LONDON — Sephora on Thursday doubled down on its U.K. expansion with a new, boutique-format store on Carnaby Street, marking the LVMH-owned retailer’s first concept of this kind in the market.
The 2,691-square-foot West End location offers a tighter brand curation with a mix of Sephora U.K.’s favorites such as Rhode, Haus Labs, Makeup by Mario and Merit Beauty, plus TikTok-viral names on the “Hot on Social” table like Glossier, Glow Recipe, Rare Beauty and Sol de Janeiro; indie brands, and exclusive “Only at Sephora” collections.
The Carnaby opening will be joined by a second, 2,045-square-foot boutique concept at Old Spitalfields Market in East London on July 30, with Glasgow Silverburn to follow on Aug. 13, following recent openings in Bristol, Belfast and Edinburgh.
Sarah Boyd, managing director at Sephora U.K., said everything about the Carnaby Street boutique has been designed around how customers shop today.
“Whether they’re discovering a new brand during their lunch break, browsing with friends at the weekend or looking for personalized beauty advice before an evening out, we’ve created a space that delivers everything people love about Sephora in a format that feels effortless, inspiring and perfectly suited to the rhythm of city life,” she added.
Sephora boutique concept store on London’s Carnaby Street.
Simon Garcia · arqfoto
The beauty retailer is also using the space to showcase its tech and service ambitions, offering personalized, redeemable beauty consultations, including gift wrapping, engraving services, and the new beauty scan technology, which uses an advanced lens attached to advisers’ phones to assess skin, from oil and hydration levels to more precise foundation shade matching, with recommendations tied into the MySephora loyalty app.
The boutique concept rollout forms part of Sephora’s further push into the United Kingdom. Altogether, the goal is for Sephora U.K. to have 20 stores across the country by the end of 2026. The retailer returned to the U.K. in 2023 after an 18-year hiatus. The first location, opened in London, measured 6,500 square feet.
For Carnaby Street’s landlord Shaftesbury Capital, the opening reinforces the area’s positioning as a playground for global flagships and first-to-market formats.
“Sephora’s new boutique on Carnaby Street is part of a high-quality retail mix that forms an in-demand, genuinely desirable hub for shoppers,” said William Oliver, director of retail and restaurant leasing at Shaftesbury Capital.
“That’s down to the experience these brands create, and the sense of discovery that comes from unique products and collections that evolve to stay relevant and exciting. That’s precisely why Sephora as a brand, and indeed this first-of-its-kind boutique concept, will work so well here,” he added.