Due to popular demand, Unilever has opened a second installment of its St. Ives Mixing Bar, a three-month long retail pop-up experience where consumers can shop, test and purchase products from its popular St. Ives skin care brand.

The store, which opened June 15, is located in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan located at 168 Fifth Avenue, and measures 1,900 square-feet. Notably, the store is steps away from Madison Square Park and is surrounded by retail shops, such as Michael Kors, Theory, Cole Haan and Ann Taylor.

“We brought the pop-up back because it was a success,” explained Suzanne Palentchar, Director of Marketing, St. Ives. “Last year we were trying to figure out if a pop-up shop in one city could actually drive our national awareness and improve our credentials among consumers. One credential we were really trying to dial up was our use of natural ingredients. Beyond that, we didn’t expect the love we would receive. Last year we sold over 16,000 products and more than 60,000 people visited.” The original store was based in Soho.

This year’s version has decor reminiscent of a juice bar, equipped with real fruit on display against a large foliage wall and invigorating aromas of trendy product ingredients available for customized products, including rose water, yuzu, kiwi, pink grapefruit and more.

Visitors walk up to the “bar” where friendly staff outfitted in apricot-colored shirts with St. Ives-branded aprons help create custom face scrubs, moisturizers and body lotions, with the ability to select ingredient combinations, desired lotion richness and facial scrub exfoliation levels. New this year, body lotions can be given a boost with a new mineral shimmer add-on. Customized products cost $12 to $14.

In addition to creating personalized products, the brand has expanded its retail section to include products for purchase that will be exclusive to the pop-up, including bath bombs, lip scrubs, hand creams and an Iconic Apricot rollerball fragrance.

“We think of the Mixing Bar as an incubator or living focus group,” said Suzanne. “One of our top selling products from last year’s pop up is going to be launched at Target this summer, so if items do well here, we can roll them out nationally.”

For those who can’t make it to Manhattan to experience the store, the brand has launched a St. Ives Mixing Bar shopping site so consumers nationwide can place orders for bespoke products, as well as the store’s retail items. The online site will be open until December 31.

“Last year we didn’t have a benchmark, and a lot of it was experimentation. Now that we know what it takes to open and staff a store, we can focus on selling more products,” said Suzanne. “We opened our direct-to-consumer site in conjunction with the pop up so people nationwide can experience some of what we are offering here.”

The pop-up is designed to attract two audiences: brand loyalists and a group the brand refers to as “genzennials,” which encompasses the upper age range of gen-z and the lower age range of millennials. To target this second group, the brand placed vending machines, powered by Vengo,  in gyms and college dorms throughout NYC in the first quarter, which gave individuals the opportunity to enter their email address and get free St. Ives samples. Once the store was ready, the team emailed the contacts collected from the promotion to announce the store opening. Additionally, the brand is partnering with Island Records to host a “Live With St. Ives”concert series, featuring in-store performances with bands popular to the genzennial demographic.

The same vending machines used at colleges and gyms are available in the store, offering free products to visitors who enter their email address and answer a short questionnaire about their preferences.

“We ask questions such as, ‘do you use body lotion?’, so we can develop targeted, meaningful messages to those people. So, if you got a sample and clicked, ‘I love body lotion,’ we’re going to reach out when we have a coupon for body lotion, when we launch a new one, or when it’s winter—the most popular time to buy lotion. That way, we can send messaging that’s meaningful instead of filling their inbox with clutter.”

When asked if St. Ives would consider opening a long-term brick-and-mortar, stemming from the pop-up’s popularity, Suzanne said, “Nothing is off the table.”

The pop-up may even expand to other regions.

“There’s nothing about the store that says it need to be in NYC,” she said. “We are a global brand. In some of our other markets, they’re taking this concept and bringing it forward. This past spring, our Canadian market did a college tour where they went around to college campuses and ran the Mixing Bar out of a food truck. There are many ways we can meld the concept to make it bigger or smaller.”

The St. Ives Mixing Bar will be open until September 15. Store hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.