Urban Outfitters Expands Beauty Selection with International Brands

Urban Outfitters Beauty

Urban Outfitters Beauty

If you’ve visited the Downtown L.A. Urban Outfitter’s location inside the restored Rialto Theatre, you’ve gotten just a taste of the Urban Outfitters lifestyle store. The DTLA spot was just the beginning, however, because while it does offer a few more beauty brands than your average location, the brand’s newly opened Herald Square flagship is bringing beauty from around the world into the Urban Outfitters’ fold, giving big box beauty stores such as Sephora and Ulta some stiff competition.

“We’re a lifestyle company,” said Laura Johnson, Urban Outfitters’s executive director of women’s apparel and accessories. “It’s not just about the clothes — it’s about personalization. And beauty is a big part of that.”

Urban Outfitters' Downtown L.A. beauty diplay

Urban Outfitters’ Downtown L.A. beauty diplay

If you’re not in the vicinity of Herald Square, you can shop the entire beauty department online. If you do head to New York, however, you’ll see the familiar Sephora-style setup for the beauty displays instead of the usual plywood and found-objects vignettes that you might be more accustomed to when you’re shopping at Urban Outfitters.

Urban Outfitters has been steadily adding about 10 new brands every month, mainly focusing on indie beauty brands and niche cosmetic labels that you won’t find at more beauty-focused stores. You’ll recognize names such as Stila, Not Your Mother’s and more, but the store is pushing the focus to more international brands from France (Emryollise and Bourjois), the UK, Australia and Korea. In fact, Urban Outfitters has become the largest US distributor of Korean beauty brands, so while stores like Target are just now adding one or two labels, Urban Outfitters has offerings from the Face Shop, Holika Holika, and more coming every month. Even brands that had an online-only presence such as Sigma Beauty and bh cosmetics are in the mix both on Urban Outfitters’ website and in select stores.

Indie brands offered at UO

Indie brands offered at UO

The selection is divided between color cosmetics, haircare and hair tools, body care and even skincare, which has become more of a focus for the store. Urban Outfitters is also set on giving exposure to smaller natural and apothecary brands such as Fig + Yarrow and Herbivore Botanicals, both of which are huge in green beauty circles. And while that means that shoppers will be getting the opportunity to shop a great edit of beauty brands they can’t find anywhere else, it also means that Urban Outfitters is becoming an incubator for new brands, which was how Sephora was when it started out. So that means small brand such as Goldies and Meow Meow Tweet, both based in Brooklyn, have the chance to tout their wares all over the country and get online distribution, too.

For more information and to shop Urban Outfitters’ beauty selection, visit www.urbanoutfitters.com.

Shop our favorite international beauty picks:
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Images courtesy Urban Outfitters

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Author:Christopher Luu for Fashion Trends Daily

Christopher Luu is a Fashion Trends Daily Senior Writer and Menswear Editor.