L’Occitane Flagship, London

French natural beauty brand L’Occitane is expanding its Regent Street presence with a flagship closer to Piccadilly Circus. Bright and sunny, the two-floor, 6,450 sq.ft space encapsulates the brand’s new mission to ‘premiumise’ its offering.

The new store showcases product through storytelling and customisation. The ground floor focuses on personalisation, while the first floor is home to the brand’s full product range, a cafe lounge and a personal beauty concierge.

Futurebrand Uxus has created a botanical world of irresistible fragrances, face care and bath & body indulgences straight from the heart of Provence.

Unusually, food and fragrance pair together here. Cheerful Pierre Hermé macarons reprise a stand-out feature of L’Occitane’s Paris store, and also reflect the two brands’ commitment to using natural ingredients in inspiring, surprising ways. The brands have also collaborated on hand cream fragrances unique to the Regent Street store.

The ‘natural’ theme is further evident in a nature-inspired colour palette. This creates a Provençal vibe further reinforced by eye-catching botanical-adorned columns that reference product ingredients.

The overall emphasis is on experience: customers can sample hand care products at a fountain, or ‘wear’ fragrances on linen strips around their wrists. Complimentary hand and arm massages are also available, and a gift-wrapping station offering personalised ribbon printing and name engraving provides additional theatre.

Deliberately widened stairs flanked with brand videos draw customers up to the first floor, a cheerful space with a relaxed atmosphere. A ‘beauty discovery’ bar’ provides express skincare rituals, and customers can enjoy a coffee and macaron overlooking Regent Street. Targeted at millennials, a state-of-the-art ‘selfie studio’ creates 3D photos for social sharing.

The eye-catching space is part of a brand-wide redesign that will be rolled out to all of its stores.