Spring is a time for reset and refresh, making it the perfect time to update your beauty regimen – whether skin, hair, make-up or wellness. It makes April, the peak of the season, a fruitful month in terms of beauty launches, from products anticipating summer (bronzing creams, SPFs and the like) to those capturing a mood of spring cleaning and revival (creamy cleansers, hand creams, nourishing lip balms).

Here, as selected by Wallpaper* beauty editor Mary Cleary, are the very best beauty launches of April 2026 – what they are, why we love them and how to use them.

The natural colour creator: Westman Atelier’s Bronzing Crème

The vibe-shifting moisturiser: Vyrao's Hand and Neck Cream

The unconventional wrinkle reducer: Aesop’s Solais Replenishing Hand Serum

The luxury lip tint: Celine’s Le Rouge Matte Lip Balm

The age-reducing sunscreen: Augustinus Bader’s The Solar Shield SPF 50

The supernatural face wash: Emma Lewisham’s Supernatural Crème Cleanser

The farm-grown haircare: The revamped Davines Essential Haircare range

Imagine a shooting star as it streaks across an inky night sky – twinkling, incandescent and ephemeral. Aesop, the luxury skincare brand, has attempted to capture that glowing essence in a bottle with its newest fragrance, Above Us, Steorra Eau de Parfum.

The fragrance, which is available for purchase 2 September 2025, is the result of a fascinating olfactory journey by frequent Aesop collaborator Céline Barel. The perfumer, who has created scents for brands including Loewe, Jil Sander, Jo Malone and more, was inspired by a visit to Aesop’s Collins Street store in Melbourne, where the ceiling glimmers softly, thanks to crushed amber bottles embedded into the plaster. ‘The whole ceiling is like stardust, but it's a very discrete and twinkling,’ Barel says.

The amber-coloured bottles got her thinking about the amber accord in perfumery, a foundational element of modern-day fragrances. Normally, an amber accord (not to be confused with ambergris, a substance produced by sperm whales, that’s been used historically in scent-making) is a comforting, powdery fragrance, with hints of vanilla.

‘How do we make another amber? How do we give it another life?’ Barel recalls asking herself. ‘I wanted to do things differently. And I wanted to go back to the core of the shooting star, the mineral aspect. There is this duality between something that used to shine high in the sky, but then fell to the ground.’

Barel sought to incrementally reduce the ambery accord to its very minimum by removing as much of the powdery elements as she could. In its place, she substituted richer, resiny notes, like cardamom and cinnamon. ‘We call it cinnamon bark essential, which comes from the first distillation of the cinnamon,’ Barel explains. ‘It gives this very twinkling, mouthwatering smell.’

The result, Above Us, Steorra Eau de Parfum (Steorra is Old English for ‘stars’), is sensual and intriguing. Like a racing comet, the fragrance first glimmers with a flash of bergamot, cardamom and Elemi, a resin from a tree found in the Philippines. Gradually, you get to the scent’s amber nucleus, augmented with the rich aroma of cypriol heart, and a resiny whiff of labdanum and frankincense. You’re left with deeper traces of these smells, with a comforting finish of warm vanilla.

Barel describes it as a skin-like fragrance, soft and carnal. ‘Fragrances on the market are extremely loud and in your face. This one is soft in a way that is very restrained,’ she says. ‘I think it's very addictive.’

For Aesop co-founder, Suzanne Santos, the collaboration marks another fruitful one with Barel. ‘There is something restful between the relationship at its core,’ she says. ‘It's a deep conversation.’

aesop.com

The beating pulse of Brera is not where you can usually expect to discover a slow-down sanctuary during Salone del Mobile. Yet in the sacristy of Brera’s Chiesa del Carmine, Aesop has created just that.

The Australian skincare brand’s installation, ‘The Second Skin’, opened to design-week-goers on Monday (7 April 2025) as an antidote to the noise of the city in its busiest week of the year. It invites visitors to take a moment of respite and reflection by indulging their senses through a series of scent interactions.

Billed as ‘an exploration of dermis and design’, the installation sees the launch of Aesop’s new woody and herbaceous Eleos Aromatique body cleanser and lotion, comprising cedarwood, patchouli and clove – a product that has been nearly eight years in the making and which is celebrated on every surface.

Aesop's ‘The Second Skin’ at Salone del Mobile 2025

‘There’s an opportunity at Salone to create a symbiosis of our product and our design expertise,’ Marianne Lardilleux, Aesop’s director of global retail design, tells Wallpaper*. ‘We wanted to engage our visitors with the ingredients that made our exceptional produce and so you have these three ingredients everywhere in different forms – liquid and texture – which awakens the senses.’

At the sacristy, from a first encounter with laboratory glassware holding the jewel-toned fragrances through to the cloisters where sinks to wash hands in the new scent – much like those in Aesop’s boutiques – await to help you rinse off the day, guests are immersed in the brand’s sensory world.

Standing on a long cedarwood table are moulds of torsos created by Parisian artist Victoria Punturere, in collaboration with the Aesop design team, that have been polished in Eleos. ‘We wanted to provide a meticulous way to smell it, and we often say at Aesop that it’s better to smell fragrance directly on your body than on a piece of paper,’ says Lardilleux.

In the sacristy, guests are invited to wander in near darkness around an installation of cedarwood panels rubbed in the new Eleos scent and videos featuring contemporary dance performances created in collaboration with Nayoung Kim, a dancer of the Tanztheater Wuppertal. To finish the journey, Eleos Aromatique hand and arm massages are offered in the Capsule of Respite, a recessed room furnished with Italian design icons in collaboration with the Morentz gallery.

It was, in fact, a Milanese icon that provided stimulus for the Milan Design Week 2025 installation, with Lardilleux drawing a metaphor between the skin's epidermis and the city’s signature entranceways.

‘These [entryways] are hidden, you need to know about them and push the door,’ says Lardilleux. ‘Pushing the door of the sacristy was a [similar] gesture and, of course, the entryways are a threshold between the exterior world and what is the intimacy of your home. Your skin is the same, it’s protection between the exterior and your interior.’

The result is an experience that feels – as intended – like an intensely personal moment suspended in time. ‘This is about understanding something from the intimacy of self and not expecting you to form a line or a category of sameness,’ shares co-founder Suzanne Santos. ‘It’s very easy to return something to people in a short space of time when you have an ambience like this. You can recompose yourself and walk out the door – feel like you’ve both had an experience but also you’re better for the experience.’

Salone is in many ways the perfect forum for Aesop to take centre stage as the official ‘Sensory Patron’ of this year’s event. Hailed as a gamechanger in the design-led customer experiences of its 400-plus stores around the world, the annual design event is famously democratic – it is open to all to enjoy, mirroring Aesop’s resilient pricing structure and straight-talking communication style.

‘What we find beautiful about Salone del Mobile is that it’s open to everybody; it’s not like a fashion show where you need to get an invite or you enter a space where you have to pay,’ says Lardilleux. ‘Here is a place where everyone is welcome [and] a generous place to be for everyone to come and be inspired.’

Aesop’s ‘The Second Skin’ is open to the public at Sagrestia of the Chiesa del Carmine, Milan, from 8–13 April 2025.

aesop.com

It’s been ten years since Aesop launched Tacit, a perfume created by French nose Céline Barel. Last week, I met with Barel in Paris at Aesop’s Rue de Sevres store to mark the imminent debut of Aurner, her second fragrance for the brand. In contrast to Tacit’s citrussy notes, Aurner is a floral composition; its name comes from an Old Norse verb meaning ‘to be adorned, to be embellished with flowers’.

However, in keeping with the contemporary codes of Aesop, there is nothing florid or frou frou to be found in a bottle of Aurner, with Barel using the magnolia leaf, rather than its petals, as its hero ingredient. Cardamom, pink pepper, cedar heart and the ‘metallic’ aroma of roman chamomile provide nuance and complexity. (It is described by Aesop as a ‘subversive’ and ‘defiant bloom’, attributes which Bangkok-based fine jewellery designer Patcharavipa Bodiratnangkura has also interpreted into a limited run of bespoke rhodium-plated silver Aurner ear cuffs).

In the below conversation, Céline Barel shares the story of how Aurner was brought to life.

Aesop’s Aurner: a new floral perfume by Céline Barel

Wallpaper*: What first drew you to perfume-making?

Céline Barel: I am what you might call appellation d’origine contrôlée; because I’m a perfumer and I was born and raised in Grasse. (In my generation of perfumers, this is especially rare). As a child, I soaked in the atmosphere of Grasse, even though I didn’t grow up with a perfumer in the family. But, my nanny's husband used to work in one of the biggest factories in the town and whenever he would come back home at the end of the day, it was like he had almost bathed in perfume ingredients, such as ylang-ylang, patchouli and vetiver. I began collecting miniature bottles of perfume and I would enjoy describing how they smelled. Growing up in the 1980s, the bottles were like sculptures. It was also a time when you had the most marvellous and breathtaking perfume advertising campaigns. This is how I gained a huge knowledge of the perfume market, just through fragrance being a hobby and passion of mine.

W*: What was your first professional experience in the perfume industry?

CB: I wanted to take business studies at university, because I wanted to be on the brand side of perfumery, doing the marketing, building all those dreams. So, I did internships at different houses, including Dior and Chanel. But it was during an internship at Manne, which is another fragrance creation house, that I really discovered the backstage of perfumery. It was something that seemed so inaccessible, as in France you have to have studied chemistry, not business. But it was International Flavors and Fragrances, who gave me my chance, when it re-opening its internal perfumery school in Italy. They accepted just a few people onto the course and I was one of the lucky few and trained there for three years before moving to New York. I stayed there for 16 years before returning to Paris four years ago.

W*: How did you first come to work with Aesop?

CB: It was a very long process, but a natural and authentic one. It all started nearly 20 years ago when I met Dennis Paphitis, the founder of Aesop, here in Paris. I was fresh out of perfume school. We bonded over a mutual love of literature and philosophy. Also how we both loved travelling off the beaten track and preferred the ‘weirder’ things in life. So, we kept the conversation going. Sometimes he would be travelling and send me, without any context or a written letter, some elements of his trip: dried herbs, a particular bark of wood, spice, some Pantone colours. And I think this way, he was slowly shaping my creative process with Aesop. In 2012, seven years after we first met, he briefed me for Tacit. It then took a further three years to create due to his unique briefing process. We always start with a blank page. Then there will be a song, a colour, a film – and so on – that forms the inspiration for a perfume.

W*: And was the process the same for Aurner, too?

CB: It was rigorous. I always knew this was going to be a floral perfume. A ‘genderless’ floral perfume. There is a quote from Baudelaire that I love: ‘Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty’. This is how I approached its creation. Aesop is a brand that is rooted in antiquities and the meaningful quest for beauty. But at the same time, it’s a contemporary brand inspired by art and design, movements such as Minimalism and Brutalism. I had to find a way to make a floral perfume that felt in keeping with this universe. The song Lilac Wine by Nina Simone was a starting point for Aurner. When you’re listening to the song, it’s a bit melancholy. And there is a huge depth in it through her voice. There’s almost a ‘gong’ sound; a metallic vibration. But it is soothing, calming… Not strident or sharp. This song helped me to understand the tension and contrast required in Aurner; opposing the luminosity and the fragility of a flower with something deeper.

W*: How did you arrive at the final ingredients and notes in Aurner?

CB: We didn’t want to go down the route of rose, tuberose, or jasmine, for example. It was important to choose an ‘anti-conformist’ floral. Once we defined that the hero ingredient would be the magnolia, we subverted this by using the leaf and not the flower. Then, we had to find that element of ‘strangeness’, which comes from the chamomile; a ‘metallic’ sensation, so cold that it burns. I also used patchouli crystals together with cedar wood heart and sandalwood to give Aurner texture and strength. This woody background, by necessity, had to be very strong to become the backbone of the fragrance. And provide longevity; a vibration that would be working over many hours. But at the same time, I wanted a woody accord that could feel like it was disappearing and almost subliminal. Then, the inclusions of geranium, petit grain and neroli, which are Aesop signatures, anchor Aurner with a touch of familiarity.

W*: What are you most excited about in the world of perfume at the moment?

CB: I’m excited about the development of new ingredients and molecules, which allow a perfumer to innovate. There are exciting new geographic zones to be explored in countries such as South Korea, for example. But the most exciting part, I would say, is in working with different brands. Working with Aesop, and with Dennis, has had a huge impact on me. He’s one of the people in my life that really shaped me – a true mentor.

When you’re collaborating with a brand it is important to remember that you are not creating a fragrance for yourself. It’s for the customer and their consumer. I tend to lean towards the maximalist, rather than the minimalist. But Aesop has opened my eyes to other horizons, thanks to the briefs I was given for Tacit and Aurner. In a way, when I create a perfume it is almost like I’ve been an actor, getting under the the skin of a character. And the character is the brief; the story that is being told. I spend a few years with that character in my mind, writing dialogues between ingredients. When the process is over, you feel a bit blue – like an actor does when they say goodbye to a character they’ve been portraying. But, you’re also so happy to see it come to life and hopefully become immortalised by the people wearing it.

Aesop Aurner eau de parfum, £145, is available now. The Aurner ear cuff by Patcharavipa Bodiratnangkura is available at select Aesop stores in a limited edition run of 200 pieces.

aesop.com

The art of make-up organisation is a skill I have honed over a number of years. Every January, I’ll start culling products that I’ve accumulated over the past however many years. (Yes, make-up and skincare expires, and although some has a longer shelf life than others, no matter what the packaging states, it’s best to check how certain formulas are faring every so often).

What can be sharpened, scraped, sanitised or wiped clean with isopropyl alcohol – lip and eye pencils, solid cream concealers, blushers, highlighters, lipstick bullets and even powder products – I usually keep, providing they’re still performing or aren’t humiliatingly ancient. Liquid products in pump bottles, such as foundation, keeps slightly longer than those that require a ‘dipping’ action: wands, doe foot applicators and fingers are bacterial harbingers of doom for make-up past its prime. So mascara, liquid liner and anything contained in a jar sadly must go.

Then, its time to address what needs replacing, before re-categorising or consolidating to free up space. I might even look at investing in something new – brushes and essential tools, perhaps – or storage for the designated beautifying area in my compact London flat (some examples of which are included in the below guide).

