Beautycounter, the beauty brand with a conscious, has opened its first brick and mortar store in Soho. The 540-square foot unit, located on 51 Prince Street, looks to deliver its own label of high-performing products — ranging from skin care, color cosmetics to advanced anti-aging items — all while driving a growing national movement to demand better regulations of the beauty industry.
Based in Santa Monica, Beautycounter selected New York to plant its flagship due to the success of two recent pop-ups in the Northeast—one in Nantucket and one in East Hampton. Gregg Renfrew, the company’s founder and CEO, was born and raised in the area, and learned some her most valuable business lessons in New York. The former Best & Co. executive, and founder of The Wedding List (which was later sold to Martha Stewart) founded Beautycounter in 2011 after realizing the personal care products she was using on her children contained many harmful ingredients—even though they were labeled natural.
“If our mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone, we have to be able to meet customers wherever they are shopping. We know that our story is best told person-to-person, and we are thrilled to add a physical retail store to the progress we’ve made in educating consumers and advocating for better beauty,” said Gregg.
The company, which generates about $200 million in annual sales according to industry sources, ultimately launched in 2013 and now calls several items as best sellers, including Countermatch Adaptive Moisture Lotion ($49), Cleansing Balm ($80), Countersun Mineral Sunscreen ($20-$39), Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer ($45) and Sheer Lipstick ($32).
In addition to beautiful products, several initiatives have put the beauty brand on the map, which uses more than 38,000 independent consultants nationwide to sell products, along with e-commerce and now a store. One is its trademarked The Never List, which prohibits more than 1,500 questionable or harmful ingredients in items. Beautycounter also works extensively at the federal level to improve transparency and accountability of the beauty industry, and advocates for stronger cosmetic safety laws, which have stood largely unchanged since 1938. A neon sign at the rear of the store reads “It’s Your Call” and points to a custom phone booth, where customers are automatically connected to their local congressperson, and provided a script to read to lend their voice in support of better beauty laws.
The open sell environment is complemented by exposed brick walls and a bright white, clean, modern decor.IPads highlight beauty facts, product reviews, FAQs and new launches. Wallet-sized cards with the Top 30 most harmful common ingredients on The Never List are also available for customers.
And, to help customers establish a cleaner routine in their own homes, Beautycounter staged a medicine cabinet stocked with like-minded personal-care product brands so customers could see at a glance safer beauty options from like-minded brands.
