With 1 in 5 women buying all their beauty products online and the rest starting to go that way, traditional beauty halls are pulling out all the stops to get us back into their mecca. From independent beauty advisors and foundation matching devices to express treatments and playground-like shopping, the hard part will be deciding where to stop first.
USP: A playground for beauty lovers. Choose from a mix of niche brands alongside some old favourites and try out one of the treatments from their extensive list. Visit ‘The Paint Shop’ for a mani or pedi and choose your favourite colour from a range of nail brands.
Treatments: Check in with the concierge desk and they will arrange everything so you don’t have to. The only problem is choosing where to go first. Need a private room at Blink for waxing and threading? A St Tropez tan? A Hersheson’s blow dry? Some volume from Weave Got Hair hair extensions? You can have it all under one stylish roof.
New Brands: Brands such as Occ from New York and Mily settle in amongst the bigger names of Stila, Phillip B, Nails Inc and Paul & Joe.
Star Buys: Now this is tricky as each brand as it’s own hero product to make you swoon. Something that really caught EBT’s attention were the Mily eye flashes, a stic
USP: Marks and Spencer have handpicked an amazing range of brands to bring you niche beauty names from Europe and the USA. Their trained Beauty Advisors will help you find exactly what you’re looking for without pushing you towards one particular brand. No more forced perfume spritz’s!
New Brands: Marks and Spencer’s own products have had a stylish and colourful revamp. They have also brought in a range of skincare, haircare, make-up and fragrances from the global market. For example the Greek brand Apivita which is hugely popular in Europe and china which uses honey as a natural preservative in the products. Filorga is a pharma / dermatological brand from France, but if your skin is stressed then Skyn Iceland has just the thing.
Star Buys: We love Fragonard’s range of French fragrances, try Fragonard Fleur d’Oranger Eau de Toilette, £22.50 with Jasmine and Neroli blossom scents and H2O+’s Face Oasis Hydrating Treatme<
USP: Not content with dominating the clothing market, Topshop are set to become the ultimate beauty destination too. Lose yourself in beauty treatments on the basement level of the Topshop Flagship Oxford Circus store, where they have enlisted the likes of Hersheson’s Blow Dry Bar, WAH, Bleach, Blink, Strip and Metalmorphosis.
Hersheson’s, WAH and Bleach aren’t new to the space but they have been given more room and the addition of a central reception for all the areas makes everything all rather effortless and very relaxing.
New Brands: These brands aren’t new per se but they are new to Topshop. Blink brow bar is an EBT fave, as is Strip (Strip are also offering spray tans at Topshop which are suitable even for pregnant women). And the addition of Metalmorphosis with their piercing and tattoos is really exciting (in fact we’re thinking of getting a tattoo there!).
Star Buys: The Hersheson’s Blow Dry Bar is the <
USP: No7 is now offering a foundation matching service. Using a hand-held tool the beauty advisors on the No7 counters can now take a reading from your skin using the device. The computer takes a precise measure of the colours in your skintone and uses that information to find your exact shade match from the No7 foundations on offer. This service takes all the confusion out of finding your perfect foundation shade.
New Products: The foundation formulas we have come to know and love – Stay Perfect and Protect & Perfect for example - are still available but the seven different foundation finishes are now available in more shades and brand new streamlined packaging. There are over 80 shades that the device could potentially match you to, so your perfect match is out there.
Star Buys: Whichever shade you are matched to will undoubtedly become a star buy in your eyes. ELLE loves the Protect & Perfect Foundation, £16.5
USP: Millie Kendall (of Ruby & Millie fame) and Anna-Marie Solowij (former beauty director) are the ultimate beauty industry insiders. The two beauty gurus have hand-picked the hero products from each of their favourite brands (a staggering 170!) to offer the best of skincare, make-up, hair care and styling, body, fragrance, nail and accessories. Find cult productssuch as Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream next to niche brands such as Face Stockholm. The ‘Beauty Stylists’ will be on hand to help you make the most of your supermarket sweep.
New Brands: The rising star products from James Read tan and brands exclusive to Beauty MART such as Bioderma and Denman Lemon means you can revamp your wash-bag with advicestraight from the experts.
Star Buys: The BeautyMART exclusive, Bioderma Crealine H20 Cleansing Solution, is detergent free, soap free, all things bad free. This gentle product uses cucumber extract for a brilliantl
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