, hair care, fragrance and grooming brands and, according to CVS, employed an “experiential model” of selling that stressed service and proximity to customers’ neighborhoods.

Along with beauty consultants, the outlets featured trained and licensed beauty professionals offering such services as mini-manicures, express facials, hand massages and makeup application.

The spokeswoman described Beauty 360 as “a 25-store pilot that proved to be a tremendous learning experience for our ­organization.”

Many aspects of the format were positive, she added. “In the past four years we have learned a great deal about our beauty customer through our experience with Beauty 360, and we plan to apply many of these learnings to future enhancements within our beauty department at CVS/pharmacy.”