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Nana <3
During lockdown one of the things I’ve really missed (aside from the obvious family etc) is walking through beauty halls and department stores and just shopping slowly and browsing for things I didn’t know I needed. I love retail. I love retailers (ok, most of them).
I asked a few of my retailer friends for their favourite or most memorable moments in their stores from recent years…and they all chucked in a Gift Voucher for you to win at the bottom of the post.
Entry details below..
My huge thanks to the retailers and their teams – sending you all lots of love for what has undoubtedly been the toughest year for retail in modern history.
ASOS:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS by Katrina Fulluck, ASOS Face + Body Senior Buyer
The Ordinary – we introduced the brand to our customer in 2017 and it still remains our number 1 skincare brand today. Changing the landscape of luxury skincare and customer shopping behaviour this brand delivers desirability at the most accessible price point.
M.A.C. – Adding make-up authority M.A.C to our portfolio of brands in March 2018 was a pivotal moment for ASOS Face + Body. Celebrating the beauty in everyone, M.A.C share the same core values as ASOS and the campaign embraced individuality celebrating the diverse past, present and future of M.A.C cosmetics. At the time it was the biggest launch we had ever executed!
Revolution – This is our fastest growing brand on ASOS that speaks directly to our 20-something customer. No other brand launches new and innovative product at the pace that Revolution does. This allows our trend-driven customer to access the newest products and formulations quickly and at an accessible price point.
Giveaway: £200 Gift Voucher
CULT BEAUTY:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS by Alexia Inge, Cult Beauty Co-Founder
The Ordinary – The first has to be The Ordinary. This skincare range was like a zeitgeist antenna embodying two landmark movements of this decade – radical transparency and a growing, Hirons-inspired army of ingredients-savvy skintellectuals ☺ This brand has had a rocky four-year road since inception, but it has transformed our expectations of affordable skincare and democratised high-performance skin technology to create a new category I call ‘Luxfordable’ Skincare.
Huda Beauty – Huda Beauty invented what I call, ‘conversational commerce’ alongside her huge social media audience. One of the first Instabrands, rather than rushing out a white label clone like many at the time, Huda was the trailblazer in not only harnessing her audience but also listening to their feedback in real time and placing that at the centre of a high-quality product development pipeline. As a result, she has honed her range to her audience and created a billion-pound brand within 5 years.
Olaplex – Haircare has seen sparse innovation in decades, which is why Dean Christal caused such a stir when he launched Olaplex in 2014, firstly as a salon treatment and then expanding the love to our bathrooms. Finally that blond ambition became attainable, without the worry one might end up emulating Grant Mitchell/Patrick Stewart, and it was all thanks to some good bonding – bis-amino diglycol dimaleate bonding to be precise. The clinical trials found that using No.0 and No.3 together repairs 68% of damage and made each strand 3x stronger. S.O.L.D.
Giveaway: £500 Gift Voucher
FORTNUM & MASON:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS by Kathryn Catanzaro, Senior Buyer, Perfumery, Beauty and Home Fragrance
Cult 51 – We launched CULT51 in July 2013. It was founded by expert chemist, Richard Mears, who was driven to create one product that could cater to all skin needs in one formula. India Knight helped to put CULT51 firmly on the map with an amazing endorsement, and rave reviews from the Beauty Industry followed. It proved to be the most successful beauty launch in the history of Fortnum’s. To this day, it is one of our top Brands with a loyal repeat business.
Iconic London – This dynamic Colour brand was founded by Jade Elliott and started its life in the kitchen of her parents’ home. Trend led makeup aimed at a younger market, this was a step outside the box for Fortnum’s, whose Colour houses up until this point had consisted of the more classic brands. Iconic was an overnight success and remains a key player.
Skin Design London – Discovered and launched exclusively by Fortnum & Mason, 2017 marked a turning point for a small niche brand that wanted to bridge the two worlds of prescription and luxury skincare with an edited collection to meet skin needs. The creator and innovator behind the brand is Fatma Shaheen, a mother of three, and an award-winning skincare and clinic expert with over a decade of experience in the industry. Her smart use of pioneering technology together with powerhouse formulations, delivers a new kind of destination for skincare.
Giveaway: £100 Gift Voucher
HARVEY NICHOLS:
TOP 3 EVENTS/LAUNCHES by Catherine Bossom, Beauty Director
In terms of things that changed beauty both for us and the industry, Harvey Nichols was the first store in the UK to launch M.A.C., Trish McEvoy, Aveda, Armani and Shu Uemura amongst others.
