Ever wonder what it’s like shopping with a beauty editor? Welcome to Counter Service, a series where we head into our favorite beauty boutiques IRL. We’re visiting the curated spaces and places that make shopping in person oh-so worth it—and you’re coming with. Step into America’s very first Olive Young with us to shop all of K-beauty’s very best.
Exactly one week after I walked out of Olive Young’s flagship location in Seongsu, South Korea, I walked through the doors of the retailer’s first brick-and-mortar location in the United States. As Allure’s senior commerce director, comparing retail experiences is genuinely part of my job, so a few days home from my trip, I headed into the store, equal parts excited and jet-lagged.
Feels like I never left Korea.
Sydney Malone
Damage was done.
Syndey Malone
The In-Store Experience
I came prepared to see throngs of people; after all, on opening day, customers camped overnight, and lines wrapped around the block. We arrived an hour before the store opened, and there were eager customers of all age ranges staking out their spots along the sidewalk.
Walking through the doors, you feel like you’re entering a pharmacy-Ulta Beauty hybrid. It’s brightly lit and welcoming; opposite the entry doors is a wall-to-wall screen flashing various Olive Young lettering treatments: puffy-paint pink, edgy chrome, and a reminder that Olive Young is an anagram for “All Live Young.” Off the bat, it felt extremely similar to the Olive Young stores I visited in South Korea, and so much of that comes down to the floor plan.
You’re immediately met by two “zones,” which are essentially pop-ups within the store dedicated to specific brands. The left is reserved for Mediheal, the Korean brand behind the viral Madecassoside Blemish toner pads, with a larger-than-life replica of the cyan box sitting next to the window. For scale, it’s about the size of those robot delivery creatures and, yes, the tweezer is included. The right zone is dedicated to Urban Decay, and while this may seem surprising to US customers, it’s not at all new to Korean shoppers. I saw plenty of global brands present at South Korean Olive Youngs, including Kiehl’s, La Roche-Posay, Maybelline New York, plenty of Supergoop, Touchland, and even Olly vitamins. The same can be said for Olive Young’s US e-commerce site, which our K-beauty-obsessed editor reviewed in detail.
The assortment is generally organized by both brand and product type—something you’d expect in a big-box retailer or convenience store, but not necessarily from a specialty retailer. This layout is what characterized (and, I’ll admit, slightly overwhelmed) my experience shopping in the five-floor Seongsu Olive Young.
