M&S Your Beauty: A Year On

4 min read

If you haven’t visited an M&S Your Beauty beauty hall yet, then why not? The Your Beauty idea came to life a year ago last month, and I recently had a wee wander round the Edinburgh Gyle Shopping Centre Your Beauty to see how this new, innovative beauty hall works.

Reminiscent of the Space NK concept, Your Beauty carries many brands that are exclusive to them, as well as Marks and Spencer’s own brand cosmetics and toiletries and beauty ranges. There are LOADS of brands, not all of them in all of the stores, but so many you will find it hard to know where to begin.

M&S your beauty two

That’s where the Beauty Specialists come in. They are not there to give you the hard sell on any one range or product, but to advise you according to your needs. It’s a pleasant beauty shopping experience. Even beauty writers like me can get intimidated and put off in the traditional department store but Kate and Nicola who showed me round were knowledgeable and friendly.

And they showed me their press cutting scrapbook, which has been so popular, other Your Beuaty stores have set one up as well. “We started it because we kept seeing products from Your Beauty in magazines, and papers, and we were just doing it for ourselves really,” says Kate. “But we started to find it useful when customers came in saying they had seen a product that did such and such, and we were able to go through the book with them. We also use it to show customers who are thinking of buying a product which they know little about – and most of our product ranges are new for most customers. We can show them where it sits with beauty editors and suchlike, against classic products they might know.”

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Ranges likes Neo Stem (which I blogged about on here a month or so ago, and whose dry skin serum I love), Ren, Nuxe, Bliss, Philip Kingsley and Skyn Iceland, are probably not known to many. And that’s the beauty of M&S Your Beauty! It’s a brilliant beauty expedition into the unknown. If you love beauty, you will love discovering all these new breands, in a non-intimidating environment.

M&S YOur beauty one

All of the M&S classics are there as well, from the gorgeous M&S Rose range, to Autograph makeup, to the new Downton Abbey range, and the latest range, from Emma Bridgewater, as well as gorgeous gift baskets, deals of the week, and plenty of 3 for 2’s.

M&S Downton Abbey Emma BridgwaterYour Beauty  at the GYle was the first to open in Scotland, and is the second biggest at 1500 square feet. Argyle Street in Glasgow has the biggest beauty department, at 3000 square feet, and there are others in Aberdeen, Livingston and Perth. New brands land all the time, and sit harmoniously alongside classics, like Florentyna, still one of M&S’s biggest beauty sellers.

If you are scared of beauty halls, or want to discover a whole host of new products, with friendly service, I urge you to head to your nearest M&S Your Beauty!

TOP TEN PRODUCTS, M&S YOUR BEAUTY, THE GYLE, EDINBURGH (in no particular order)

Ren frankincense1. REN Frankincense Revitalizing Night Cream, £32 – gorgeous natural night cream which hydrates, recharges and revitalises

2. Nuxe Prodigieuse Multi-usage Dry Oil, from £17.50 – fantastic product – use for face, body, hair. Try the shimmer version in the summer, or for festive nights out

3. Glamglow Tingling & Exfoliating Mud Mask, £25 – a fantastic quick-fix mask for instant radiance – works in fElasticizer philip kingsleyive minutes!

4. Philip Kingsley Elasticizer, from £12.75 – oeiginally created for Audrey Hepburn, use pre-shampoo to give hair a super-moisturtising boost

5. Autograh Azure Breeze, from £8.50 – some say it smells similar to D&G Light Blue, for a fraction of the price.

6. Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels, £25 – Perfect for the morning afSkyn iceland eye gelter hte Christmas party the night before! Cooling eye patches full of skincare goodness.

7. Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask, £39.50 – apply and wait for it to foam up like magic. Excellent mask for tired skin.

Piure radiance cleanser8. M&S Pure Daily Skincare Instant Radiance Hot Cloth Cleanser, £9.50 – love the Liz Earle product? You will love this. It’s very similar.

9. Apivita Natural Serum Radiance, £29.50 – one of four natural serums from Greek company Apivita, all natural ingredients, perfect for sensitive skin.

10. Filorga Time Filler Anti-Ageing Cream, £59 – contains botox-like tripeptide to help firm skin, and hyaluronic acid. Filorga are a fab French pharmacy brand.

 

All of the products featured are available at M&S Your Beauty GYle Shopping Centre Edinburgh, and other M&S Your Beauty locations, as well as online at marksandspencer.com/beauty