Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Skin Food's first US Store - Irvine, CA

Being a fan of Asian cosmetics, the brand Skinfood isn't news to me. However, it is news that they decided to open up their first US store in Irvine, CA, which is where I live! It is located at Irvine Spectrum next to Charlotte Russe. I took sneaky pictures of the store with my BlackBerry PlayBook, since my camera battery decided to die that day.


The store is brightly lit and is pretty cleaned and organized. Their brand concept is deriving minerals and nutrients from natural food products and "feeding" it to your skin! This brand is no stranger to the Asian population around me, but it seemed like all types of people were pretty interested in this brand when I visited. Since they're still a new brand here, the store employees give out samples of their most popular products to customers.
Their storefront.
Inside with some of their blushes and eye shadows. I love the apple shaped blush tins!
Part of their wall of face/collagen masks. They are a bit pricey for $4/mask.
The majority of the inside of their store (taken from a far corner). It is a bit small but enough for their first store in the US!

What I got:
A sample of their famous Rice Mask Wash Off and a Cream blush.
The cream blush that I got in a really pretty orange/coral color! I am a sucker for orange blushes☆

I think that currently right now the most disappointing thing about the store is the lack of BB creams, which they are famous for! I guess a lot of people ask about it though, since they even have a sign at the cashier saying "BB Creams coming soon". The employees said that they were waiting very anxiously for them as well and corporate said they'll arrive sometime in August. I will definitely come back to try some!
Another thing is there is a huge inconsistency in pricing. Here's a few examples of what I saw:
- My tiny Cream Blush cost $9 while the Apple shaped tin of powder blush was $18.
- Loose powders was $13.50 (totally affordable for how much you get) but their baked powder tins were $27-29.
- Their skin products were around the $10-20 range which isn't too horrible.
- The majority of the makeup tools/accessories were extremely cheap, in the <$10 range. However, they had a very small makeup brush travel kit (only 4 brushes) for $55! Not worth it!

Other than these things though, I think they definitely have a future here in the US for high end skin products. They picked a good place to open up their first store, since there's a big wealthy Asian population in the surrounding Irvine area. Hopefully once they get all of the kinks fixed and actually have BB creams to sell, they will be successful!

Have any of you tried Skinfood products before? Anyone in the area been to the store or want to go? Thoughts on them expanding outside their core Asian market?

9 comments:

  1. Whoa there is a skin food store in CA oh snaps!? DAMN its way too far for me to get to... ;___; but I want to goooo
    I have tried their products before and I really really liked them.

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  2. @ Mie
    You should definitely make a trip down here to OC once they get all of their products in! I'm glad you have liked their products though, so definitely will have high hopes for what they are bringing :D

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  3. Oh I totally agree with your assessment on the future success of the store, not only can they tap into the rich Asian market, but if they push the natural aspect (since most people won't know the brand history in Asia) they'll get the rich whites in there too. I would check it out if I was nearby XD

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  4. OH how I would love to visit a Skin Food store! I hear tons of girls use their products, so of course for the past couple years I've been wondering what all the hype is about. JEEZ though, the skin masks are $4.... ugh, same as The Face Shop.... except their masks don't do anything for me. u__u Luckily my boyfriend found his savior in their men's line, but I'm really not sure I want to buy from TFS again for myself. Can we switch stores? :D

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  5. Gosh I'm jelly!
    Their skin care is really good stuff, I love it. Too bad about the price inconsistency but they'll probably fix it sooner or later when they see some things won't sell for insance prices :)

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  6. @ Sara Mari
    Yes I definitely agree on you with pushing the natural aspect, since that's how other brands like Lush got so popular here! If you're ever back in OC you should go ^^

    @ Katie
    If you're ever in the OC area you should check it out (but once they get all of their products in)! There used to be a TFS here in Newport but I think it closed down, as I can't find any recent news about it :( Face masks that I've actually found that work on me are from the 99 cent store, so I don't pay an arm and leg for them!

    @ Anna
    Since you like their skin care a lot I will probably try it out sometime in the future. ^^ But yeah I think the price inconsistency is a little much, even though people here have big wallets.

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  7. You have a skin food store now?
    So lucky~ I definitely know where i'm going when I go to America :D

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  8. Ahhh I so want to go! I wish it was closer to San Diego, but I'll definetly try to go next time I'm in Irvine! Now, if only they'd open an Etude House

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  9. I will DEFINATELY go check this store soon! Thanks for the post ^^

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