Selling beauty products has changed nowadays, and few companies have been pioneering this movement.
In the last two decades, a series of young cosmetic brands hit the mainstream market, characterized by the quality and refinement of their products. Here's a list of the ones who pointed the most towards a great retail experience.
1) Aesop
The Australian luxury skin care company Aesop probably does not need any presentations, and it is perhaps the brand which conveyed the strongest identity, even realizing each store different from the others.
This has been possible through a close collaboration with some of the brightest stars of contemporary architecture, from Snøhetta and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, to Ilse Crawford and Ciguë. Furthermore, Aesop is really aware of the context of every store going to open, without never imposing a unified concept, but on the other way around, adapting its concept to each location.
This unique approach to retail design is part of Aesop's brand strategy, which includes avoiding traditional advertisement strategies and discount promotions, but getting noticed principally for the design of their products, their stores, the message they convey and the product experience you get surrounded with during shopping in an Aesop store.
2)Byredo
Clean Scandinavian style, with grey terrazzo as surface finishing, reflects the value proposition of the brand in selling luxury cosmetics intended as high quality products.
The Swedish interior architecture firm Halleröd, created a concept with pale neon light tubes illuminating sanded wood fittings, raw concrete and cowhide-clad furniture, offering a calm yet refined enviroment, completed with the exquisite design of the fragrances bottles themselves.
The founder, Ben Gorham, affirms that he wanted to present a place where you can go and learn about the products, without feeling the pressure to buy.
3) Buly 1803
No, it is not Photoshop, the whole boutique has been realised as cut in half, standing for the brand's goal of bringing the quality and the values from the past, to a new modernised life.
Jean-Vincent Bully, established the first boutique in 1803 on rue Saint-Honoré in Paris and brought himself to a high level of popularity at the time, with its water based perfumes. New lymph has been brought when Victoire de Taillac and Ramdane Touhami decided to acquire and reconstitute the company from its ruins.
The store and the products are still strongly influenced by the atmospheres of the 19th century, but winking the eye to refined contemporary design, creating interesting and eccentric outlets as the one recently opened in Tokyo (in photo).
It has “one foot in the past,” he added, “and one foot in the future.” said the founder Ramdane Touhami at an interview with The New York Times.
4) L:A Bruket
In Scandinavia, the nature is protagonist in every way, conditioning people and their lifestyles, and it is exactly from nature that L:A Bruket, skin care company from Swedish west coast, takes deep inspiration.
Their boutiques are just recently started rolling out, but already catching attention of the design community, with their style combining natural materials for the furniture, brass fixtures and white tiles covering the biggest part of the space.
We at SMN Design, have had the pleasure to collaborate with some of these brands, and we look forward to hear from you if we missed any interesting ones from this list!
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