Now Open: Holt Renfrew Beauty Hall

The 16,000-square-foot space comes stocked with new-to-Vancouver retailers, too.

Beauty junkies know there are but a handful of places in the city where you can get your bespoke cosmetic fix—BeautyMark for Butter’s new makeup line, for example, or Kiss and Makeup for its in-house SIP beauty line or Toronto’s Graydon Skincare. But when you want everything from custom perfume scents and Creed’s cult-fave cologne to Marvis toothpaste and La Mer mud masks (plus a treatment room to try it out in), there’s Holt Renfrew Vancouver’s new Beauty Hall.In the tradition of great European halls, this 16,000-square-foot, light-filled emporium doubles its previous size (taking honours as the brand’s largest in Canada) and delivers an immersive bazaar stocked with myriad skincare, cosmetics and fragrances. Featuring 29 counters (including the largest Shiseido Clé de Peau counter in Canada) and nine private cabines (for facial and skincare treatments by appointment—so you can test run that pricey skin cream) with a design by New York-based architects Janson Goldstein that links them all together. Sitting firmly at the nexus of classic Europe and leading-edge North America with its elegant, modernist mash-up, the space runs heavy on marble and magnetism (it’s no coincidence that Tom Ford’s come-hither beauty counter sits near the escalator as well as Jo Malone’s interactive wall display).Makeup addicts will note that South Korea’s luxury, holistic Sulwhasoo line (using all natural ginseng) sets up shop here for the first time as does the exclusive-to-Holts Christian Louboutin boutique replete with studded shoe display and kaleidoscopic array of nail lacquers. (Matching shoes are just a short hop upstairs.)With all beauty hall purchases today through Sunday (July 30), Holts will offer 15 percent back on a gift card (which can be then used anytime after Sunday throughout the store). Incentive to stock up on skincare and lipstick. Or maybe just some quiet contemplative time by Le Mer’s fishtank.

Holt Renfrew Beauty Hall

737 Dunsmuir Streetholtrenfrew.com

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