Store Review - Detox Market, L.A.

Address: 8380 Beverly Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90048 +1 (323) 782-0421

Opening Hours? Mon-Sun: 10am - 6pm

How do they describe themselves? ‘Green beauty brands to detoxify your life - organic skin care, natural makeup, 5-free nail polish, clean hair care, wellness teas, safe household products.’

Back story? ‘The Detox Market was born from a love for purity and an eagerness to support our communities in their healthful lifestyles. Years ago, our beloved Valerie was battling breast cancer. As a health and wellness coach, she knew her best defense was a detoxified life which meant saying goodbye to chemically-laden beauty products. She immediately began researching her options and building relationships with pioneers in the green beauty movement. Those values became the basis for the Detox Market as we began creating an educated community of health and beauty experts around offering pure, effective and elegant products.’

Target demographic? Online – the green brigade. They also have Goop open on another tab while they're shopping online and are in a hurry to get to pilates. Instore – L.A.’s healthy brigade – owners of NutriBullets, yoga mats and Priuses. And nosy bloggers from other cities. ;)

Who was shopping? Stef and I – same as yesterday. Dressed smart casual and soaking wet from the torrential rain.

Time spent instore? Approx an hour.

Time of visit? Midday, Midweek

Wheelchair/pushchair accessible? Yes/Yes

What do they sell? Truly green/organic products. They have a list of ingredients they won’t accept in products. www.thedetoxmarket.comnasty-ingredients Brands include some regulars to this blog including May Lindstrom, Tata Harper, Josh Rosebrook, Vintner’s Daughter, Kypris and a lot of others that I either hadn’t heard of or hadn’t managed to get my hands on in the UK.

How’s the selection? Full range or selected items?

Full ranges.

Any online or instore exclusives?

Unclear, but it seems they have everything instore.

Is it easy to find what you need?

Yes, for the most part. The store is divided into sections such as colour, skincare, hair, tools, fragrance, supplements, teas and bath/body.

Were all the items in stock?

Sadly not. There were a few things I wanted that were not available, but they at least left the tester out so I knew I needed them. (I know that is skewed thinking.) As an aside, I have never understood stores that pull testers off the shop floor when something is sold out. Out of sight, out of mind. If the tester stays out, customers ask for it and the retailer has a constant reminder that they need to get it back in stock. Leave your testers out and stick an OOS sticker on them if that makes it clearer.

Customer Service – pushy, pleasant or peasant?

Very pleasant. The staff were chilled, said hello, didn’t in any way make us feel inferior or unwanted. They were available but not in our face. A welcome change in the land of commission sales.

Transactions completed quickly and accurately?

Yes. We were also given an unexpected 10% discount as first time customers. This is standard practice and a brilliant idea.

Total spent?

$600.00 (This is only shown for context of how the atmosphere was conducive to selling and this is my job.)

Is the store clean and are testers available/useable?

Yes. Everything was nicely presented and testers were available. The odd one smelt like it was on the turn, but for an organic shop that will always be an issue.

Prices available?

My only bugbear. Products weren’t individually priced, which would be fine as it keeps packaging clean, except they were on standalone menus next to the brands and quite a few were missing, meaning the pair of us were walking around going ‘Excuse me, how much is this?’ ‘Sorry, and this one.’ ‘Erm and this one.’

Returns policy?

They seem to have an excellent returns policy, even returning unwanted items. You fill out an email, they approve it and they provide a prepaid label. Nice work.

Stock image.

What’s good about it?

I love, love, love this store. I was worried it would smell of lavender and that they would be burning sage and handing out camomile tea, whilst selling home-made potions that went rancid after two weeks out of a fridge. Like the early days of Whole Foods beauty. Vile. I genuinely thought I was going to be rolling my eyes and biting my tongue at the ‘nasty’, ‘detox’ and ‘non-chemical’ element, but I wasn’t. It was definitely ‘market-style’ in its shop fittings, chilled in its environment and knowledgeable in its approach, whilst being high-end in its product offering. The mix of product is really, really good. Some crossover green brands that are more widely available at traditional beauty outlets mixed with a whole heap of new brands to me. I was introduced to a lot of newness and got my first look at brands that I had been desperate to get my hands on for ages. I gave an audible squeal when I saw Shiva Rose on the shelf. There was absolutely no pressure to buy. There were two assistants, one appeared to be processing mail orders/dealing with a customer on the phone and one was serving the other customers that came and went while Stef and I were stalking every product. When a customer in the store asked about a particular brand and the sales assistant seemed unsure, she offered to go online and search something on the brand’s website for her. Nice. They also let me use the loo (thank you!), which, by the way, is something UK businesses sorely lack. Try asking someone in a stand-alone beauty store or a SpaceNK in the UK if you can use the toilet and watch the confused look on the face of the staff. *Penelope Keith voice* ‘Erm. No. And how odd that you would think to ask?’

What’s not so good about it?

It’s expensive. This is high-end organic. There is no ‘made at home’ element here. They’re selling professional products based on the fact that they work, not just on the fact that they’re paraben-free etc. Odacite filled a wall of fridges along the back wall, which I think is unnecessary and a concept I didn't really buy into. If something needs to be kept refrigerated before it's sold, I'm not interested. Unless it's cheese. Interestingly, I didn't even really look at Odacite at length, unlike literally every other brand in there. It put me off. Take the product out of the fridge and fill it with fresh juices or just water, It's L.A., they will sell. The odd tester could do with being freshened up, and the pricing signage needs sorting, but that’s about it. We didn’t have a lot to pick at. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Quite astonishing considering I generally hate the words 'detox', 'nasties', and 'toxic' when used in beauty marketing. It wasn't rammed down your throat.

Would I revisit?

Absolutely. It will be top of my list when I’m back in the States. And I would make sure to visit the main store in Santa Monica.

Do you need to visit?

Yes

What’s the website like?

Good. Easy to navigate, full of content.

Affiliate links for bloggers?

Yes. I signed up to test it and it worked the same day. I haven't figured out how to make the codes yet, but that's me, not them.

In Summary?

A lovely surprise. Maybe if I had checked the website in advance I would have known it was going to be better than my preconceptions, but I'm so glad we went. Easily my favourite shopping experience of this trip.