Make Up Store, Carnaby Street

Now it has a second branch, with this 400 sq ft store in the former Casio watch shop on Carnaby Street. The store interior has been transformed, replacing the light and airy fit-out with a darker, more moody and opulent feel.

It has been achieved in a straight-forward way, by installing dark, shiny porcelain floor tiles and dark walls. Most of the merchandising action takes place around the perimeter of the store, where a relatively simple black shelving system provides a home for the stock.

It is the lighting, however, that does much of the work. The ceiling is studded with white spots that accent areas and light the stock, rather than flooding the store with a high level of brightness.

Like rival make-up retailer MAC, this store takes modestly sized products and makes them the focus of the shopper’s gaze through the simple device of making everything around them neutral. For the windows, this means a couple of green plants do a job that would normally be more complex, because their colour is, again, the highlight.

It is worth noting the ubiquity of MAC, both as a standalone format and as in-store areas in retailers such as House of Fraser. This looks as if it might provide the model for Make Up Store as it expands in the UK.

To be successful at the fashion end of the cosmetic market, retailers really do need to be different from the herd. On this reckoning, Make Up Store looks poised to do well in this country.