Design solutions for make-up organisation: a guide by Wallpaper's beauty editor

Wipe-clean storage units and multipurpose desk tidies

B-Line trolley

I apply my make-up at a small desk in my bedroom and purchased a second hand Joe Colombo for B-Line Boby trolley from eBay a few years ago. It’s been the ideal vessel for storing beauty products, with its multiple pockets and drawers that fan outwards on hinges. Plus, I can glide it in and out from underneath the table as needed.

Joe Colombo Boby trolley, £494.00, aram.co.uk.

Kartell drawers

Similarly, the Kartell Mobil drawers, designed by Antonio Citterio and Oliver Löw in 1994, are a great option for moveable, compact make-up and skincare storage, with drawers numbering between one and six and a choice between gloss or matt finishes. Some models also include additional shelving, with newer editions of the Mobil Mat drawers made from recycled industrial waste materials.

Kartell Mobil Mat drawers, £670.00, heals.com.

Vitra desk tidy

Pretty much anything that works as a desk tidy can double as multi-functional organisation for make-up and skincare. Case in point, Vitra's O-Tidy and S-Tidy by Michel Charlot. The former has a dish shape with a cup in the centre; perfect for holding brushes. The latter is also great for brushes, plus liners and products in elongated bottles that stand on a base, with its sectional, ‘serpentine’ shape. (Another tip: I often use Loewe's empty ceramic candle pots for a similar purpose).

Vitra O-Tidy, £39, twentytwentyone.com.

Muji acrylic drawers

When it comes to the organising of make-up and skincare, I don’t know where I’d be without Muji. Not only does the Japanese lifestyle brand have a wealth of wipe-clean drawers and boxes, but also make-up cases and pouches, reusable 100ml bottles, and cotton pads and buds. (Its thin-stem cotton buds are my favourite for precise clean ups, such as correcting mistakes, removing mascara that has transferred to the eyelids or sharpening the border of a red lip).

Muji acrylic 6 drawer unit, £32; thin-stem cotton buds, £2.95, muji.co.uk.

Adjustable table lamps for make-up application in low lighting

Flos LED lamp

Applying make-up with a light source shining directly onto the face is the only way to properly see what you are doing, alongside the true textures and colours of products. Ideally, the source is natural daylight. After dark, in place of a less-than aesthetically pleasing ring light, I use a portable and adjustable table lamp (such as Antonio Citterio’s Kelvin, designed for Flos) to assist me.

Flos Kelvin Led Base table lamp, £380, flos.com.

Artemide clip-on lamp

Similarly, Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina’s Tolomeo Pinza lamp (a miniature version of the Tolomeo desk lamp designed in 1987) is made from lightweight aluminium. If you need a change of scenery, its signature clip mechanism means it can be attached to varying surfaces, providing a face-on light source in any space in the home.

Artemide Pinza lamp, £175, aram.co.uk.

Multi-angle, versatile mirrors for horizontal and vertical surfaces

Artek multi-angle mirror

Viewing your face from every angle – front on, plus the so-called ‘bad’ and ‘good’ sides – allows for a complete understanding of how your make-up appears. (This is usually something I will check on for formal occasions that take place during the day, such as a wedding). Daniel Rybakken’s 124° mirror, created in 2017 for Artek, can either stand freely on a horizontal surface or be fixed to a wall, offering a multi-perspective solution. It includes a tray-shaped base to place products in whilst you use them, too.

Artek 124° mirror, £388, finnishdesignshop.com.

Ligne Roset trinket mirror

Marie-Aurore Stiker-Métral’s Nimbe mirror, created for Ligne Roset with a steel rose beige-coloured frame, is a compact enough for a table top and portable enough to be moved around the house to work with different sources of light. The moulded polyurethane dish-shaped base is also a practical solution for holding (or storing) make-up, skincare products and tools in.

Ligne Roset Nimbe mirror, £466.00, chaplinsfurniture.co.uk.

The make-up tools to invest in, including eyelash curlers, brushes and tweezers

Prada Beauty make-up sponge

Although they can last through many applications and washes, after a while, I will replace any make-up sponges that are feeling a little ragged round the edges. The Prada Beauty foundation blenders can be used wet or dry, are designed different shades for various skin tones and are cut with a triangle edge (a nod to the house's inverted triangle emblem, a motif present throughout Prada’s make-up line) for precise application.

Prada foundation blender, £26, flannels.com.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler

The Shu Uemura eyelash curler is, in my opinion and that of many others, one of the best there is. The tool is even mentioned in The Devil Wears Prada by supermodel Gisele, her character Serena in disbelief that Anne Hathaway’s Andrea doesn’t know what it is: ‘We were in the beauty department and [Andrea] held up this Shu Uemura eyelash curler and she said, “What is this?”’ The S curler, a second and smaller version of the original tool, launched in 2013, which is suitable for an even more extensive range of eye shapes and lashes.

Shu Uemura S eyelash curler, £20.15, stylevana.co.uk.

Victorinox tweezers

If you’re finding that your tweezers are losing their grip, or never really had a strong enough one in the first place for that matter, it’s time to replace them. An expertly-designed pair can last a lifetime, such as this pair by Victorinox, made in collaboration with fellow Swiss brand Rubis. Crafted from stainless steel, their precision-cut slanted tips will grab, seize and remove even the most miniscule of hairs.

Victorinox tweezers, £ 37.50, victorinox.com

Rae Morris make-up brushes

An expertly-designed set of make-up brushes will also stand the test of time. Australian make-up artist Rae Morris is renowned in the beauty industry for her namesake line of professional brushes with magnetic handles. This allows for the brushes to be affixed to metal surfaces, or the brand’s custom-built stainless steel Rae Frameor Rae Plate, ensuring that they never roll away during use or occupy too much space on a table top.

Rae Morris Personal brush set, £330, raemorris.com.

Nars pencil sharpener

A dual-blade pencil sharpener accommodates all widths of eye and lip products. This particular tool by Nars is built with a removable and adjustable adapter, so even extra-thick pencils, remain clean and whittled to a point. It also comes alongside a blade cleaner and a hard cover to catch fall out.

Nars pencil sharpener, £9, spacenk.com.

Essential products that cleanse brushes, remove make-up, prep skin and more

Mac brush cleanser

Used make-up brushes should, in an ideal world, be deep cleaned once a week. I use a solid soap bar and gentle shampoo to wash just the bristles in the bathroom sink, watching the diluted product residue slide down the drain, before laying them down to air dry on a towel. Therapeutic as this process may be, its an activity that takes a bit of time. So a brush cleaner is another absolute essential for the days in between. (I suggest this one by Mac).

Mac brush cleanser, £15, selfridges.com.

Chanel micellar water

Alongside cotton pads, buds and tissues (plus a sturdy and inoffensive tissue box such as the Birillo by Alessi) micellar water is a must. It can be used to dampen a brush, clean up the back of your hand if you’ve used it as a palette, or remove an entire face of make-up when a technique has gone awry. Chanel’s micellar water in particular contains marine plant extracts and a prebiotic molecule to keep the skin’s microbiome balanced.

Chanel L’Micellaire micellar water, £36, chanel.com.

Aesop eye and lip make-up remover

When it comes to wiping away most make-up products, micellar water gets most of the job done. But waterproof mascara or long-lasting, budge-proof formulations are another story entirely. Here, you will need something oil based, such as Aesop’s eye and lip make-up remover, made with nourishing grape seed, soothing blue chamomile and vitamin E. Follow with a rigorous double cleanse.

Aesop Remove eye and lip make-up remover, £19, liberty.com.

This edit of face and body cleansers will aid in starting the new year afresh. (Plus, as it’s the first day of 2025, suffice to say many of us could use a little help in the post-NYE rejuvenation process).

Against a make-up-eliminating Augustinus Bader cleansing balm and a Chanel gel-to-oil formula, the remnants of last night’s mascara stand little chance. And to soothe sore muscles (or heads, for that matter) look no further than an Alpine-inspired bath soak by Susanne Kaufmann.

Read on for more purifying products with the Wallpaper* seal of approval.

Face and body cleansers for a fresh new year

Augustinus Bader (above)

Containing the brand’s signature TFC8 technology, developed by Professor Augustinus Bader for optimum cell renewal, ‘The Cleansing Balm’ is a gentle formula that effortlessly dissolves make-up and impurities, turning into a milky texture upon contact with water. Unlike many other balm cleansers, it leaves no trace of residue. So those with clog-prone skin can proceed without caution.

Augustinus Bader ‘The Cleansing Balm’, £62.

augustinusbader.com

Mirror Water

As Estée Lalonde, the founder of London-based brand self-care brand Mirror Water points out: ‘When have you ever regretted taking a bath?’ And in the case of New Year’s Day, never a truer word was spoken, particularly when said bath is sprinkled with Mirror Water’s ‘Soak Bath Salts’. Made entirely from naturally derived Himalayan and magnesium salt the product is also infused with essential oils, which radiate a deeply comforting aroma.

Mirror Water ‘Soak Bath Salts’, £38.

mirrorwater.earth

Aesop

Some skincare products are considered ‘cult classics’ for good reason, such as the ‘Geranium Leaf’ body cleanser by Aesop. With a verdant and citrusy fragrance, this bath and shower gel may have a low-foaming, gentle formula. But its potent ability to leave one feeling thoroughly refreshed (and, in this instance, ready to take on whatever awaits you in 2025) is unmatched.

Aesop ‘Geranium Leaf’ body cleanser, £39.

aesop.com

MyBlend

Last year, Wallpaper* featured MyBlend’s ‘myLED’ face mask in the February 2024 Design Awards issue. But we are also fans of the brand’s skincare products, too, including the ‘Revitalising Cream moisturiser and the ‘Exfoliating Body Gel-Cream’. The latter is a body treatment providing both chemical and manual exfoliation that removes dry and dull skin to unveil a whole ‘new you’.

myBlend ‘Exfoliating Body Gel-Cream’, £100.

uk.myblend.com

Chanel

Chanel’s ‘Sublimage’ skincare range contains a hero antioxidant developed by the house in its Madagascar Sky Lab, called Polyfractioned Vanilla Planifolia. (Read more about this in Wallpaper’s feature on the ‘Sublimage L’Extrait de Nuit’ night serum, here). The ‘Sublimage Gel-to-Oil Cleanser’ features Vanilla Planifolia Water in particular. Starting as a gel, upon contact with the skin the product turns into a make-up removing oil, before finally transforming into a nourishing milk.

Chanel ‘Sublimage Gel-to-Oil Cleanser’, £95.

chanel.com

Dr Barbara Sturm

Incredibly gentle on sensitive or irritated skin needing a reset for the new year, Dr Barbara Sturm’s ‘Cleanser’ not only removes make-up and impurities but has the benefit of strengthening skin barrier function, with calming and soothing ingredients such as purslane and aloe vera, plus vitamin E and glycerine. One pump dispenses the ideal amount of foam-based formula, which thickens up into a creamy texture when lathered.

Dr Barbara Sturm ‘Cleanser’, £55.

drsturm.com

Susanne Kaufmann

Mother of sustainable luxury skincare Susanne Kaufmann founded her namesake natural beauty brand on the principles of Austrian Alpine living. The ‘Mountain Pine Bath’ soak, is designed to ease tension, soothe the skin and stimulate blood circulation, with extracts of mountain pine oil and spruce needle oil. (The recycled glass bottle even contains a hand-picked spruce sprig).

Susanne Kaufmann ‘Mountain Pine Bath’, £55.

susannekaufmann.com

Unboxing beauty products on Boxing Day? Well, metaphorically speaking, why not?

Here, we take a look back at the pages of Wallpaper* from the past year, reflecting on the make-up, perfume, tools and accessories that defined our 2024.

Unboxing beauty products from 2024, as seen on the pages of Wallpaper*

Chanel lipstick in Wallpaper* February 2024: The Design Awards Issue

In the February 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, we presented a design award to the Chanel ‘31 Le Rouge lipstick’. The lipstick comes in several shades and textures, all created to be housed in a glass case crafted by Japanese artisans and designed by Sylvie Legastelois.

Read the full article here.

MyBlend led mask in Wallpaper* March 2024: The Style Issue

For the first Wallpaper* Style Issue of the year in March 2024, we turned the spotlight on the MyBlend ‘myLedmask’, with its uniquely contoured design slightly reminiscent of Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In.

Read the full article here.

Acne Studios x Frédéric Malle perfume in Wallpaper* April 2024: Global Interiors

We spoke with the creative director of Acne Studios Jonny Johansson, fragrance legend Frédéric Malle and emerging nose Suzy Le Helley about their collaborative work on ‘Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle’ eau de parfum, previewed in the April 2024 issue of Wallpaper*.

Read the full article here.

Bottega Veneta scented candle in Wallpaper* June 2024: The Travel Issue

Bottega Veneta launched scented candles earlier this year, with three different fragrances available in red, yellow and green lava glaze ceramic pots. We captured the brand’s ‘Redstone’ candle on the pages of Wallpaper* June 2024, which contains notes of plum nectar, tobacco and cedarwood.

Read the full article here.

Rimowa vanity case in Wallpaper* June 2024: The Travel Issue

Rimowa's vanity case also made its debut in Wallpaper* June 2024, our annual travel issue. A reimagined 1970s design from the Rimowa archives, the case is robust enough to contain a multitude of products and tools without fear of damage whilst on the move.

Read the full article here.

Fendi perfumes in Wallpaper* July 2024: The Design Directory

In 2024, Fendi created seven exclusive perfumes, inspired by the personalities and memories of close members of the Fendi family. The collection, which we included in the July issue of Wallpaper*, features refillable glass bottles evoking the vocabulary of Roman architecture.

Read the full article here.

Calvin Klein CK One perfume in Wallpaper* August 2024: The USA 100

The August 2024 issue of Wallpaper* was dedicated US creatives, with an accompanying portfolio shot by Inez and Vinoodh. In addition, we looked at 12 American design icons, including Calvin Klein’s ‘CK One’ eau de toilette. First released in 1994, the fragrance remains a best seller to this day.

Read the full article here.

Solid soap in Wallpaper* September 2024: The Style Issue

For Wallpaper* September 2024, the year’s second issue dedicated to style, we celebrated the pleasures of solid soap, including bars from the likes of Aesop, Celine, Diptyque, Hermès and Sisley.

Read the full article here.

Celine Beauté lipstick in Wallpaper* October 2024: Guest Editors

Celine launched its first-ever beauty line in October 2024, Celine Beauté. Designed by Hedi Slimane, who has since left the house in the hands of his successor Michael Rider, the ‘Le Rouge Celine’ lipstick in a shade of red called 'Rouge Triomphe’ made its Wallpaper* premiere in the same monthly issue.

