Skillful Product Selection And Cool Design Make New Melbourne Clean Beauty Shop Saint Francis Place Stand Out

Grace Lim, a trained architect navigating a new career as co-founder of clean beauty retailer Saint Francis Place, is honing her skills as a globetrotting product detective.

“We’re like ghost buyers,” says Lim, an American who grew up in Hawaii, moved to Melbourne  in 2011 and opened the 485-square-foot store late March in the second biggest city in Australia with her spouse Martin Kwaskowski. “My husband and I try everything before we put it on the shelf.”

The strategy worked for Maison/Made. Its Restorative Antioxidant Serum was displayed prominently in the store in early July atop dried marigolds strewn on along the big front window. Lim says, “We bought a bottle without [New York-based Maison/Made founder Carolina Prioglio] knowing, tested it out and thought it was amazing.”

The same month, the 33-year-old stood was trialing a Roma Heirloom Tomato candle from Los Angeles brand Flamingo Estate. “This one appealed to us because they recycled their glass, and they use soy wax,” she shares. Lim and Kwaskowski ended up liking the Flamingo Estate scent so much that, on an impromptu trip to L.A. a few weeks later, they picked up a bunch of the candles along with items from Carta Fragrance and Y Et Beauté for the store.

Lim only reveals to a brand that she’s buying for Saint Francis Place if it doesn’t ship to Australia. In that case, she usually receives samples from the company. Of the store’s assortment, skincare makes up 90%, mainly for personal reasons. “I’ve always struggled with eczema and couldn’t use off-the-shelf stuff,” says Lim. “We wanted the best of natural skincare.”

Enduring testing that lasts at least two weeks, products that have passed muster include Lina Hanson’s Global Treasures treatment balm, Namari Skin’s Nektar body oil, Le Prunier’s Plum Beauty Oil, Henné Organics’ lip tints, Wooden Spoon Herbs’ Hangover Tonic, and Sensecraft’s herbal teas formulated to boost clarity and energy. Among the approximately 20 brands from the United States, Europe and Australia, she estimates the average price ranges between 70 and 75 in Australian dollars or about $48 to $52 at the current exchange rate.

“My husband and I try everything before we put it on the shelf.”

“People are loving the oils that are multipurpose and can be used on the face, body and hair,” says Lim. She reports that fragrance is a popular category as well because “people like the aromatherapy aspect of it. Even when people try a product, if the smell doesn’t connect with them, they don’t like it, even if they like the texture.”

Upholding the tenets of the store’s namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecologists and merchants, “We mainly focus on brands across all those categories that are specific about their ingredients and come from whole plants,” says Lim. In other words, she emphasizes the store prioritizes “nutrition for skin.” “We don’t really look at the price point when we buy,” says Lim. “It’s more of the ingredients and the brand standing for something, and that filters down to the products.”

Lim pays attention to what other clean beauty retailers in Melbourne carry to ensure there isn’t too much product crossover. In addition to those stores, Saint Francis Place faces competition from Sephora and Mecca, major beauty chains offering merchandise classified as “clean” and “mindful beauty.” Another complication is the prohibited shipment of flammable products like those containing alcohol to Australia.

While she lives in South Melbourne, Lim chose to set up shop in Fitzroy, a suburb she describes as “the creative hub of Melbourne.” On Smith Street, one of her store’s neighbors is a community radio station that boasts of its role as “Melbourne’s voice of dissent since 1976.” Around the corner is Gertrude Street, home to fashion boutiques with an independent and artsy flair such as Denimsmith, Modern Classic, Leonard Street and Pickings & Parry.

“We don’t really look at the price point when we buy. It’s more of the ingredients and the brand standing for something, and that filters down to the products.”

“A lot of people [in Fitzroy] are open to an alternative lifestyle,” says Lim. However, a challenge she faces in Australia is that “the clean beauty industry isn’t expanding as quickly as it is in Europe and America.” She believes the reason is lack of education.

For instance, the Ayurvedic-inspired skincare label Rasasara Skinfood from nearby Surrey Hills, Australia, is usually sold in health food shops. Not only does that distribution model alienate potential customers not shopping at such businesses, but it also limits the opportunity to try out products, says Lim. To alleviate that problem and educate customers about clean beauty, she hosted her first in-store workshop with Rasasara founder Sonia Lloyd on July 17.

Lim’s background in designing boutiques for fashion brands helped her walk an aesthetic line between antique and modern at Saint Francis Place. For the shop, which had housed a shoemaker, a leather goods store and other retail tenants over its 100-year history, an artisan in nearby Brunswick made thin steel shelves that stretch toward the 13-foot-high ceiling. The dark purple floor balances a wood ceiling that has been painted white. Red bricks border one side of the steps that raise the rear of the store about three feet higher than the front section. Mid-century modern furniture in tawny wood complements the walls that have been scraped to reveal patches of yellow paint and white plaster. Lim says, “We definitely wanted to celebrate the heritage of the building.”

Lim plans to convert a room in the back of the store into a space for holistic facials that incorporate the skincare it stocks. While the room is currently used by her and her husband for their interior design firm, her aim is to begin offering facial treatments by the end of the year from Sunday through Tuesday. The store is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

In the meantime, Lim continues ghost-buying. “We’ll probably expand to cleansers that double as masks but are already in liquid form,” she says. Haircare is on her shopping list, too. “We are still looking,” says Lim. “People want to know what the alternatives are in the clean beauty world.”

Feature image credit: Han Chua