Glossier Pop-up, London

Cult beauty brand Glossier opened a ‘semi-permanent’ pop-up store on Floral St in London’s Covent Garden, to queues around the block.
Launching with just four products in 2014, Glossier was born out of the beauty blog ‘Into the Gloss’ which was started four years earlier by Emily Weiss. Today, the brand is valued at $1.2bn, giving the brand ‘unicorn’ status.
Exporting to just seven countries and with just two permanent stores in the US, the UK is the brand’s second largest market outside the USA. The pop-up allowed Glossier afficionados the chance to ‘spend time’ with the brand in real life.
Unlike many other beauty brands, the relationship between Glossier and its 3 million ‘fan base’ is central to their offer. Glossier has developed its products by listening to their ‘community’ and asking them what they wanted, rather than telling them what they needed.
The design of the pop-up was inspired by traditional ‘old school’ British social club and the London skyscape giving it a sense of place, which speaks to the local community, differentiating it from the brand’s NY pink concept and the Seattle pop-up that reflects rolling hills of the local national park. However, in common with all of the brand’s pop-up spaces, it was designed with Instagram in mind and even featured spaces for #Glossierboyfriends in addition to welcoming #dogsofglossier.
The store was filled with interactive product testing stations, something that will require a re-evaluation redesign post-pandemic.
Over 100,000 people visited the pop-up during the brand’s initial two and a half month residency, making it Glossier’s most successful temporary retail experience in the brand’s history. As a result, the pop-up’s life was extended only to be curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.