Read the full article here.

Hermès eye and lip pencils in Wallpaper* November 2024: The Art Issue

Hermès’ ‘Trait d’Hermès’ eye and lip pencils were designed by Pierre Hardy and Gregoris Pyrpylis, the house’s creative director of beauty, to evoke a playful stationary set. We captured the collection’s kaleidoscopic colour palette in Wallpaper* November 2024.

Read the full article here.

Bottega Veneta perfume in Wallpaper* November 2024: The Art Issue

Bottega Veneta’s fragrance collection by Matthieu Blazy (now succeeded by Louise Trotter after his appointment as creative director at Chanel) includes five scents inspired by Venice, with bottles blown in Murano glass. Above, is the brand’s ‘Come With Me’ eau de parfum, as featured in the November 2024 issue of Wallpaper*.

Read the full article here.

Dior perfumes in Wallpaper* December 2024: The Entertaining Issue

In 2024, Francis Kurkdjian, the creative director of Dior Parfums took five fragrances from the house’s ‘La Collection Privée’, reinterpreting their notes in ‘Esprit de Parfum’, a new scent range featured on the pages of Wallpaper’s December Entertaining Issue.

Read the full article here.

Dries Van Noten lipsticks in Wallpaper* December 2024: The Entertaining Issue

After taking a final bow on the runway earlier in the year, for the December 2024 issue of Wallpaper* we caught up with Dries Van Noten about his next steps, which include growing the beauty and fragrance arm of his eponymous brand (and spending more time in his beloved garden).

Read the full article here.

These sexual wellness gift ideas for the bedside table, carefully selected by Wallpaper*, take into consideration three key design elements: form, function and, of course, fun.

From the sculptural ‘Spot’ vibrator by Maude (a tool currently on display in the Louvre Museum as part of the exhibition ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’) to Nécessaire’s hyaluronic acid-based ‘The Sex Gel’, contained in the brand’s signature minimalist packaging, this list suggests objects, products and more that look just as good as they feel.

Sexual wellness gifts designed for the bedside table

A museum-worthy toy by Maude

It’s no secret that Maude is creating museum-worthy toys (the brand sponsored the current Louvre exhibition, ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’ and has its design-led tools on display there), so you’d be forgiven for mistaking the five-speed ‘Spot’ vibrator for an objet d’art. Brâncuși-inspired, and with a sleek finish and choice of two colourways, the ‘Spot’ makes the ideal gift for the design connoisseur unwilling to sacrifice aesthetic pleasure for physical pleasure.

Maude ‘Spot’ vibrator, $79 / £64, getmaude.com

A ‘breathless’ body oil by Aesop

A visit to the Aesop store is always guaranteed to bring a hit of inspiration, making it a vital stop on any festive shopping trip. The brand’s ‘Breathless’ body oil (named after the 1960 film by Jean-Luc Godard) is just the thing to massage away all the tensions from another year gone by. A heady blend of essential oil extracts including blood orange, jojoba and laurel leaf, the all-natural ingredients list offers a multi-sensory experience, whether used as part of an everyday body-care regime or for sharing with someone special.

Aesop ‘Breathless’ body oil, £30, aesop.com

A feat of engineering by Lelo

Lelo is a Cannes Lions award-winning brand at the forefront of sexual wellness tech. The Lelo ‘Dot’ vibrator is an innovative feat of engineering, with a high-precision tip and signature elliptical movement that is lightyears ahead of the run-of-the-mill bullet design. Available in a spectrum of pastel shades, complemented by metallic detailing and a satin-finish storage pouch.

Lelo ‘Dot’ vibrator, £159, lelo.com

A nightstand must-have by Nécessaire

‘The Sex Gel’ water-based lubricant is part of a curated edit of body care from climate-conscious beauty brand Nécessaire. Containing familiar skincare actives like hyaluronic acid, this product is pH-optimised and completely fragrance-free for intimate skin-friendly results and guaranteed good clean fun. Plus, its luxuriously minimal packaging makes it a nightstand must-have.

Nécessaire ‘The Sex Gel’ lubricant, $28, necessaire.com

A latex-inspired lubricant by Atsuko Kudo

The visionary Japanese-born, London-based designer Atsuko Kudo has been creating latex clothing and accessories since 2001. Her eponymous brand’s latest launch, ‘Dressing for Pleasure’, is a double-duty product, designed as a slick lacquer for rubber-wear and an intimate lubricant. The silicone-based formula is presented in a discreet gloss-black bottle, complemented by a precision ‘Tongari’ (meaning ‘sharp-pointed’ in Japanese) tip, so you never waste a drop.

Atsuko Kudo ‘Dressing for Pleasure’ latex lubricant, £12, atsukokudo.com

A scented mood setter by Oskia

Oskia’s ‘Rose de Mai’ massage luxury candle emits a warm light and the fragrance of may rose. After it melts, the lightweight oil can be used on both the face and body, moisturising the skin with coconut beeswax and soya. Replete with a spout for easy pouring, the candle’s low melting point means that things get heated without the risk of being burnt (which, when it comes to love, is a gift in itself). Just don’t forget to trim the wick.

Oskia ‘Rose de Mai’ massage candle, £55, oskiaskincare.com

Stepping inside an Aesop store is an immersive and deeply sensory experience shaped by Marianne Lardilleux, the brand’s director of global retail design, who has looked to cinema as the inspiration for many of Aesop’s brick and mortar spaces across the globe.

In the Knox, Texas store, Lardilleux took colour cues from Wim Wenders’ Paris Texas (1984). In the case of the Zurich Airport boutique, she referred to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In 2018 and 2019, Aesop even partnered with Luca Guadagnino, the director of Call Me By Your Name (2017) and Challengers (2024), on interiors for retail locations in Rome’s Piazza di San Lorenzo and London’s Piccadilly Arcade.

First look: Aesop’s cinematic Christmas campaign

In fact, throughout the brand’s lexicon, which spans almost 40 years, you’ll find a nod to the art of cinema in even the smallest of details, including the naming of products. (‘Breathless: A Bout de Souffle’, a hydrating body oil, references Jean Luc Godard’s 1960 New Wave masterpiece, for example).

‘You go to the cinema instead of watching a movie on your TV because you want to be immersed, to have all your senses awakened,’ Lardilleux explains from her studio, which is adorned with mood boards and a visual inventory of furniture placed in Aesop stores. ‘When we build a new space, we’re thinking of the five senses. I feel you are looking for a similar experience when entering the cinema – this immersion in a new territory.’

Aesop’s 2024 Christmas campaign also draws upon these themes, with three limited-edition gift kits – ‘Screen 1’, ‘Screen 2’ and ‘Screen 3’ – each containing an edit of Aesop’s star products.

In Screen 1, there are four formulations to ‘scent the scene’ in your home, such as the ‘Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash’ and ‘Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm’. For Screen 2, you’ll find a ‘trilogy’ of body-care items from the Geranium Leaf range: ‘Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser’, ‘Geranium Leaf Body Scrub’ and ‘Geranium Leaf Body Balm’. Finally, Screen 3 focuses on a ‘three-part saga for both hands and body’, including the ‘Eleos Aromatique Hand Balm’.

The packaging for the kits is a novel take on the season of light, printed with scans of super 8, 16mm and 35mm film to create a representation of celluloid. Accompanying this is a Christmas campaign film titled The Soap Service, which was also shot on 35mm, to maintain this textural continuity. Depicting moments of gift-giving, it also appears as vignettes in the window installations of select Aesop stores, with creative direction overseen by Lardilleux.

Her connection with visual arts and culture (which have always been central to Aesop’s DNA) stems from her background. Cutting her teeth in architectural practice before making the move to retail via Louis Vuitton and Céline, she joined Aesop in 2016. ‘[In moving from architecture into retail] I discovered a whole new world and also realised how much attention could be paid to detail,’ she says. ‘When you design a building, [those things] are constrained by time and budget. But in retail, each door handle, button or fabric matters – and so I completely fell in love with it.’

To take the Knox store in Texas as an example, aside from the obvious location reference to Wenders’ cult classic, the film’s characters manifest in the scale of the architectural design of the space. (It was conceived to channel images of ‘human fragility against the huge landscape of Texas‘ in Paris Texas, Lardilleux notes).

Ultimately, the effect of all of these cinematic touches, large and small, is more significant than something pleasing to look at, too, intended to set the tone for the impassioned discussion of art and film among Aesop’s following. ‘It's not just for the beauty of it,’ Lardilleux concludes. ‘All the stories we’re building with film is to spark conversation, which I see as another immersive layer that not only responds to a space but fills it too.’

Aesop’s list of films to watch over the frantic festive period

Watch Aesop’s Christmas campaign short The Soap Service above. Below, find the brand’s selection of films to ‘provide tranquil moments of inspiration during the frantic festive period’.

The Adventure (1960) by Michelangelo Antonioni

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) by Victor Erice

Paris is Burning (1990) by Jennie Livingston

The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) by Tran Anh Hung

Beau Travail (1999) by Claire Denis

Unknown Pleasures (2002) by Jia Zhangke

2046 (2004) by Wong Kar Wai

I Am Love (2009) by Luca Guadagnino

The Great Beauty (2013) by Paolo Sorrentino

Faces Places (2017) by Agnès Varda and JR

Monos (2019) by Agnès Varda and JR

Great Freedom (2021) by Sebastian Miese

The Eight Mountains (2022) by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch

La Chimera (2023) by Alice Rohrwacher

Perfect Days (2024) by Wim Wenders

aesop.com

Hygiene is considered to be something of a modern preoccupation, but there is evidence that soap was invented by ancient civilisations nearly 5,000 years ago. Archaeologists unearthed traces of it in Babylonian clay artefacts, which were also inscribed with recipes for soap-making.

In Aleppo, olive oil, laurel berry oil and lye were melted down, then cooled underground to form a vast, avocado-green sheet, a process that remains largely unchanged today. (Some myths recount Cleopatra bathing in milk, using Aleppo soap). Echoing this ancient wisdom, Santa Maria Novella – the oldest pharmacy in the world, with roots that trace back to 13th-century Florence – produces a buttery milk soap bar that is available unscented or containing botanical ingredients such as gardenia or verbena.

Why solid soap is the most pleasurable object to wash with

A bar of soap also recalls the midtwentieth century era, when brands such as Pears and Cussons would vie for airwave supremacy through their sponsorship of radio and TV programmes, leading to the shows being dubbed ‘soap operas’.

The celebrated 20th century photographer and society darling Cecil Beaton was once asked, ‘What is elegance?’, to which he simply replied, ‘Soap and water!’ One can imagine one of his muses – Maria Callas, Barbra Streisand, Baroness Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza – returning to their bathrooms after a day shooting with Beaton and using a rose-scented Dior soap bar to dissolve heavy, camera-ready make-up. The house offers up a contemporary iteration of this product in its ‘Prestige Le Savon’ soap.

Hedi Slimane also captures a sense of 20th-century nostalgia in his bath and body collection for Celine. The round soap medallions, engraved with the fashion house’s Triomphe motif, are fragranced with signature scents, from the citrus notes of Parade to the zesty, slightly sugary accord of Cologne Céleste.

‘Bathing is an essential gesture that systematically plunges me back into the soothing atmosphere of childhood,’ says Slimane. Rich in Parisian glamour, these soaps can also be slipped dry into drawers, infusing clothes and linens with their scent.

Smooth, shiny and pebble-like, with branding satisfyingly embossed or debossed into its surface, a new bar of soap can conjure up similar emotions to those inspired by a freshly unwrapped chocolate bar. Perfume house Diptyque, in particular, has a knack for creating solid soaps that almost look too good to use. It can feel like a heart-wrenching act to gradually wash away the grooves of typography, watching them grow faint before the final act of disappearing entirely.

The ephemeral poetics of soap have not been lost on contemporary culture. For her 1993 piece Lick and Lather, performance artist Janine Antoni created 14 busts of her head and shoulders, seven in soap and seven in chocolate – she then licked the chocolate and bathed with the soap to reshape her image. Meanwhile, in Thomas Bärnthaler’s 2015 book Do It Yourself: 50 Projects by Designers and Artists, John Baldessari provided instructions on soap carving, in a work he called A Large Piece of Soap Becomes a Small Piece of Soap Eventually.

At this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, Belgian architect Nicolas Schuybroek celebrated the form and functionality of soap in a collaboration with Aesop. His installation, Form Follows Formulation, used hundreds of the Australian skincare brand’s body cleansing slabs – which contain purifying oils, bergamot rind, ylang ylang and lime – to build a monolithic brickwork structure in Aesop’s Piazza Cordusio store, in the centre of which a treatment therapist performed a daily choreographed facial treatment.

‘Restricting materiality to something as simple as a soap bar resonates with the principles of the arte povera movement, while also echoing Superstudio’s iconic monochromatic grid structures from the 1970s,’ says Schuybroek.

Some designers have looked to combat the transient, slippery nature of solid soap by inviting it to inhabit the domestic landscape as both beauty product and decorative object. Loewe’s ‘Scent of Marihuana’ soap bar, which is studded with exfoliating particles of red algae and emits the soothing aroma of the sativa plant, can be decoratively hung using its integrated linen rope, in a similar way to the rotating, wall mounted soaps by French brand Provendi.

Liquids, gels and foams share a common goal: to sanitise, enveloping bacteria and microbes so they can then be washed away. But while a bar of soap is just as good at cleansing the skin, it can be so much more, creating a decadently pleasurable experience that’s been enjoyed for millennia.

This article appears in the September 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

The skincare business is booming as never before. But Aesop’s B Triple C Facial Balancing Gel, which recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary, still stands out as one of the best moisturisers there is – even in a beauty market with an unquenchable thirst for the new and the next cult product.

For those who are already fans of the gel moisturiser, why it holds up as a classic need not be explained. Anyone who hasn’t thought to try it yet should give it a whirl as part of their summertime regime. Its intensely hydrating yet mattifying effect is a tonic to heat and humidity, which can ramp up the skin’s oil production to a less-than-desirable effect. (Although, oily and acne-prone skin types should reach for its signature amber glass jar all year round).

Aesop’s B Triple C Facial Balancing Gel deserves cult classic status

The brand name Aesop is a direct reference to the ancient Greek fabulist; a wry dig at hyperbolised cosmetics marketing. In the race of the Tortoise and The Hare, Aesop is firmly in the lane of the tortoise, having built its empire over three decades on the core principles of simple, elevated design, effective product performance, and sustainable production.

