LONDON — British collagen-focused skin care brand Elemis is expanding its retail footprint in the U.K. after a landmark partnership with Sephora that allowed it to further expand in the U.S. market this spring.
Opening to the public on June 22, Elemis’s first stand-alone store in the U.K. will be located on Monmouth Street in Seven Dials, the popular shopping neighborhood that’s a part of Covent Garden, with neighbors including Byredo, Malin + Goetz, Miller Harris and Kiehl’s.
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Noella Gabriel, cofounder and global president of Elemis, which was acquired by L’Occitane for $900 million in 2019, said launching the store in Covent Garden “had our community at the heart of the decision,” as it will allow the brand to create a new dialogue with local and overseas customers.
“Covent Garden is the beauty hub of the capital and a location that truly aligns with Elemis’ brand values and distinction with its unmatched spirit in multiculturalism, quirky charm and quality of craft,” added Gabriel.
The store’s interiors are baby blue, and the location will carry the full range and feature a sensory experience for customers to feel the brand’s top-selling Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm, as well as future new and exclusive launches.
Gabriel said as a B Corp-certified company, the store is crafted with a minimized impact on the planet. The store’s worktop surfaces, for example, are made of Durat, a sustainable material made from recycled post-industrial plastics. It also comes with a multibrand recycling area Beauty Drop & Swap. Via the brand’s partnership with MYGroup, a cosmetics recycling company that aims to divert waste from landfills, customers can recycle any existing beauty product packaging.
Staying true to the brand’s spa heritage, the store will also be fitted with the very first Elemis Skin Studio, offering four exclusive treatments: lift + escape, resurface + recharge, freeze + sculpt, and skin sculpt, starting from 65 pounds per session.
Gabriel said each treatment will take place on a zero-gravity treatment bed, featuring transformative sound and vibration therapy to help reset the skin, body and breath.
“This unique sound and vibration therapy positively disrupts your breathing to enable you to drift off to a deeper level of relaxation. The treatments start with a comprehensive skin consultation using Visia skin analysis, a chargeable medical-grade evaluation that uses multispectral imaging to reveal damage and signs of aging on and beneath the surface of the skin. They are further enhanced with LED light therapy to invigorate skin and negative ion technology to increase mental energy and alertness,” she added.
The staff working in the store will be wearing something special as well, as the uniform is created in partnership with the London-based fashion label Aligne.
Gabriel said the Covent Garden location is a pivotal moment in the brand’s brick-and-mortar roadmap as Elemis looks to further cement its retail presence in the British capital after inking a series of retailer partnerships in the past year.
“Across the globe, Elemis has garnered status as a global retail player through the opening of 10 Elemis stores across Asia Pacific, China and the Middle East in recent years. This roadmap has allowed us to take key learnings from markets where Elemis is less established than in the U.K., yet some of the fastest growing regions in the world where store innovation and experiential is key,” noted Gabriel.
She added that the Monmouth Street store will be home to a robust eventing program to engage with influencers who will cohost regular events that allow the brand to connect with a new community.
The brand’s flagship spa space, the House of Elemis on Lancashire Court, which is a stone’s throw away from the luxury-filled New Bond Street, will continue to be the home of the brand’s high-end wellness offering, according to Gabriel.
Looking at the second half, Gabriel said the company is “continuously assessing where there are opportunities for future distribution” and hinted that brick-and-mortar opportunities in other major cities such as New York are not too far off the horizon.
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