Beyond Beauty was a catalyst for championing smaller, independent brands in the department store environment, and is still a great instore destination for us to this day.
In terms of recent successes, our exclusive launch of Fenty Beauty was phenomenal. We had to hire extra security and use a strict queuing system that saw people lining the streets of Knightsbridge for months.
(It was also the first store I worked in for beauty in the 90s – Hi Aveda! – CH)
Giveaway: £500 Gift Voucher
LIBERTY:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS by Sarah Coonan, Buying Director
Biologique Recherche – This brand has been around for decades but completely transformed our business. P50 is a once in a generation product that has completely revolutionised how people think about and shop for skincare. The success of this brand has been mind blowing.
The rise of Influencers and particularly you Caroline. 10 years ago I pitched for budget to bring you in for an event. It was such a success and I saw first hand the power of your influence. What was amazing was the concept of embracing the unfiltered advice that went against traditional retailing. Since then the world has completely changed and credible influencers are the driving force of much of our beauty business.
The Liberty Advent Calendar – We were the first truly multi-brand calendar and we had no idea what we were creating. This is such a special product and one I’m immensely proud of. Seeing the massive rise of this trend in the industry shows that a smaller retailer can punch well above their weight and bring a product to market that brings tens of thousands of people joy every day in December – something we could all do with this year!
(It was also where I worked as a Saturday girl in the early 90s. Just sayin’. – CH)
Giveaway: £500 Gift Voucher
LOOKFANTASTIC:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS by Rachel Moss, Head of Partnership Marketing
Jo Malone London was a fantastic launch for us. The quintessentially British brand loved by many for their classic and elegant fragrances for both the home and personal wear and a female founded brand!
YSL are a leading product for us, catering to a sophisticated female demographic and were the #1 Googled fragrance brand in lockdown.
Olaplex are a consistent LF bestseller, with demand stepping up during lockdown from customers using Olaplex treatments as their salon alternative.
Giveaway: £250 Gift Voucher
SPACE NK:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS by Margaret Mitchell – Chief Merchant
The launch of Sunday Riley in 2015 was really Space NK’s first digitally-led skincare brand that we brought to the UK. It continues to be one of our bestselling brands.
Tan-Luxe truly revolutionised self-tanning, leveraging the benefits of skincare ingredients and application techniques, but for a completely new category.
Our Caroline Hirons Colab Box earlier this year was our fastest sell-out product ever in just under 2 hours.
Giveaway: £500 Gift Voucher and a live skin consultation either on zoom or in store if restrictions allow (with their pro team, not me, just to be clear!)
(It was also where I was a Store Manager for a few years and met Sylvie Chantecaille on counter and the rest, as they say, is history.. CH)
SUPERDRUG:
TOP 3 LAUNCHES OF THE PAST 10 YEARS
Revolution ‘Conceal and Define’ in 2018. It was top NPD in the total market (despite being exclusive to Superdrug). This was breakthrough for our customers as the foundations and concealers are available in 50 shades, bringing the prestige approach to the mass market at good price points for customers. This was an important part of our ‘Shades of Beauty’ campaign to broaden foundation ranges to cater for all skin tones.
Garnier Micellar Water in 2014 – Bioderma brought Micellar to UK customers in 2013 but it was Garnier that really launched to the mass Market in 2014. This was transformational in terms of switching customers away from wipes and into water. The Micelles in the water attract all the makeup, excess sebum and grime on your skin like a magnet leaving it clean without dehydrating. Micellar water is now such a staple part of the cleansing category, it’s hard to imagine being without it.
Maybelline Falsie Lash Lift Mascara Feb 2020 – this was a huge launch for us. The product worked really well to bring the trend of salon lash treatments into the world of home treatments. It re-ignited engagement into the mascara category and customers had the confidence to move from the salon back to the High Street to achieve that look from home. Little did we know back in February how important ‘home treatments’ would become in 2020.
Giveaway: £200 Gift Voucher
To enter to win any of the above vouchers, simply enter your email address when prompted and winners will be chosen by random after the giveaway closes at 11:59pm on Friday 27th November.
Open Internationally and you can enter daily. No purchase necessary, and this is not a sponsored post, just a genuine love of beauty retail.
Mama on the left <3