The B Triple C Facial Balancing Gel was partly created as a riposte to the loud proclamations of early noughties skincare advertising, which more often than not, failed to live up to their hype. ‘At the time, within the skincare industry, the Aesop formulation represented a generational change in texture,’ says brand Founding Associate and Chief Customer Officer Suzanne Santos, recalling its 2003 launch. Santos – who still lives in Victoria, Melbourne, the Australian city in which Aesop first came to be – has nurtured the brand since 1987, all the way through to the 3.7 billion AUD acquisition by the L’Oreal group in 2023.

Despite these monumental changes, many of Aesop’s products, including the B Triple C Facial Balancing Gel, have barely altered. ‘With just two minor adjustments in the formulation since then, it has proven a timeless and consistent source of both replenishment and sensory pleasure,’ Santos adds.

The scientific secret to the product’s success is its finely balanced ratio of approximately one part panthenol (a humectant that binds water to the skin also known as Vitamin B5) to three parts stabilised Vitamin C, which is renowned for its collagen-stimulating and complexion-brightening properties. The addition of Sodium Lactate equalises wonky PH levels. These key ingredients are mixed with an all-natural cocktail of antioxidant-rich extracts, including aloe, chamomile, and lavender.

‘Once applied, the panthenol element converts into pantothenic acid (or Vitamin B5), while magnesium ascorbyl phosphate becomes ascorbic acid (Vitamin C),’ explains Samy Hamada, Aesop’s director of research and development, who worked on the moisturiser for three years before it went on sale. ‘More broadly, B Triple C Facial Balancing Gel embodies Aesop’s rigorous approach to product development.’

The texture of the gel is luxuriously dense and nourishing and can be used at any time of the day or night. Although the product is almost honey-like in both texture and colour, don’t be fooled by its syrupy appearance. Once warmed between your palms and massaged into freshly washed skin (about a half teaspoon-sized amount of the moisturiser is best) it has a slightly cooling effect, before absorbing in double quick time, eliminating excess shine and leaving not a trace of cloying stickiness in its wake.

Aesop B Triple C Facial Balancing Gel, £97 at aesop.com.

As we all know too well, airline travel can come with a host of difficulties. From lost luggage to bad food, flight delays, and less than favourable amounts of legroom. But 100mL is a new beauty venture that is tackling another of the airport’s most annoying inconveniences: the 100ml liquid rule.

100mL is makes the airport liquid limit a thing of beauty

Founded by entrepreneur Kate Cervini, the American-born brand has partnered with sixteen clean and ethical beauty brands from Aesop to Grown Alchemist, to create a range of quality travel-size products that come in a sleek transparent pouch. The pouches, which are made out of biodegradable, water-resistant material, can either be filled with your choice of products from 100mL’s brand partners, or you can choose one of 100mL’s pre-packed pouches, each of which has been curated to meet different travel needs.

Favourites from the curated line include the ‘Airplane Mode’ designed to keep skin hydrated on and after the flight with a range of moisturising products like Alder New York’s Cooling Mineral Hydro Mist and a hand balm by Aesop; or the ‘Frequent Flyer’ pouch designed for one night trips with essential products like a body wash by Grown Alchemist and a moisturiser by Margin.

Cervini, who worked a fast-paced job in fashion before launching 100mL, hit on the idea after a day spent hunting for quality, travel-friendly products for a business trip. As a skincare aficionado and frequent traveller, Cervini wondered why there wasn’t a service that could solve this issue. So, she sent out a questionnaire to everyone in her network, eventually receiving around 200 responses to questions such as: ‘What kind of products do you use? What kind of products do you tend to forget? When do you travel most? Do you use an airport lounge?’

The answers to that questionnaire formed the backbone of Cervini’s approach to 100mL and informed which brands she reached out to as collaborators. ‘I wanted to work with people that have interesting backgrounds, come from different parts of the world and similar values to what we have with clean, ethically sourced, vegan products,’ says Cervini. ‘And it was important to have products that suit every skin type, hair type and price point with products that range from £5 to £200.’

The final list of collaborators also includes sexual wellness brand Maude, dental brands Bite and Marvis, hair care brand Crown Affair, skincare and supplement brand Moon Juice, and many more. ‘When you travel, there are a lot of things out of your control,’ says Cervini. ‘But now your routine is one thing that you can control. Whether you're going on holiday, travelling for business, going on a trip for an extended period or just one night, it's nice to have your skincare and wellness products ready for you whenever you need them.'

shop100ml.com

The newest Aesop Milan store has launched on Piazza Cordusio, marking the third location in the city for the beauty brand, founded in Melbourne in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis. The space – which made its first public preview appearance during Salone del Mobile 2024 with a dedicated installation by architect Nicolas Schuybroek, crafted from a grid of Aesop Body Cleansing Slabs – has now thrown open its doors to the public. 

Aesop Milan store: a home for minimalism and calm

The new space features all the Aesop hallmarks – beyond the exquisite product on show, it is designed by the brand's in-house team of architects with calm lines and clean surfaces, but with a twist. While the minimalist architecture elements – such as pared-down volumes that include bespoke pieces of furniture and built-in features, from the main counter to shelving and benches – prevail, they are awarded a subtly unexpected identity through curved lines and a gentle light-green colour theme throughout.

Each of the Aesop stores has its own personality (the brand's other outposts in the city include a venue in Brera designed by Vincenzo de Cotiis and in Corso Magenta by Dimore Studio, while recent openings also include Aesop Rome by Jakob Sprenger), and here metal fittings meet tiles and softer surfaces where needed. The Piazza Cordusio store's character borrows from the nearby metro line – hints of its colours and materials subtly appear across the store. 

Aesop's director of global retail design Marianne Lardilleux explained that the Cordusio location is in a spot set to receive more footfall from tourists due to its proximity to the metro station and key Milan landmarks. The store, she explained, is set to create connections with the city's social life but at the same time, its entrance marks a 'threshold' where people can enter a haven of nurturing and serenity, away from the bustle. 

The Aesop team is also hoping to use the store for activations in the future – the 'Queer Library' which started in 2023 is just one of the programmes they have implemented over the years, alongside the aforementioned Salone installations. 'We like to give another purpose to our stores,' says Lardilleux. 

aesop.com

Aesop has partnered with Salone del Mobile for the first time, for a series of installations across Milan that comprise sight, touch, taste, and scent. Founded in Melbourne in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis, Aesop was one of the first independent brands working with essential oils and natural ingredients.

Today, it is one of the largest and most respected names in skincare, with ethically produced haircare and body care, known for its signature products, which include balms, creams, tonics, and more with distinctive botanical fragrances.

Aesop at Salone del Mobile 2024

Aesop’s series of design installations launched this week during Salone del Mobile 2024 tap into the sensorial experience of using its products. At its newest Milan store in Piazza Cordusio, architect Nicolas Schuybroek has created a ‘soap salon’ piece titled ‘Form follows formulation’, crafted from Body Cleansing Slabs that appear to hover in a monolithic grid.

‘The scenography is inspired by the Arte Povera movement from the late 1960s and 1970s,’ says Schuybroek. ‘This movement has inspired my practice for many years now, and shaped the basis of this project for Aesop, which is known for its minimalist packaging. Restricting materiality to something as simple as a soap bar resonates with the principles of the movement, while also echoing Superstudio’s iconic monochromatic grid structures from the 1970s.’

A peep through the soap brickwork reveals films that are dedicated to Aesop products, whilst inside the structure itself, an Aesop therapist will ‘perform’ a live facial on each day of the festival at 5.55pm. Inspired by medical theatres, the performance demonstrates the brand’s meticulous approach to skincare, including the application of custom formulation blends, alongside the rituals of cleansing, exfoliating, massaging and hydrating. This will be accompanied by a disembodied figure, narrating each action.

In addition, those wandering the city during the fair can discover the Aesop Aromatoria, a series of telephone box-sized travelling booths that stop off at various locations to provide guests with olfactory experiences. The booths will display maps of the area devised by Aesop that highlight key works from emerging designers, and recommend where to eat in Milan. (A portable version of these maps is also available, to see Milan through Aesop’s eyes.) Finally, a panel talk will take place at the new store, further delving into the design philosophy behind Aesop, alongside a dinner that reimagines core brand principles through food.

The programme of Aesop installations runs until 21 April 2024 at Salone del Mobile, Milan.

aesop.com

Aesop gift kits signal it’s a time for harmony and hand balm. The holiday spirit arrives as refresher and replenisher, a call for peace on earth and goodwill to all skin types. An Aesop Christmas is a multisensory event, with bespoke soundscapes accompanying the brand’s fragrant gift kits, just as figgy pudding follows roasted goose and breakfast calls for champagne.

Drawing on a reverence for song and the power of melody and aural experience to influence the listener and their surroundings, Aesop has named each of five gift kits in reference to music’s power and magnetism. (The sixth and limited-edition kit is curatable, allowing for a bespoke edit of products).

It has also commissioned Paris-based Japanese-Congolese composer and pianist Kiala Ogawa – whose artistic research focuses on creating different kinds of textures through acoustic and electronic sounds – to create a series of tracks, one to accompany the contents of each package.

From mediative harmonies for the home to captivating rhythms to refresh the senses, each kit comes with a different soundscape.

Five Aesop gift kits

Fabulous Forms

This is Aesop’s care package for on-the-go replenishment. Attuned to the needs of busy schedules and elementally affected skin, Fabulous Forms includes portable formulations – richly scented Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm, uplifting Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser, and hydrating Cedar & Citrus Lip Salve – packaged in 100 per cent recycled paper pulp, featuring an intricate soundwave pattern. The gift kit is accompanied by a contemporary arrangement of music by Ogawa – who wanted to include ‘a guitar for this piece in order to create a more rounded shape’ – that morphs and flourishes, soundtracking intradermal equanimity and glow. 

Fabulous Forms gift kit, £50

Heartful Harmonies

This gift kit is surround sound in unguent form. Reverence Aromatique Hand Wash is ideal for refreshing the hands after conducting culinary experiments in the kitchen, with a comforting woody aroma and finely milled pumice to gently exfoliate. Post-Poo Drops serves as a sprightly scented toilet-bowl tincture to be paired with Istros Aromatique Room Spray, blended with notes of rich tobacco and enlivening florals. Both may assist in quieting discordant aromas and setting a convivial mood. Ogawa’s accompanying musical work is an ode to coming together – at the table, in kitchen congregation or in close harmony at the fireplace.

Heartful Harmonies gift kit, £77

Majestic Melodies

A duet of Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash and Hand Balm work to provide refreshment and replenishment throughout the cadences of the day. Meanwhile, Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser and Rejuvenate Intensive Body Balm serenade the skin with uplifting aromas, while Ogawa’s soundscape soothes with a dream-like piano sequence that ‘started with birdsong’, she says. ‘I realised this would be a perfect starting point for the rest of the melodies in the track.’

Majestic Melodies gift kit, £93

Rousing Rhythms

Enlivening floral, herbal and citrus notes all play out across their respective formulations to cleanse, exfoliate and hydrate the skin and encourage even the most reluctant feet to take to the dancefloor. Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser, Body Scrub and Body Balm will help to leave the body refreshed, smooth and hydrated. The accompanying rhythmic soundscape is inspired by the power of percussion and is ‘an ode to my childhood summers in Japan,’ says Ogawa. ‘I included a Japanese bell sound called the “Furin”, which is a wind chime and often used during hot summers.’

Rousing Rhythms gift kit, £67

Tuneful Textures

This symphonic trio comprises exemplary handcare, executed with Bernstein levels of passion. Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash, Hand Balm and Rinse-Free Hand Wash leave digits freshly cleansed and hydrated, scented with notes of mandarin rind, rosemary leaf and cedar atlas. The soundtrack by Ogawa is an elegantly conducted piece, an ode to the rich textures that emerge when musicians, friends and families come together in peace and joy. ‘I composed this piece around a certain musical key and then created new sound textures using my Japanese tea glasses and other sounds of glass, wood and bronze,’ says Ogawa.

Tuneful Textures gift kit, £60

aesop.com

Listen to the soundscapes at aesop.com/uk/r/radiomatique-soundscapes-23/

In partnership with Aesop

Designed with first-time Aesop collaborator Samuso Hyojadong and located in one of northern Seoul’s oldest neighbourhoods, Aesop Seochon was inspired by jeongja, a type of traditional Korean, open-sided pavilion – a typically calming and enveloping structure often found under trees where people can come together surrounded by nature.

Challenged to express qualities such as rest, scent, and calm, Hyojadong employed minimal architectural elements and a restrained materiality. ‘People in our era are busy with their daily lives and exhausted by a lot of things,’ says the architect. ‘That's why you need to have an internal charge. For this, rest is necessary. But rest doesn't have to be at a pavilion – it can be done anytime, anywhere. No matter how busy you are, if you are in a space where you can feel comfortable, even if it's not for a long time, you can feel comforted.

‘From the simplicity of the design, the scent of Aesop released into the street, and the attitude of how staff greet customers, it is possible to find customer comfort and generate a sense of calm as you shop and experience the store,’ he continues.

The length of the Aesop Seochon store is fronted with a series of doors that fold back to create an entirely open façade, blurring the boundaries between exterior and interior and allowing visitors to transition seamlessly from street to store – just as aromas flow out unimpeded onto the pavement outside. Once closed, the woven metal backing creates a translucent surface, allowing curious passers-by to peer inside and make out the hazy silhouettes of amber bottles in regimented rows.

Anchored by natural materials, the space features a rough-edged piece of stone that acts as a display unit, its hue echoed in the granite flooring and pale walls – the latter also reminiscent of traditional Korean hanji paper, laden with texture and nostalgia. Sinks and shelves are finished with reclaimed timber and aged copper, while rosewood lines the inside of a concealed fragrance armoire housing Aesop’s full range of unconventional eaux de parfum. In this airy environment, trained consultants are on hand to recommend the products best suited to each customer’s individual needs.

The store design uses ‘ancient materials – Korean granite, copper, and metal – created by nature over millions of years’, explains Hyojadong. ‘Such true material makes human beings feel the sense of time. The same is true of landscapes. Light and shadow meeting elements of nature, adding the sense of time to the landscape.’ Over time, he says, materials at Aesop Seochon will fade and mature, telling their own story through their patina. 

