Lancôme yesterday opened the doors to its new flagship store at 52 Champs-Élysées in Paris, a two-storey beauty wonderland offering some 300sq m of experiential retail space.
The flagship store – which has been described by Lancôme as an ‘ode to joy and happiness’ – highlights the brand’s core values of ‘femininity, empowerment, and togetherness’. It offers Lancôme’s complete range of fragrance, makeup and skincare products as well as limited-edition releases and special in-store services.
“This new venue is a true home of beauty and happiness, where our guests are invited to experience and delve into what the brand has to offer in terms of beauty products, services, personalisation, gifting and technology”
Lancôme Global Brand President Françoise Lehman
The flagship is a showcase for Lancôme’s ‘beauty tech for all’ mantra and highlights the brand’s most innovative beauty tools and services; including skin diagnostic tools, virtual mirrors, polysensorial cabins, and its new Shade Finder technology.
In addition to being a technological showcase, the boutique is also a showcase for L’Oréal Group’s many sustainability initiatives. Lancôme’s flagship is LEED Gold certified and has a zero-waste bin as well as a refill station for some of its products. These include Lancôme’s Absolue Soft Cream, Absolue L’Extrait Elixir cream, and Idôle fragrance.
Aside from these sustainable features, the boutique also shines a light on Lancôme’s numerous CSR initiatives; particularly its partnership with education charity ‘Write Her Future’, a philanthropic literacy programme operating in 12 countries.
Lancôme Global Brand President Françoise Lehman said: “We’re proud to see the Lancôme flagship come to life: this new home for Lancôme offers a unique and elevated customer experience.
“This new venue is a true home of beauty and happiness, where our guests are invited to experience and delve into what the brand has to offer in terms of beauty products, services, personalisation, gifting and technology.”
The boutique’s main entrance is a versatile experiential zone that will be home to five different pop-ups throughout the year. The exhibition space – which boasts triple height ceilings – is called the ‘Joy of Now’ and features hanging rose petals inspired by Lancôme’s signature rose motif.
The flagship features a sprawling fragrance zone, which has an illuminated pink floral wall as its centerpiece. It offers plenty of phygital features that encourage customers to discover Lancôme’s many different fragrances. The floral wall serves as a visual archive of Lancôme’s extensive perfume portfolio; while a digital storytelling video helps guests find their perfect scent. The space also features a vertical fragrance display, a floor-to-ceiling crystal chandelier, and a round table of fragrances to further boost discovery.
The dedicated make-up zone offers Lancôme’s entire range of foundations, powders, blushes, lipsticks, mascaras, as well as a wide variety of make-up tools and accessories. In this zone, customers are able to test products first-hand and experiment with different products. A team of expert beauty advisors and make-up artists are also on hand to give beauty masterclasses and assist customers in creating different Lancôme beauty looks. In addition to this, the make-up zone also has a virtual try on mirror and a colorama catalogue – which allows for easy ‘grab and go’ purchases.
In the flagship store’s skincare zone, Lancôme skincare experts are on-hand to give customers personalised skincare consultations. The skincare space is designed as a contemporary oasis, where customers can sit, relax, and discover Lancôme skincare’s latest technological innovations. Diagnostic skincare devices such as Lancôme’s ‘Youth Finder’ tool, are dotted around the space to help customers discover what Lancôme skincare products are most compatible to their specific needs. Youth Finder is a digital application that scans and evaluates customers’ skin to and recommends personalised skincare regiments.
Above a golden flight of stairs is the flagship boutique’s first floor, which is a space reserved for private skincare consultations and treatments. Here, VIPs can get skincare treatment in one of the boutique’s polysensorial cabins.
This premier space also offers Lancôme’s Le Teint Particulier foundation technology, which creates tailor-made foundation for each customer’s specific skintone. The brand has described the technology as ‘the ultimate personalisation tool’, as it can create up to 72,000 different foundation formulas.
Customers can also try out Lancôme’s innovative new ‘Shade Finder’ tool, which uses artificial intelligence to recommend the most accurate Lancôme Foundation shade for each customer. The brand claims that the Shade Finder tool can accurately identify up to 20,000 potential skin tones.
To elevate the gifting experience at the flagship store, guests can also personalise their purchases in the giant gift room on the ground floor. These are given a final flourish by Lancôme’s ‘Rose Robots’ which select a fragranced given to customers as a special souvenir.
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