New Store Openings Winter 2013

In the last two weeks I've been lucky enough to be invited to two lovely store cosmetic brands' store openings in London; the first being the new Bare Minerals Boutique in Canary Wharf and the second being the Kiko Cosmetics Store on Regent Street.

Kiko Regent Street
Last week Tuesday, after the excitement of the Naked 3 launch I headed to the opening of Kiko Regent Street where the brand allowed bloggers, makeup artists and press to have an exclusive browse around the shop whilst it was closed to the public!
I have to admit I felt super special amongst the other bloggers who attended knowing that we would have undivided attention of the staff if needed and all the products were untouched and pretty much new.

The store itself is a massive improvement to the much smaller stores I've been to in both Westfields (Shepherds Bush and Stratford). 
The Stratford Kiko store is my local store that I tend to pop into frequently (much to my husbands dismay if he's shopping with me!), but I love that they have offers on regularly, my favourite being the all mascaras at £3.90 (my daily waterproof mascara is by Kiko so I stock up when this offer is on!)

The only problem with my Stratford store is that it's a small store so gets fairly crowded, particularly on weekends!
This store however has no issue with overcrowding as it boasts two floors of makeup, all laid out in an array of colours for the eyes to wander over.

sneaky picture taken with my phone through the glass doors before we were let loose inside!

I did feel overwhelmed at first when stepping into the shop; "where do I start, so many colours!" were my first thoughts. Luckily I met a lovely old colleague and friend of mine who worked there (Amira, fantastic girl!) and we got chatting about where I should start and what I should look at.  

bloggers congregated upstairs at the street level floor

I decided to head downstairs as most of the bloggers were congregated at the top street level floor and the downstairs held duplicates of lips, face and nail things anyway so it was a bit easier to browse through!

much emptier downstairs and all the pretty new makeup laid out

very handy pull out mirrors next to the products!

The products are laid out in a handy colour coordinated way with the corresponding products directly above them so you can self serve in the baskets given. I liked the fact that the mirrors pull out from the stands where the products are held so that you can get a better view of yourself if you've tried the product on yourself.
Otherwise, the area for makeovers is lovely and spacious with great bright lights lined around the mirrors, giving that hollywood feel.

I picked a couple things but felt like I needed to come at another day to take the full store in and went again last Friday where I picked up a good few more things, again with the help of the lovely Amira who's worked for many brands including MAC, Benefit and Dior. She admitted she actually enjoys using Kiko and finds the products surprisingly great quality. I personally agree and find the price point for Kiko amazing considering they offer just as good quality products as higher end brands.

I love that at Kiko stores I never feel pushed into buying products as I tend to find with other brands; their relaxed approach and self service displays makes it much a much easier and better environment to shop and I hope it stays that way!

Do feel free to check out previous Kiko posts here for reviews, makeup looks and swatches.

Bare Minerals Canary Wharf
I also attended the Bare Minerals Boutique opening two weeks ago and was totally impressed by the store layout; the ones I've been to have usually been in department stores that have had small counters with the pretty but impractical rotating wheels holding eyeshadows and foundations. Though they look gorgeous all laid out in a wheel, I do tend to find them a bit messy and hard to navigate around the counters without help from an advisor for what I'm looking for.

This boutique however is much more appealing to those who like to browse for products in their own time; the outskirts of the shop hold well displayed designated areas for the eyes, lips, face and skincare where shoppers can self serve and play with products on display with ample room. 

face area on the right of the store with cute hand written notes above

lips area with self serve shelves underneath for quick purchases

The middle holds a beauty bar where the Bare Minerals advisors give foundation fittings and beauty "make-unders" as the brand like to call it!

well displayed designated self serve areas on outskirts, beauty bar in the middle

The boutique is the first of many to come in the future I hope, I have to say I'm personally a fan of this new easy-to-navigate layout and as Canary Wharf isn't far from where I live, this boutique will probably be my preferred choice of counter to go to from now on!

What are your favourite brands stores and why? What makes your makeup shopping experience better?