Referring to the characteristics of the hanji-like walls, he adds, ‘Hanji does not change. However, like skin, hanji has a subtle transparency, so shadows are formed as if they were soaked in. So, it will come with a different feeling every moment. It's like a living creature.’

Asked what makes something quintessentially ‘Aesopian’, the architect responds: ‘It lies in being natural. Nature in Korean comes from two Chinese words for self and being so. Being like that can be interpreted in many ways, but for me it's close to “not too much, not too little”.‘

It’s a fitting summing up of Aesop Seochon, a store of perfect balance.

To celebrate the opening of the Aesop Seochon store, Wallpaper* and the brand hosted a special event, including a panel discussion between Wallpaper* contributing editor Dal Chodha and architect Samuso Hyojadong.

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Aesop Seochon, 36 Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Open Monday – Sunday, 11am – 9pm

The Wallpaper* celebration at Aesop Seochon followed similar events at recent Aesop store openings in New York and Rome.

In partnership with Aesop

Founded by Parisian Cyril Marsollier and Lima-born Wallo Villacorta, MV-LLC practice designs spaces inspired by existing site conditions, encouraging thoughtful layouts with expressive materials and considered assemblies. The New York-based architects strive to minimise a project’s environmental impact while enhancing its specificity and functionality. 

The team are dedicated observers of the construction process, and the anticipation of demolition, the surprise and challenges of what lies beneath as well as the mechanical and chemical processes that sometimes leave an unintended but celebrated mark on materials all become an integral part of each MV-LLC project.

Aesop’s New York story

Having worked as part of Aesop’s in-house design team back in 2016, collaborating closely with global retail design director Marianne Lardilleux on stores in Tokyo and LA, Marsollier and Villacorta built a deep understanding of the brand’s aesthetic, their subsequent work incorporating and respecting the fundamental Aesop design language learnt internally. 

‘The brand is in a very different position now than it was seven years ago,’ Marsollier told Wallpaper* US editor Pei-Ru Keh. ‘We were still introducing the brand to a new US customer, establishing the basic promises of the store which were somewhat unusual. Now Aesop has a solid US customer base and they are familiar with what to expect.’

In 2023, says Marsollier, through the use of diverse materials and textures, a new Aesop store tells a different story every time, but is still mindful of respecting history, context and location. ‘The design briefs become increasingly complex, which makes for great design challenges every time.’ 

‘An Aesop store is contextual,’ the architects explain. ‘It aims to intertwine itself within the streetscape, and be respectful to its surroundings. The store also touches on activating the senses from the moment you walk in – every detail is really intentional and considered. The focus is really on making sure that it feels effortless.’

The same effortless spirit and respectful process continued with the recently opened Aesop store in Manhattan. Situated on a NoMad corner site at 1165 Broadway, the 19th-century property has a layered history as a former horse stable for an adjacent hotel, then a shoe store and a fashion wholesaler.  

‘When we first walked into the store, most of the intricate details of the architecture were covered with drywall, recalls Marsollier. ‘We immediately conducted probes and decided to work with the existing conditions as much as possible. The process of pulling back layers is central to our work: we try to not be excessive and work with a pretty reductive approach.’

A 2020s renovation of the store’s façade had removed its commercial awning and restored the original cornice work. Now, in 2023, MV-LLC’s new design opted to invert the aesthetic, actually finding inspiration in those same, seemingly mundane awnings that once adorned the building. 

After conducting a study of NoMad’s commercial canopies, taking particular note of the interaction between the steel frame and the canvas, exploring how fabric could be pulled, woven, made taught or stiffened in other ways, the architects found poetry in the contrasts between hard and soft, matte and reflective, covered and uncovered. A rhythm in the repetition and counterpoint of structure and shelter.

‘We took a look back at the history of the building and realised that with every iteration of the stores, awnings were always a part of them. This was an opportunity to celebrate multiple layers of history without a particular polarity to the early 20th century or the more recent wholesale history: telling the story of the city constantly building upon itself. There was also something fascinating about abstracting the two elements that make up awnings - pulled fabric + pragmatic aluminium tubing.’ 

Inside the store, MV-LLC’s design for Aesop NoMad abstracts these industrial qualities further, transforming rudimentary constructions into functional shelving and furniture systems throughout the space, showcasing and shouldering Aesop’s full range of products for the skin, hair, body and home, providing prospects for privacy, and accommodate repose.

Display units are constructed from steel tubes with louvred panels of stretched waterproof canvas in a burnt orange hue that lends warmth to the otherwise pared-back interior. In homage to the off-the-shelf wire structures that are commonplace in the area’s wholesale commercial tenancies, bespoke basins borrow and adapt a language of tightly coiled steel wire that conceals the basin and drain to surprising auditory effect. 

Juxtaposed against the stripped-back shell of the space, which reveals historic elements such as cast-iron columns and original ceiling joists, a polished-steel Fragrance Library offers customers the opportunity to discover Aesop’s world of unconventional eaux de parfum. In this space of resilient canopies and cocooning shade, Aesop’s adroit consultants can recommend formulations best suited to individual needs. It’s a place for New York’s NoMad community to stop and stay still for a while.

Alongside Aesop NoMad, the brand has recently opened three further stores in NYC, Aesop Nolita, Aesop Madison Avenue, and Aesop Gansevoort Street.

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From Madrid to Makati, a modest amber bottle with a vanilla-toned label, filled with a woody, aromatic elixir, has become an emblem of good taste. At the heart of Australian skincare company Aesop is an exacting design ethos that gives form to something that is, in its essence, ethereal.

When Marianne Lardilleux, director of global retail design, joined the company in 2016 as store design manager for the Americas, she had spent six years working for luxury behemoth LVMH. Aesop helped reactivate her focus on a more sustainable, conscious way of doing things. ‘I had a lot of Aesopian things in my home already, but I realised that it is mostly about an attitude; how you welcome people, adding lemon to a jug of water, or sourcing local flowers,’ she says. ‘It sounds simple, but this is the philosophy we are in.’ 

Watch our film: Marianne Lardilleux on Aesop stores

Beyond skincare, Aesop promotes a sense of wellbeing, and its stores, for which Lardilleux and her team of 43 are responsible, offer a haven of peace in a chaotic world. When the first Aesop signature store opened in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in 2003, much had been learned from Emeis, the hair salon opened by Aesop’s founder Dennis Paphitis in Armadale, Victoria, in 1987. There, in a space with matte alabaster walls bathed in natural light, Paphitis blended essential oils into hair products and set about establishing other subtle aesthetic codes to ensure an intimate, sensual ambience. Aesop’s 200-plus standalone stores and 80 counters owe their shape to these principles.

Three new locations open this year: a glimmering space on Rome’s Via del Corso (its launch recently celebrated with a Wallpaper* event), a futuristic store on Broadway, New York, and a serene box in Seochon, northern Seoul, each a candid, expressive and contemporary riff on Aesop’s founding philosophies. 

Recently at a dinner with Lardilleux, Paphitis shared his thoughts about ‘how you should welcome people, how you should place things for people to feel comfortable. The way you treat your employees, the design continuity of what happens behind the scenes as well as on the floor,’ she recalls. For example, what are the right chairs? What is the correct distance between the top and the border of the sink, so it is a comfortable distance to put your hand under it? These have taken decades to get right and are carefully recorded at the brand’s HQ in London and offices around the world, including Paris and Melbourne. If Paphitis is the original composer of Aesop’s graceful retail opera, then Lardilleux is now its maestro conductor.

‘An Aesop environment does not scream out to passers-by; instead, it humbly nestles itself within the block and respectfully presents itself among the cityscape,’ say Cyril Marsollier and Wallo Villacorta, the designers behind the New York NoMad store. The pair met while working in-house for the company in 2016 before leaving to establish their own practice in 2020. ‘Not one aspect of the brand is without intention – everything from carefully designed internal documents to the design of the office environment matters.’ Their own approach is archaeological. ‘First, we try to learn from the buildings and spaces to find a respectful and considered response. We then carefully peel back layers that may have been added over time to reveal the original structure.’ At 1165 Broadway, the duo uncovered century-old iron columns that have become a key feature of their design.

Before any architectural projects begin, collaborators are each sent copies of Peter Zumthor’s Atmospheres, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space and Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows. Moreover, the brand’s packaging, teacups and email signature are peppered with philosophical quotations. ‘The briefs I receive are usually loose, with a few functional requirements, but other than that, it’s more or less carte blanche – and full of trust,’ the Swiss architect Jakob Sprenger says. His Rome boutique, opened this summer, is an ode to ancient Roman architectural principles. Each element, from the polished lacquer surfaces to the traditional lime plaster, is in dialogue with the other.

But the Aesopian design principle is more than a soothing colour palette, a brass tap or stone tile. It is an intellectual balance between the material and the mind. Lardilleux says, ‘I think our customer loves to come into our stores because they feel like they are entering their own home, or a space that speaks to something within them. The way we approach retail is to provide a moment for our customer that is outside of their busy life. To offer some intimacy is very important.’ First-time collaborator Samuso Hyojadong was tasked with designing a store for his own neighbourhood, located to the north of Seoul. The space, which opened earlier this year, was inspired by the jeongja, a Korean open-sided pavilion where people come to be surrounded by nature. ‘I wanted the space to immerse people in a meditation, to become unaware of the passage of time,’ Hyojadong says.

Yet among this emphasis on simplicity, there’s always room for a little largesse. Aesop’s stores offer both sanctuary and stimulation: the Seoul shop’s metal shutters fold back to create an entirely open façade, an 18th-century painting takes centre stage in Rome, and striking shelving adds drama in New York. Lardilleux says, ‘When I first visited our stores, I was so impressed with the detailed presentation, and how the products are composed around the sink. Each store is the result of 30 years of research.’

A version of this article appears in October 2023 Wallpaper*, on sale now available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

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In partnership with Aesop

Aesop’s new Rome store, designed by long-standing collaborator Jakob Sprenger, sees the Swiss-based Austrian architect apply the same creative ethos that defines his previous projects with the Australian skincare brand. The earthy, warm and woody, welcoming aesthetic of the stores is driven by the German principle of Gesamtkunstwerk – the notion of the interior as a 'total artwork', an all-embracing project that makes use of all or many art forms, materials, skills and disciplines. 

Inside the Aesop Via del Corso store

To celebrate the opening of Aesop Via del Corso and the launch of Wallpaper’s October 2023 Guest Editors’ issue, the two brands hosted a special event, including a panel discussion between Wallpaper* contributing editor Dal Chodha, Sprenger, and Jean-Philippe Bonnefoi, Head of Retail Design, Europe and Global Innovation at Aesop.

The discussion spanned Sprenger’s architectural vision for the store, the concept of ‘meaningful luxury’, and the future of physical retail space in an increasingly digital world. 

‘The notion of meaningful luxury adds charm, resonance, individuality and a real sense of place to the Aesop shopping experience,’ says the architect. ‘I approached the design of the Rome store with a fresh perspective on Italian architecture, always working with the narrative of the ever-present city and keeping its history alive.’

Aesop’s collaboration with Sprenger – still only 28 years old – continues the brand’s tradition of working with young and emerging talent. His designs for Aesop’s global stores acknowledge the influence of local culture, architectural principles and geometric order, along with customers’ needs. At the brand’s Salzburg, Austria location on Getreidegasse, for instance, situated within the 14th-century Gritzenbergerhaus close to Mozart’s birthplace, Sprenger created an interior that took inspiration from the city’s opulent Baroque architecture and rich connection to classical music.

The new Rome store, Aesop’s second in the Italian capital, is an ode to the Eternal City. The store occupies a two-storey corner residence on Via del Corso, immersed among labyrinthine pathways and narrow cobbled streets, its handsome interior bathed in the hues and textures of pervading Roman history. 

With its sequenced floor plan built around a majestic flight of stairs, the store is defined by its grand ceiling height, the ground floor divided into two enclaves that straddle the staircase. Sprenger has added shopfittings and compositions in walnut, brass, Travertino Romano, artisanal lime plaster, and burnt orange lacquer, the rooms exuding a nuanced sense of welcome. 

Felice Torelli’s 18th-century masterpiece Teseo Abbandona Arianna (‘Theseus Abandons Ariadne’) hangs at the heart of the store, reminding visitors of the heartaches of ancient mythology. Torelli’s brushwork is a lesson in tenderness, at home here in an environment where staff conduct their consultations with gentle care, guiding patrons through Aesop’s full range of formulations for skin, hair, body and home. 

Established in Melbourne in 1987, Aesop products put efficacy, vegan values and ethical sourcing to the fore, their complex, distinctive aromas a delightful, incidental treat. The story continues in Rome; a rhythm of nurture, olfactory pleasure and primary geometries playing out on the stair’s balustrade is an invitation to venture onward and upward. 

As visitors ascend, a chandelier inspired by fragments of antique columns found among the city’s archaeological sites illuminates the way to a landing transformed into an intimate suite dedicated to Aesop’s eaux de parfum. At the Fragrance Armoire, crafted from solid walnut timber, each aroma can be experienced and discerned or a chosen garment infused with a preferred scent, ready for a Roman passeggiata.  

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To celebrate Pride Month 2023, Aesop is offering great works of literature by LGBTQIA+ authors in store, with no purchase necessary. 

The initiative is fuelled by the precept that storytelling is our most powerful instrument of communication and that books, in particular, have a profound ability to expand our capacity for empathy and acceptance. 

Aesop Queer Library shares stories in Pride Month 2023

In the UK, The Aesop Queer Library will operate out of the Aesop Soho from 29 June – 2 July 2023. The books are supplied by the local London bookshop Gay’s The Word, as well as Pilot Press, a non-profit imprint specialising in contemporary and historic queer art and writing; Fourteen Poems, a London-based triannual queer poetry journal; and Cipher Press, an independent publisher of fiction and non-fiction by queer and trans-identifying writers. 

Aesop has also collaborated with Black-owned creative agency A Vibe Called Tech to host a roundtable discussion in-store and share two historical queer texts for free online: A Place for Us by Isabel Miller (1969), which tells the story of a lesbian relationship in early 19th-century New England; and Escape to an Autumn Pavement by Andew Salkey (1960), which explores sexuality in Caribbean culture against the backdrop of bohemian Soho. 

