Beauty Heroes Brings Its Product Curation Capabilities To A New Northern California Store

Five years after launching as an online clean beauty discovery service, Beauty Heroes has expanded into offline retail with the opening of its flagship store in Novato, Calif.

The 1,200-square-foot store offers 65 clean skincare, makeup, haircare and body care brands, including almost all of those offered on Beauty Heroes’ website. Among the brands are Bathing Culture, Lil’ Fox, de Mamiel, Golde and Honua. When choosing the products for the store, price was a key consideration. Product prices range from $6 to nearly $200. 

“We wanted to have a really diverse range of products to be able to accommodate all price points,” says Beauty Heroes founder Jeannie Jarnot. “We have Ayuna, which is our highest-end line, in the store. We also have Eir, Agent Nateur, things that are more affordable. It was important to me that people didn’t come in and be like, ‘I can’t afford anything in here,’ there isn’t a single product that’s under $60.’”

“We wanted to have a really diverse range of products to be able to accommodate all price points.”

Beauty Heroes’ store real estate in the heart of Novato, a Marin County town with roughly 52,000 people and longtime home of Jarnot, motivated her to take the brick-and-mortar plunge. “If you were going to put a store in Novato, this would be your ideal location,” says the spa director turned entrepreneur. “The space inspired me. I thought, ‘If I were to open a clean beauty store, this is the exact place I would put it.’ It happened to be available, and I made the call to the landlord.” The flagship opened its doors 15 months after that call.

Jarnot was intent on creating an immersive beauty shopping experience at the store exposing shoppers to Beauty Heroes’ curation skills. The store’s front desk functions as a so-called Flight Bar where customers can have a complimentary service called “Flight of Heroes.” There’s a Laurel Whole Plant Organics flight featuring a three-step mini ritual, and there’s a flight of four eye products—a gel, serum, light cream and heavy cream—named The Eyes Have It.

The first floor also features a mock bathroom, complete with vanity, and shoppers can try products on their skin at it. For Jarnot, the functional vanity is a critical element for fostering trial. She says, “Sephora doesn’t have a bathroom where you can go and wash your face, put makeup on, wash it off, put more makeup on.” The back of the store has a lounge for customers to hang out in and sample products at a leisurely place. Influencers, founders and others can use the space to develop content. The store plans to host a busy schedule of events, and it can hold 45 people at them. 

Jarnot drew upon her background in the spa industry to shape the treatment menu at Beauty Heroes’ store. It provides brand-specific services from the likes of Josh Rosebrook and Ayuna. In addition, Beauty Heroes has a custom Hero Worship facial pulling from upward of 40 brands with products traditionally not found in spa services. “It’s all of our hero products, and the aesthetician can customize the facial for your skin type,” says Jarnot. The facials are available in 30-, 60- and 90-minute increments for $65, $110 and $165, respectively.

Although it may not be as buzzy as a star product-loaded custom facial, Beauty Heroes has put a strong focus on sustainability in the store. Jarnot worked with conscious contractors on its $100,000 buildout to incorporate eco-friendly materials like wood cork. Consumers can participate in the green effort by recycling beauty products at two TerraCycle stations, and there’s an emphasis on what Beauty Heroes dubs blue beauty brands dedicated to regenerative practices that protect and improve the environment. Beauty Heroes has joined forces with 1% For the Planet to donate at least 1% of its sales to environmental causes. 

“The space inspired me. I thought, ‘If I were to open a clean beauty store, this is the exact place I would put it.’ It happened to be available, and I made the call to the landlord.”

Beauty Heroes’ store opened at the end of last month, and Jarnot is optimistic about her business’s retail endeavor so far. “I was really nervous. I’ve been working in the store and running people through flights, and I was like, ‘What if nobody gets it?’ Everybody gets it,” she says. Her goal is for the location to close in on $1 million in 2020 revenue. 

Loyal Beauty Heroes fans are already asking Jarnot about a second retail location. She doesn’t scoff at the notion, but would have to think carefully before signing a lease for a sophomore store. “A big part of the formula is to not just open a beauty store in another place where there’s another beauty store, especially a clean beauty store specifically,” she says. “If you think about our values, we want people to live lighter, and we want the world to be a more conscious space and that plays a factor. Where can we open that would be a conscious choice rather than just opening some place where the demographic meets our demographic? I have some ideas. But it’s definitely too soon to even think about that.”