In The Studio With: Browns at The One-Stop Beauty Shop

Conscious, clean and curated, all terms synonymous with the Browns approach to beauty. The retailer and leading organic discovery destination for British cult fashion, launched their beauty range in 2022, entering what’s predicted to be the second largest sector within the global luxury market by 2025, valuing at $69 billion.

Setting Browns apart from the crowd, is its understanding of luxury as an experience, with the introduction of treatment and lounge spaces ‘Beauty Pod’ & ‘Beauty Studio’ in line with its launch, and now a year on, ‘The One-Stop Beauty Shop’. 

Located on the second floor of Browns Mayfair boutique,’The One-Stop Beauty Shop’ is a candy coloured dreamscape, immersing you in products of every flavour, with mirror panelled walls, reflecting the never ending choice available. The act of applying, trying and testing out different make-up, has a certain similarity to child-like intrigue and play, making this whimsical take of beauty feel so fitting. But, the experience itself was not created without the meticulous eye for curation, seen through the Browns beauty buyers. 

Speaking to one of the buyers, Sian Johnson, we find out where the concept behind the shop came from and how they curated the experiential product selection for this edit of ‘The One-Stop Beauty Shop’.

How did this project come to life?

Since the arrival of Beauty at Browns last April, we’ve hosted successful brand residencies, launched colourful campaigns and increased our brand roster, so to celebrate its one-year anniversary, it was only fitting we gave some space to Beauty in our Mayfair flagship. We created ‘The Immersive Room’, which changes up quarterly offering our customers unique experiences and engaging concepts. When it came to bringing beauty to life, we wanted to do so in true Browns form, being experiential, luxurious and holistic in our curated edit, which evolved into ‘The One-Stop Beauty Shop’.

What was the concept behind creating an interwoven beauty and candy shop?

The concept took inspiration from an authentic Flemish Candy Shop and to create a sense of playfulness and exploration, the glow of pink neon from artist Andy Cook’s Kiss Me bounces off the walls and ceiling at extreme angles to give the illusion of an infinite space filled with endless beauty, skincare and haircare options.  

Why did you decide to work with Electric Gallery on this?

We’ve worked with them many times before, so we asked them once more to transform our Immersive Room, this time into a candy-coloured world via the vibrant works of beloved British artists, Andy Cook and Sian Bristow. With Cook’s pink neon Kiss Me and Bristow’s red Balloon Bears, both artists perfectly accentuate the candy concept of the space. 

Can you talk us through the rooms’ immersive elements?

Our Immersive Room is a playful place for our customers to explore. For ‘The One-Stop Beauty Shop’ we wanted to combine beauty with art and candy, to not only create a fun visual experience but a feast for all our senses. For the scent, tangy fruits and sugared berries notes based in pixie sugars and sweet musks transport you to a childhood-like world. For sound, they can find a house-inspired tongue-in-cheek take on an ode to all things sickly sweet, where remixes of candy inspired classics such as 50 Cent’s Candy Shop and Shanks and Bigfoot’s Sweet Like Chocolate, are interspersed amongst a looped house-led ambient soundtrack.

As a buyer, what was the process like, curating the products that are sold in the shop?

When it came to curating the edit for beauty in-store, we looked to showcase a mix of cult favourite Browns bestsellers and exclusives, alongside our new and inclusive brands across makeup, skincare and haircare. As a buyer, it’s most important to know the product offering and what your customer is looking for. Our customers expect Browns to be at the forefront of innovation and newness, with an edit where they can educate themselves on new brands they can’t get anywhere else in the market. Although a fun task, this came with lots of logistics to consider, including tester availability and factoring the available shelving space on our in-store fixtures. 

Do you have any tips on how to find new brands?

Word of mouth, and tried and tested reviews are incredibly important to finding products. It’s always refreshing to see product innovation from formulations and technology, marketing, sustainability or packaging, which are all things to consider when looking at new brands to add to our roster.

What are your two beauty must-haves from the shop?

This is a difficult question because we have some incredible brands and products which I feel so passionately about, however my two, ‘can’t live without’ products would be London based ‘Mount Sapo’s ‘All-over oil’ and ‘The Rich Cream’ from ‘Augustinus Bader’, both of which can be found online and in ‘The One-Stop Shop’. The All-over oil is a multi-use oil which can be used on your hair, body and face all year round and is inclusive of all skin types. It’s super nourishing, looks good on the bathroom shelf with the oil’s gorgeous orange hue and makes you feel at your very best. 

Augustinus Bader’s ‘The Rich Cream’ is my all time ‘go-to’, and the biggest pull for me is the anti-ageing results, which is all down to the brand’s patented TCF8 technology which fights the signs of fatigue, a personal insecurity of mine. I prefer the Rich Cream to the Cream formula, as I find the richer formula thoroughly hydrates my skin and gives me the plumpness I am looking for – my skincare routine is not complete without it.

You can visit The One-Stop Beauty Shop at Browns flagship store on 39 Brook Street, London W1K 4JE, and can find information linked here.