Three locations in USA and Canada

In North America, The Aesop Queer Library will operate out of Aesop Williamsburg (New York), Aesop Silverlake (Los Angeles) and Aesop Yorkville (Toronto) from 20 – 25 June. The selection will focus on books that have been banned or challenged across the US and Canada in response to an increase in banned books locally. In a statement, Aesop noted that, ‘according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, 2022 saw a 38 per cent increase in titles targeted for censorship. Of those titles, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community or by and about Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of colour. In response, the Aesop Foundation has donated $100,000 (USD) to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, which works to defend freedom of expression, both in the courts and beyond.’ 

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Rick Owens is applying his signature aesthetic to skincare and fragrance in a new collaboration with Aesop. The collection includes a candle and a travel kit comprised of Owens' favourite Aesop body and hair care products—Coriander Seed Body Cleanser, Resolute Hydrating Body Balm, Classic Shampoo and Classic Conditioner. Owens has also worked alongside perfumer Barnabe Fillion to create a signature perfume entitled ’Stoic’ that comes with a chain of ceramic beads that can be perfumed and worn to diffuse the scent throughout the day. 

Fillion has made a name for himself in the world of perfumery with his idiosyncratic approach to fragrances. In addition to working with Aesop on almost all of their fragrances, Fillion has collaborated with artist Anicka Yi on ‘Biography,’three fragrances designed to challenge historical definitions of femininity, and has developed his own fragrance line, Arpa, which enlists the talents of musicians, glassblowers, sculptures and more to simulate the experience of synesthesia. Fillion’s cerebral, multi-disciplinary approach to fragrance makes him an ideal collaborator for Owens, who has long drawn on movements in art, music, architecture to create his iconic, avant-garde aesthetic.

Like Owens’ fashion designs, ’Stoic’ is a strange and singular fragrance that blends the sharp, spicy flavours of black pepper and coriander seed with earthy frankincense and patchouli. It is an unusual scent, but not so eccentric that it is off-putting. Rather, Owens wanted the fragrance to be something soothing and fit for everyday use. 

‘I am not sure if it was my body responding positively to the alchemy of the unguents they produce or my head responding to the quiet and gentle aesthetics of their ethos as a company,’ says Owens, ‘but Aesop’s balms represented a soothing mood that I wanted to continue seamlessly throughout my home life and my travel life.’

INFORMATION

aesop.com; rickowens.eu

In May 2020 we previewed Arpa, a new multi-platform brand from perfumer Barnabé Fillion that combines scent, music, architecture, and imagery into an all-encompassing, immersive experience. 

Now, in November 2021, Arpa has officially launched at Dover Street Parfums Market, and the final collection is as captivating as was originally promised. 

Fillion is best known for his work as the house perfumer at Aesop – where he has created all of the brand's fragrances and its first candles – as well as his collaborations with Lemaire and institutions such as the Guggenheim. Particularly notable are the 'Biography' perfumes he created in collaboration with artist Anicka Yi (featured among our best perfumes for women), which attempted to reconstruct the personalities of historical women, such as Fusako Shigenobu, or the imagined body odour of future AI entities. 

Arpa sees Fillion reuniting with many of his previous collaborators, calling on their diverse talents to create companion pieces to the brand's fragrances; these include a series of sculptures and records to go with the scents, from the likes of Yi, and French DJ Pilooski. Graphics are designed by Memphis Group heavyweight Nathalie du Pasquier and an office space designed by Aesop’s in-house architect Jean-Philippe Bonnefoi. Meanwhile, limited-edition bottles have been handblown by the artist Jochen Holz. 

Arpa fragrances 

The fragrances are at the heart of this collaboration. Like most of Fillion's work, these perfumes take their inspiration from his personal travels and historical narratives. The first three scents (with three more to come soon) include Arco Spettro, inspired by the acid bath craters in Dallol, Ethiopia; Fosforo, a petitgrain and iris scent inspired by the waters surrounding the island of Kyushu, Japan; and Recedere, an earthy blend of liquorice, neroli, and plaster that is meant to recreate a plaster studio in the Belgian Blue Forest.    

Synesthesia and ‘physiological nostalgia’

The launch of Arpa was delayed by the pandemic, but the consequences of that event and what followed have imbued the project with a new significance.

Over the course of the past two years, there has been a surge in projects that meld fragrance with other sensory experiences for both artistic and therapeutic purposes. As a 2021 study into the future of beauty put it, the use of sensory relaxation or ‘physiological nostalgia’ is set to become a new norm, as people look for a screen-free way to transform their domestic space into a meditative zone. Projects that combine audio escapism and aromatherapy, such as the Haeckels x Kelly Lee Owens candle, photographer Lea Colombo's perfume line, Co incense, and Sruli Recht’s incense burner, are examples of this trend, yet Arpa was early to catch onto the wider sensory possibilities of fragrance.

For Fillion, though, this project will always be about synesthesia (experiencing one sense through another) and what we can learn from melding our senses. ‘At Arpa, I work with the purest natural materials,' he says. ‘I listen to them to elicit transmissions from extra-sentient wavelengths; to eschew a future of artificiality in favour of joyful poetry.

‘Everything that I’m doing in perfumery is visual and related to my own synesthesia, to convey not just a memory but a texture. I’m always running after a blurry image that becomes more focused with time.'

INFORMATION

doverstreetparfumsmarket.com

To celebrate Pride Month, Aesop has opened a Queer Library to run until the end of this week (27 June) at three of its North American locations: Aesop Bleecker Street (New York City), Aesop West 3rd Street (Los Angeles), and Aesop Queen Street West (Toronto).

For the event, each of the stores has cleared shelves of Aesop products and replaced them with books written by LGBTQIA+ authors from around the world.

The selection was composed by Aesop’s North American retail and office teams who were asked to choose their favourite queer titles. More than 3,000 volumes of their selected titles were purchased from Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto, the world's longest surviving LGBTQIA+ bookstore, and Women & Children First in Chicago.

The collection also features almost 2,500 books from Penguin Random House, among them works by Bryan Washington and Ocean Vuong.

Other writers included in the library, which spans 150 titles, with a focus on BIPOC authors and on the trans community, are Akwaeke Emezi, Brandon Taylor, and Samantha Irby. 

Visitors to the participating Aesop stores will be able to take home one book of their choice, thanks to this initiative that aims to encourage thoughtful engagement with LGBTQIA+ voices.

As some corporations come under fire for capitalising on Pride by using the rainbow logo, for example, without making any meaningful impact, Aesop’s initiative seems a more considered approach to celebrating Pride Month, making the work of LGBTQIA+ thinkers accessible in a manner that does not offer a direct monetary benefit to the company. 

Those who can't make it to the three Aesop locations can find a list of independent bookstores that boast extensive collections of queer writing on Aesop's website, along with the full catalogue of the Queer Library titles and playlists from musical artists Chrysanthe Tan and Beverly Glenn-Copeland.

INFORMATION

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‘Ultimately, this is this is a companion for your adventure,’ explains fashion designer Christopher Raeburn about his new collaboration with Aesop, a portable product pouch called the Adventurer Roll-Up. Raeburn is telling me this over Zoom from his eponymous brand’s East London production studio, a converted Burberry textile factory that, at the time of our conversation late last year, stood nearly empty apart from Raeburn himself. The relative quiet of the Raeburn Lab, an open studio typically buzzing with workshops for the public and busy Raeburn employees, makes it clear that lockdowns in the UK and around the world have created an entirely new environment, one in which the word ‘adventure’ has had to take on a new meaning. 

Having an adventure when there’s nowhere to go might seem like an oxymoron but Raeburn is used to making something out of nothing. Raeburn was a pioneer of sustainable fashion long before it was fashionable, championing a ‘remake, reduce, recycle’ ethos that saw disused military parachutes, dinghies, and other fabrics repurposed into streetwear. His ‘Raefound’ collection last year took the philosophy one step further, by creating nothing new at all and instead relabelling pre-existing military surplus items.

Like Raeburn, Aesop has always placed a premium on sustainability, offering a fully vegan product range of skin, hair, and body care in reusable and recyclable packaging. For their first-ever collaboration together, Raeburn designed a portable pouch for Aesop hand care products, such as hand sanitiser, lotion, and mist. 

The pouch comes in three variations. The first is a limited-edition run of 300 roll-ups made out of 1960s aeronautical navigation maps. ‘They were used by the Royal Air Force and we have them for all different parts of the world,’ explains Reaburn about the maps used for the project.

‘But what's really significant about them is that they all [depict] areas of environmental concern. So, we've got one which is of Borneo (an island in Southeast Asia) which, unfortunately, is an area of real deforestation. And we have one based around the Aral Sea (a lake between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) where the local cotton manufacturing has meant that the water has been completely depleted. These maps were made 70 years ago and if you look at the Goggle maps for these places now, they’re completely different.’

The standard roll-up is made of recycled cotton and available to purchase through the Aesop store. While the third variation is a DIY roll-up that can be made at home by anyone with a sewing machine. The pattern is available for free download on Aesop’s website with a how-to video offering additional tips for putting it together.

So what kind of adventure can the Roll-Up be taken on? A walk in the park perhaps. Maybe, one day soon, something a little more far-flung. Or maybe the adventure doesn’t involve traveling at all, and instead, it’s the new experience of making old fabric into a Roll-Up on your own, right from home. It’s all about adapting and adjusting things to work for your particular situation. Common themes of the past year and, in Raeburn’s view, themes that will come to dominate the future of fashion. 

‘I think that’s what’s really exciting to me is that, if we can keep things simple and work towards three streams – making things that are remade, that are then infinitely repairable, and that are natural and can go back into the earth – if you keep things in those three areas you immediately have a really good opportunity to make the right decisions upstream, to ensure that whatever happens downstream, you're going to be able to manage that product lifecycle. And I think that's really key [for a sustainable future].’

INFORMATION

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From the time it launched in 1987, Aesop quickly distinguished itself from other skincare brands with its refined aesthetic and signature scents that could entice just about anyone through the doors of its impeccably designed stores. It is somewhat of a surprise than that a brand that places such a high premium on interiors and fragrance has never launched a candle, that is, until now. 

This week, Aesop debuts three candles with scents crafted by the brand's longtime fragrance collaborator, Barnabé Fillion. Inspired by the cosmos, the candles are named after three ancient astronomers – Aganice, the first female astronomer of Ancient Greece, Callippus, one of the foremost astronomers of antiquity, and Ptolemy, a Greek-Egyptian astronomer whose writings greatly influenced medieval cosmology. 

The scents themselves are similarly out of this world. In the words of Fillion, who designed the candle fragrances as well as Aesop’s most recent eau de parfumes: ‘When selecting scents for the home, they have to be adapted to the size of the space, its volume, its purpose – a corridor or a living room. But the choice of scents will be influenced more by the time of day than by the space in which they are diffused.’

‘Some will prefer to evoke during the day, a landscape of spicy flowers, like the Aganice candle, and in the evening, that of a Japanese forest, like the Ptolemy candle. Others will be more sensitive to the green notes of Vetiver and Shiso from the Callippus candle, in their interior during autumn.’

To celebrate the launch, Aesop enlisted the artistry of Paris-based digital animator Mattis Dovier. Guests were invited to explore a digital universe created by Dovier in his signature pixilated aesthetic that evokes a Dürer engraving if was reformatted on an IBM monitor. The end result is something that, like Aesop, is equal parts classic and cool.

INFORMATION

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Aesop has atomised the life of French modernist architect and designer Charlotte Perriand for its fourth perfume, Rōzu. Perriand makes a natural muse for the brand, with both sharing a belief that better design is intrinsic to better living. 

Perriand, now regarded as one of the most innovative designers of the 20th century, began her career in the studio of Le Corbusier. There, she created interior pieces that have become icons of modernism like her reclining chaise lounge and swivelling armchair. 

After a decade with Le Corbusier, Perriand became an official advisor to Japan’s department of commerce and industry. She lived in Japan for almost three years, overseeing the transformation of traditional crafts into products more appealing to European consumers. When World War Two erupted, an aborted attempt to flee the country left her stuck in French Indochina until she returned to her native France in 1946. Those years in Asia deeply influenced her work and she applied the techniques and materials she found there to many of her projects throughout the 1950s and 60s.  

To translate this life, so rich in adventure and informed by so many cultures, into a fragrance, Aesop enlisted the innovative perfumery skills of Barnabe Fillion. Fillon welcomed the challenge of aromatically recreating a woman who, he’s said, ‘in both the personal and professional realms strode with confidence and cheerful audacity, tempered by a fluid sensibility and influenced by her extensive travels.’ 

To get to the heart of who Perriand was, Fillion embarked on a journey around the world with Perriand’s daughter, Pernette Perriand-Barsac, retracing the designer’s steps from her native France to her adopted Japan. The key to the scent’s identity was found at the Keiji Rose Farm, which developed a unique rose in honor of Perriand and her work.

Fillion drew on other aspects of Perriand’s character and travels to round out the final product. The vetiver cord was inspired by the perfume Perriand wore daily, while the shiso notes echo the Alpine environments she passionately explored throughout her life. 

Rōzu is a fascinating experiment in distilling a person’s work and character into something that can be bottled. Drawing on the concrete remnants of Perriand’s past, her work, and the ephemeral ones, the stories of her life, Aesop has concocted an olfactory testament to one of the most innovative talents of modern design. Rōzu is available from the Aesop online store now.

INFORMATION

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During a time that keeps you inside, a careful arrangement of atmospheric tricks (perfumes, scented matches, soaps, shampoos), can conjure the natural world wherever you are. Our edit presents woodsy scents that evoke the fresh air of a forest terrain from within your own home.  

Bathing Culture’s ‘Cathedral Grove' body wash was inspired by the Redwood trees of the brand's native Northern California. A shower rinse with Bathing Culture feels like becoming a raindrop, dripping past all sorts of fir needles on the way down to the ground. Pair with Aesop’s classic shampoo and conditioner, which blend cedarwood bark and juniper berry oil for an invigorating cleanse.

From there, find the deepest, almost navy green smells of the forest—nothing light, nothing herby, or grassy and fleeting, no quieting sandalwood. Aer’s ‘Cedar', a perfume made with collected cedar scraps from a furniture factory in Virginia, is that big woods smell with a bit of bergamot spice. Take shelter in a log cabin with Byredo’s ‘Tree House' candle and its combination of cedar, bamboo, and hay. Go further off the trail, into the thicker forest of cedar, gaiac wood and tree moss with Connolly’s ‘Leather Smoke' candle.

Wind it down with Buly 1803’s ‘Sumi Hinoki' scented matches. Inspired by the pyres in ancient Japanese temples, these matches conjure up the forest at night – a little haunted and dark, a little intense and cloaked. 

There are lots of paths to devote ourselves to the world from afar and to coax ourselves to stay sheltered, take every available scent escape.

Aesop’s first book. The prologue reads: ’If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and open sea.’ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

It's easy to view Aesop as a caricature of itself – there's many copyists of the now 33-year-old brand, and plagiarists too, as the new book's introduction reveals. These apparently myriad pretenders have developed a retail-wide expectation that the Aesop experience is the new normal. Its architect-designed stores, its science-backed emphasis on sustainability, and its timeless visual identity have set a high benchmark for competitors, many of whom have fallen by the wayside. But at its point of origin in 1980s Melbourne, Aesop was not only unique, it was radical.

Founded by hairdresser Paphitis in 1987 in Armadale, Melbourne, Aesop set out to better the hair salon experience, offering clients a sense of both sanctuary and stimulation. Paphitis eschewed traditional tropes of customer service, in favour of the art of ‘hosting'. Step into the ceramic enclave of Sloane Square's Snøhetta-designed store in London, for instance, and you'll be greeted by a knowledgeable specialist, the scent of eucalyptus, and a tiny cup of green tea.

‘The retail industries commonly invoke “customer service”. We prefer the idea of hosting. It is not fussy, or laboured, or false. It is not a means to an end, or an act of subterfuge. It is as simple and natural as inviting visitors to stay for dinner.' – From Aesop

As the chapter ‘Bright Locks Admir'd' reveals, for Paphitis and his hair care followers, shampooing is not to be taken lightly. ‘In the original salon, we came to understand hair as a primal part of the psyche,' the book reads. ‘It became evident that for many people the way their hair feels is just as important as its appearance.' This now ubiquitous outlook – beauty from the inside out – was ahead of its time, and provided a solid foundation for the brand, as it moved into global expansion. The first employee Suzanne Santos (Product Advocate with the brand) was instrumental in the growth of the company. In 2010 Harbert Australia Private Equity bought a minority stake and Aesop used the capital injection to fund growth.

Look to any chic shopping district in cities around the globe for confirmation. Aesop has magnificently maneuvered and helped to drive the shift in consumer expectation towards environmentally friendly, mindful, and beautifully-packaged beauty and grooming products.

For admirers of Aesop's pared-back apothecary style, turn to the chapter on the visual identity of the brand, ‘To All Appearances'. Here, we learn that the packaging codes remain consistent, with amber glass bottles (if safe and practical), black caps, and alabaster labels printed using black Helvetica and Optima Medium script. This palette of functional simplicity and visual strength has come to constitute Aesop's aesthetic signature, and appeals to those looking to beautify their bathroom cabinet.

The rest is hairstory. The book, roughly a year in the making, matches this considered Aesop aesthetic. More than coffee table fodder, a tactile cover unfolds to reveal a genuinely engaging story. And more than enjoyable poetic musings on haircare and scalp health, this is an interesting read from a business perspective, offering insight in how the brand selects and develops its international team. ‘First and foremost, curiosity, creativity and passion underpin the brand and those that work here,' ever upbeat creative director Marsha Meredith tells me by phone. ‘It's a testament to the vision and dedication of the founders, and our people – that continue to make us a success'.

INFORMATION

Aesop, by Jennifer Down and Dennis Paphitis, $75, available from 22 October 2019, published by Rizzoli. aesop.com

Park Slope rarely ranks highly as one of Brooklyn's ‘cool' areas. However, the arrival of a new Aesop store, notably designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has give the homey, family-friendly neighbourhood a covetable cache that should appeal to both residents and visitors alike.

Located on an unassuming corner, just south of a major thoroughfare in the area, Escobedo’s design for Aesop’s latest store is her first completed build since creating the Serpentine Pavilion in London last year. Designed to incite conversation and cultural exchange, the store’s interior riffs off of the historic brownstone houses that dominate the neighbourhood. Its interior is predominantly made up of rich, red bricks, made especially from rammed earth from Escobedo’s native Oaxaca region of Mexico. Arranged in an elegant tessellated pattern and configured into diagonal rows that mimic the angling of brownstone buildings along Park Slope’s streets, the seemingly minimal design is actually steeped in complexity.

‘I’ve been always interested in how a modular, simple material such as brick can create a variety of patterns by changing the arrangement of its linear order,’ Escobedo explains. ‘This process is very similar to weaving; working on binary combinations to create a pattern. While we were working on this process, we were studying some of Anni Albers’ drawings and patterns. This allowed us to have a dialogue with the existing context, but also to propose something new. The result is a rich conversation between the industrial bricks of the neighbourhood facades and the handcrafted tiles inside the store.’

In many ways, Escobedo’s concept for Aesop continues where her design for the Serpentine Pavilion left off. ‘There are some similarities to the Serpentine with the idea of weaving,’ she acknowledges. ‘The Serpentine was more concerned with time and temporality, whereas Aesop Park Slope is more about layering – a layering of histories. They might share the same approach: the use of simple materials, playing with modularity and permutations, in order to create something new.’

However, the process of creating the uniquely shaped bricks that line the shop’s walls are a key and site-specific feature that Escobdeo developed especially with a former student Patricia Medivil and her firm Tata Mosaicos.

‘[The company] only use natural earth pigments to create their tiles [and bricks]. They are made by hand using earth from the Mixteca region in Oaxaca, that has a very intense red colour – it’s so alive,' the architect explains. ‘The result is a tile that has been transformed by the sun to a subtle blush shade, with slight variations in its tone and slight imperfections that show its handcrafted qualities and which will age beautifully over time.’

Juxtaposed with the store’s own restored brick façade and stamped-tin ceiling, the result is an inviting space that supports a range of activities.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website and the Frida Escobedo website

ADDRESS

225 5th Avenue
Brooklyn
NY 11215

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Aesop has brought its superlative skincare to the British spa town of Bath. Its the second store designed in collaboration with creative studio JamesPlumb, after the London Lamb’s Conduit location, and is the brand's first foray into the West Country.

The brief was to reimagine and unite the five-storey listed site in central Bath – sensitively restoring it, paying homage to its Georgian sensibilities. On excavating the building (previously occupied by a generically-designed shoe shop), the designers discovered many lost features including a covered-over fireplace and hidden staircase, which now feature prominently.

The upstairs library space is used for private Aesop events

Stripped floorboards, plaster walls, and simple ironmongery lights evoke a bygone era, while an adjoining kitchen – quite unique for an Aesop store – has a distinct feeling of a Georgian scullery. Absent are the obvious Georgian traits of rococo patterning and rich colourings – neatly sidestepped to avoid cliche.

Throughout the store, Aesop was keen to celebrate what gives Bath its name – its storied Roman stone baths built on natural hot springs. Channelling this, the space incorporates Bath stone – as seen in the shelving, sinks and countertop. Large stone fragments found during the renovation and have been installed as artwork, and a floor of Pamment tiles have been reclaimed from a nearby chapel.

Even the smallest design details are locally-inspired. Plug holes in the main sink (used for Aesop’s signature basin consultations) are based on the ones found in No 1 Royal Crescent – a local museum of national, architectural and historic importance, which has been decorated and furnished just as it might have been during the period 1776-1796.

Mini-break central, Bath is a growing dot on the design map. There's a Hay store round the corner from the new Aesop outpost, alongside a flurry of local boutiques (Grace & Ted on Kingsmead Square is a good place to start). The Aesop addition proves that this pretty spa town is worth its (bath) salt.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website

ADDRESS

16 New Bond St
Bath, BA1 1BA

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Rimowa has teamed up with Aesop to design a sturdy suitcase to hold its range of travel essentials. The duo of discerning brands were brought together through a shared appreciation for functional products and a love of travel. ‘Rimowa and Aesop share a meticulous approach to craftmanship and an abiding interest in pared-back utilitarian design,’ explains Dr Kate Forbes, Aesop general manager of product and research and development. ‘This led us to collaborate on creating a timeless, portable travel kit with coveted Aesop products for people venturing both near and far from home.'

Naturally, each product within the case is under the 100ml liquids limit imposed by most commercial airlines, for security reasons. But for long haul flights, or whistle-stop weekends away, the suitcase is small enough to carry with you, even popped into your bike's basket on the way to the gym.

The case bears all the distinctive Rimowa signatures: classic aluminium casing; functional grooving inspired by the golden age of aviation; sturdy fold-up handle. Inside, snugly housed in a custom-built wooden inlay, the case boasts more than enough energy-restoring, beauty-boosting medicine bottles, from shampoo and toothpaste basics, to refreshing parsley seed anti-oxidant serum and toner. Though not specifically geared towards a particular skin-type, the product range will work well for urbanites, thanks to its pollutant-battling properties; well-matched for Rimowa's city-hopping clientele.

The Köln travel kit (which takes its name from Rimowa's 120-year Cologne heritage, while playing on Aesop's choice cologne product range) will launch in select Rimowa and Aesop stores, and online globally, on 26 October 2018.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website, and the Rimowa website

Can there be such a thing as fine-taste fatigue? Maybe it’s fourth estate problems, but if there is such a thing, Aesop might have become a victim to it, if it weren’t for shaking things up with their latest store opening in Rome.

Aesop and its visionary founder, Dennis Paphitis, wrote the manifesto for the anti-globalisation movement in retail and have led the way using promising and established architects and local vernaculars to embed the brand around the globe. Not only does it make every shop a local shop, it turns shopping into an experience, with the unique basin designs in every store, novel material use, inspirational interior architecture and considered refreshments. ‘We try to stay true to the aboriginal saying “touch the ground lightly”,’ says the Melbourne man at a dinner this week to launch the Rome store, an inspired collaboration with the celebrated film director, Luca Guadagnino.

‘Serendipity’ is the word that both Paphitis and Guadagnino use when explaining how this unusual partnership has come about. Paphitis, one of the most culturally fluent people you can meet, founded the skincare brand 30 years ago but sold it (in part, and then wholly) six years ago to Brazilian cosmetics company Natura.

Supposedly now in a backseat, his unabated, quietly dignified pursuit of cultural connections (something that made this week’s launch dinner at Rome’s Villa Medici a fascinating gathering of fashion designers, restaurateurs, architects, actors and art directors) led him to handwrite a note to Guadagnino, inviting him for a coffee, when he found they were sharing air in LA’s Chateau Marmont during awards season earlier this year.

Up to this point, Paphitis’ pursuit of Guadagnino had been silent, manifesting only in his obsessive playing and replaying of the director’s seminal 2009 film I am Love, and here was a moment to connect for real. Guadagnino, it turned out, was equally admiring of Paphitis and the architectural heights achieved with the Aesop brand, and what Paphitis didn’t know at the time, as of two years, Guadagnino was heading up a studio of interior architecture, pursuing his fantasy career alongside his lauded film career, and had already cut his teeth on the interior of his friend Federico Marchietti’s Lake Como house.

The pair soon found themselves on a train from Milan to Rome with Aesop’s in house architect Jean-Philippe Bonnefoi on their way to view a location in Rome’s Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucnina that had already been secured. A snowstorm blocked their way and a three hour journey turned into seven hours, which was seen as a good omen – ever since an unusually heavy snowfall over Milan greeted the film crew of I am Love, making for the stunning, eerie opening sequence, Guadagnino views snow as some kind of a lucky charm, while team Aesop knew that an unbroken rally of ideas and stories after hours on a train with a dwindling supply of food, water and wine could only be a good sign.

Paphitis showed Guadagnino a news clip about Maria Callas pulling out of a concert in Rome in 1958, and this became the rather odd launch pad of the store’s design. Somehow though, the pair were speaking the same language, and the film director understood that imbuing the store with an essence of its locale, taking, for example, material and design inspiration from the San Lorenzo in Lucina church interior and melding this with cultural, material and form prompts taken from the time of that clip, a time when Pasolini was making an impact on the screen, and Carlo Scarpa shaped interiors, was what was going to make a success of the Rome store design. ‘Everything was very organic from my first meeting with Dennis,’ says Guadagnino. ‘He is drawn by an idea of Rome that is not the usual. Rome relies on its vestiges in a lazy way and Dennis talked about a modernism that gave us an identity after the War. Our minds wandered through the canon of Pasolini and his aggressiveness of modernity.’

The harmonious mix of material is striking, along with the ease with which the store sits among the terracotta facades, the ecclesiastical architecture, the marble monuments of the area’s interiors and exteriors. The previously featureless space is now filled with floating shelves in red, cream and black lacquer that hold the product, the lacquer a nod to Pasolini’s signature spectacles. Blocks of straw in staggered relief form the ceiling, a detail drawn from Pasolini’s film Oedipus Rex, combined with the peasant culture of Agro Pontino in Rome’s immediate rural surroundings. The large curved glass pendant light, handmade in Murano, a one-off (since the back-up model broke) is a 1950s form that recalls the setting sun as seen from nearby Villa Medici.

The cream and mocha travertine floor tiles are inspired by the floor of nearby San Lorenzo in Lucina church, and the vast, monolithic counter and basins, formed from a patchwork of marbles, also taken from the church interior, have superb modernist curves and uncompromising mass. ‘I’m a newcomer to the job and mindless to what is problematic, I can’t understand why you can’t do something,' Guadagnino-the-film-director replies to a question about the complexity of combining marble in this way, simulaneously acknowledging the talent of his architect sidekicks, Giulio Ghirardi, Nicolo Barbisotti and Stefano Baisi. ‘I torture these guys.’ The taps are unapologetically Scarpa-inspired, and along with the mirror, the bench, the Murano glass vase that sits on the counter, all is custom-made for the store by Italian artisans, all bar one low-hanging monastic pendant light, by Peter Zumthor for Viabuzzuno.

How do Guadagnino’s two careers compare? ‘They couldn’t be more different. There is more discipline in the building of a physical space than the set of a movie. It just so happens that at the age of 45, I made my debut in interior design, inspired by my interaction with architecture.’ Jack of all trades he may be, but he’s mastering them all. His studio’s sequel will be another retail project in New York’s Soho, yet to be announced.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website

Traditional Nagaya row houses (a form of Japanese architecture) have been disappearing from the streets of urban Japan over the last few decades. Built as a practical, short-term solution in response to a high-density population, they are now being replaced with residential constructs catering to the modern-day city dweller.

Aesop’s arrival in the city of Kanazawa brings with it the beauty brand’s long-standing passion for channelling local culture through design. In collaboration with Fukoka-based interior architecture practice Case-Real, a new Aesop outlet now finds itself housed inside a former Nagaya style home, which has been remodelled in respect of its original domestic function.

Several years prior, the house was broken down due to unavoidable circumstances. Household appliances were fitted upstairs, relegating the original ground-floor space to a storehouse role. Case-Real and Aesop were keen to bring elements of the former home back to life, and so looked to the original floorplan with a retail eye to define the new store.

A number of structural changes were made to improve flow and circulation. Many of the pre-existing interior walls were removed, most notably a dividing wall that ran the length of the ground floor. Following removal, a central sink was inserted, now orbited by points of sale, and a new sparsely furnished lounge. Case-Real also considered the home’s outside-in tori-niwa floor in the renovation, using cement emboss-brushed by straw to generate a similar visual experience.

Meanwhile, original interior structural support remained, providing inspiration for the store’s colour palette. New fixtures and fittings are awash in dark-toned wood, complimented by a deep, rich beige colour palette throughout.

A mindful affair, the Kanazawa store showcases the quiet side of the Australian beauty giant. Case Real's considered design propels this disappearing form of Japanese architecture into the present.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website

ADDRESS

1 Chome-17-9 Higashiyama
Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture 920-0831
Japan

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An organic green grocer and coffee shop have been designed by young South African design firm Master Studio, creating a duo of visually connected spots in the emerging Cape Town suburb of Sea Point. Despite their different functions, the design-focused boutiques employ the same material palette, ethos and atmosphere, as envisioned by their steadfast designer.

Yaniv Chen, co-founder of Master Studio, secured the project because of ‘one key principle'. ‘When you’re a young company like we are, you’re on the hunt for an aesthetic that is unique to you,' he explains. ‘It's very easy in today’s age for design to become derivative. What got us in the door was our understanding of the balance between minimalism and warmth, alongside our emphasis on the past, which we translate into a contemporary context.'

According to Chen (who lives in the area), the locale is changing by the day. ‘The community has become quite young and exciting,' he explains, referencing the growing bicycle commuter-culture, which is ‘great for the city, and obviously our carbon footprint'; a restaurant called The Shop, ‘opened by a lovely husband-and-wife team, with fantastic food and the original 1970s and 80s vernacular of Sea Point instilled in the design'; and Hescheng restaurant, which is ‘not beautiful, but offers the best Chinese food in Cape Town, and has been there forever.’ The influx of foot traffic into the area has allowed businesses like this to thrive; something that makes Chen ‘personally, incredibly happy.’

Paulines, the coffee shop Master Studio has just completed, has attracted coffee culture vultures. ‘On this end of Sea Point there were no coffee shops until Paulines opened,' Chen explains. ‘It has added huge value, and created a fantastic street culture that wasn’t here before.' The narrow, standing-room only coffee bar pairs texturally interesting walls clad in Sisal (a natural fibre from the Agave plant) with the clean, functional lines of a Corian bar, together forming a space you'll want to linger in long after your espresso has been drained.

Chen was keen to reflect the district that he respects and calls home in each of the interiors. ‘Each store integrates the suburb's architectural vernacular into the space’s fabricated forms,' he adds. ‘Throughout Sea Point, there is a strong art deco influence, and we wanted to pay homage to the South African architects of the past by creating curved forms juxtaposed by strong linear elements.'

Chen chose to maintain simplicity, providing a plain vessel for the products to be displayed, opposed to a space with superfluous design elements. Characterful warmth breaks up the clean lines, in the form of Supawood – a hardy substrate made of compressed sawdust. ‘In keeping with the stores' holistic ideology we chose to line the space with this material. No piece is the same, and colours change in accordance with the wood the sawdust comes from.'

Sans (a mini department store and green grocer) is inspired by Japanese woodworking techniques, craft, and tradition; three things upheld by each product stocked inside. Master Studio respected this methodology by creating all of its own joinery, with no screws, nails or bolts, particularly in the architecture of movable shelving units that delineate the multi-purpose space into separate food and furniture sections.

The two, street-facing boutiques are a stone’s throw from each other, and their shared aesthetic gives the district a unique visual identity. But the area remains in flux. ‘Many property development companies are sadly demolishing the old Victorian houses and art deco apartment blocks, building soulless grey apartment buildings in an effort to further gentrify Sea Point,’ Chen explains. Not on his watch. Master Studio is currently on a mission to restore and save a heritage home in the area. If these three Sea Point projects are anything to go by, expect a thoughtful fusion of styles, ages and materials that respect the tradition of this somewhat unlikely Cape Town suburb, while nodding to the potential of its future. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Master Studio website

Crisp winds whip down Melbourne’s Bourke Street mall where locals rugged up in their winter armour stop in their tracks to absorb the warm kinetic glow emanating from retailer Myer’s street-level windows. All seven, spanning over 60 m in their entirety, unveil a theatre of the senses as footage of male and female dancers interact rhythmically with tactile hybrid skins and emotive scenography. It marks Aesop’s fifth Myer Bourke Street window display and its first digital collaboration with an artist, Bart Hess, who in the past has worked with a roster of visionaries including Lady Gaga, Nick Knight and Iris van Herpen.

Epistēmē (the Ancient Greek term for knowledge and understanding) serves a dual purpose: to evoke the sensory experience of Aesop’s product offering (including skin, body, hair and personal care, alongside fragrance and ranges for travel and the home) and to distil the notion of absorbing knowledge through the senses, the skin being the interface between the body and the environment it inhabits. ‘I imagined the body as a canvas for the sensations felt and information absorbed. The figures undergo some kind of transformation based on the attributes of the products,’ notes Hess, whose work expresses his ongoing fascination with the human form using instinctive and futuristic textiles. In this case, they include the digitally manipulated material properties of foils, paper, PVC, latex and water colour patterns to create impressions of envelopment and volume.

Each window framing the imagery (ranging from 38 seconds to 3 minute loops) is dedicated to the aforementioned product categories against a backdrop of melodic futuristic soundscapes created by Ricky van Broekhoven that ripple with recordings of the materials used. ‘The films talk to the qualities of our products and the transformations which occur as they nourish both the physical and sensual being,’ clarifies Aesop’s creative director, Marsha Meredith.

The sequence commences with skin care. Folded and concertinaed golden translucent veils morph over the upper body. ‘Visually, it talks to intense vitamins nourishing your skin and the ritual of daily skin care routines,’ adds Marsh. The home (room sprays) window is fluidly expressed with women unfurling swathes of cape-like aromas that billow around the body like puffs of smoke. Representing fragrance, splintered paper-thin feathers taking their inspirational cue from origami adorn the limbs of figures like a Boccioni sculpture in motion to represent the crispness of the Tacit aroma. A woman magically floats in the travel window suggestive of Aesop’s approach to nurturing the skin and senses during journeys. ‘Satin-like ribbons support her body playing with the idea of material time,’ offers Hess.

Presented on variously sized grids, each sequence is uniquely self-contained, yet together with their heightened colour palettes (alluding to Aesop ingredients) and cinematic expression, they possess the mesmerising effect of drawing viewers in to experience the tactile sensations themselves. ‘As they’re deeply set from the street, the challenge was to communicate from a depth,’ adds Hess. Mechanical precision (so refined and precise) and organic fluidity co-exist harmoniously to portray liberated states and the confidence each product offering instills.

The windows at Myer Bourke Street will remain in motion until 29 July, whilst film stills will also be presented in the windows of Myer Queen Street in Brisbane and Myer George Street in Sydney during this time.

INFORMATION

Until 29 July. For more information, visit the Aesop website

ADDRESS

Myer Melbourne
314-336 Bourke Street, Melbourne 300

Myer Sydney
436 George Street, Sydney 2000

Myer Brisbane
91 Queen Street, Brisbane 4000

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Zalando beauty station, by Batek Architects, Berlin

Zalando has typically concerned itself with footwear, fashion and sportswear over the years. Widening its horizons, the online fashion platform has now entered the world of beauty, and has celebrated the occasion by extending its lone Berlin retail outlet with a new beauty station. Designed by Batek Architects, the modular space is minimal, combining a colour palette of cream, light beige, grey and nude shades with freely placeable stainless steel cubes, a shelf made from recycled plastic cups, stainless steel floor-to-ceiling shelves, a solid concrete washbasin and a 4m long stainless steel beauty service table.

Zalando, Weinmeisterstraße 2, 10178 Berlin, Germany; www.zalando.com. Writer: Luke Halls

Clean Market, New York City

The holistically-charged Clean Market has hit the streets of Manhattan. The surgery-clean, all-white destination spins on the notion of a classic day spa, instead calling upon infrared saunas, IV drips and cryotherapy treatments. The on-site Nutridrip drip lounge provides wellness-enhanced vitamin supplements, perpetuating the Clean Market ethos of beauty originating within. Read more about Clean Market here.

240 East 54th Street, New York, NY 10022. www.cleanmarket.com

Hershesons, London

Hershesons has opened the doors to its newest one-stop beauty salon flagship in Fitzrovia, London. The 5,000 sq ft space on Berners Street rejects conventional ideas surrounding the traditional salon model, with an approach it hopes is more relevant to how we live our lives now, combining a beauty space, co-working space and social space, wrapped into one, multi-functional (and stylish) model. Since its 1992 beginnings, Hershesons has championed groundbreaking ideas in beauty. A true frontrunner in industry-wide innovation, it invented concepts such as the straightening iron and blow-dry bars. Now, it seems, it is championing the ‘customer is king’ model in a beauty and grooming context, where services (including third-party offerings) are built entirely around you, your schedule, and lifestyle.

29-32 Berners St, Fitzrovia, London W1T 3LR. www.hershesons.com

Aesop, by Snøhetta, London

Designed by Norwegian interior architect and seven-time collaborator Snøhetta, Aesop’s 100 sq m Sloane Square flagship is a subtle choreography of light, warmth and scent. The minimalist beauty guru’s 200th location, pitched on the corner of Duke Square, and surrounded by a catalogue of elegant white-box stores, is rendered floor to ceiling in rust-red clay, inviting in passers-by from the Chelsea cold.

‘The idea of street presence was central for us,’ says senior architect Peter Girgis. ‘Originating and rising up from this large central element, we wanted warm-tones to beat out onto the street.’ A Devonshire clay-plaster column arches from the floor into what Girgis describes as ‘an architectural tree’. It spans the ceiling, covering it in a breathable, atmosphere-enhancing texture that will help to ventilate the lightly-scented space. The ‘trunk’ surrounds a 4.5 sq m ‘water table’ (pictured), upon which a slim veil of water cascades into four tin bath-sized fibre glass sinks, used for skin consultations.

Aesop, 22-24 Duke of York Square, London, England; www.aesop.com

86 Champs, by Laura Gonzales, Paris

Perfumer L’Occitane and ‘Picasso of pastry’ Pierre Hermé have created a hybrid ‘store’ on the Champs Élysées, designed to test our senses, and our preconceptions of what a beauty boutique should be.

Stalwarts of their respective industries, the two brands are natural bedfellows, sharing a heritage, luxury leaning. Intended to celebrate the high quality ingredients behind both, 86 Champs is a heady, fourfold experiment, offering a dessert bar for initiating yourself in the art of pastry, a coffee station for discovering ‘coffee according to Pierre Hermé’, and a restaurant, for a savoury interlude between dessert courses. Adding an olfactory twist, L’Occitane presents an interactive, in-store perfumery and scent installation, where guests come nose-to-nose with raw L’Occitane ingredients and production methods. Interior designer Laura Gonzalez aimed to create ‘a welcoming and refined place where objects, scents or tastes express osmosis between the two Maisons’.

86 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris, France; fr.loccitane.com

Riley Rose, by FutureBrand Uxus, Los Angeles

Millennial pink makes the girls and boys wink. At least that’s the thinking behind FutureBrand UXUS’s latest retail concept in Los Angeles. It's something a little different from the Amsterdam-based design studio, who are also behind Tate Modern’s innovative Switch House store. At Riley Rose, UXUS aims to ‘bring the social media experience to bricks and mortar’.

To do so, it has made the spaces wholly interactive, with product trial opportunities, so-called ‘shareable moments’, unique pop-ups and in-the-know staff on hand. A palate of blusher-pinks and smokey-eye greys complete the bubblegum-popping interiors, which despite their levity, are beautifully crafted and sensitively arranged in typical UXUS fashion.

Riley Rose, 2131 Galleria Way, Glendale, California 91210, USA; www.rileyrose.com

Miller Harris, by Fabled Studios, London

London-based perfume brand Miller Harris’ new flagship store surpasses fragrance shop expectations, transforming olfactory art into a multi-sensory ambush. Jackson Pollock-esque paint is artfully splattered across the walls, and a Tracey Emin-esque neon blinks on the wall.

Designed in collaboration with London’s Fabled Studio, the pocket-sized perfumery offers a colourful, exploratory haven in the midst of Canary Wharf’s bustling corporate rush. ‘We are giving the customer a full, 360-degree expression of each fragrance’, says Fabled’s co-founder Steven Saunders. Each scent has been married with a corresponding sound and texture, inviting visitors to not only smell but also ‘hear and feel’ their fragrance prior to making a selection. What’s more, a rotation of artists-in-residence will take over the space, bringing new meaning to the phrase ‘olfactory art’.

1 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, London, England; www.millerharris.com

Buly 1803, by Arnault Castel, Hong Kong

Parisian apothecary Buly 1803 opened its first Hong Kong store recently in a snug new space on Wyndham Street. The brand, a revival of the historic perfume apothecary originally founded by Jean-Vincent Bully in 1803, (hence the name) was created in 2014 by Victoire de Taillac-Touhami and Ramdane Touhami who were inspired by 19th-century beauty secrets and ancient recipes.

Unlike many of the locations on our shortlist, which look ambitiously to the future, Buly 1802 looks ambitiously to the past. The couple’s local partner, Arnault Castel – founder of Kapok concept stores – was the first to spot the narrow 70 sq m location sporting unusual 5m high ceilings. ‘It is extremely small but our French carpenter hand-made floor-to-ceiling walnut cabinets to look just like they came from an ancient apothecary, so it feels like stepping into a small, historic chapel,’ Castel says. ‘We nicknamed it Charlotte because it reminds us of the French cake with “ladyfinger” biscuits.’

Buly 1803, 20 Wyndham St, Central, Hong Kong; www.buly1803.com

Tom Ford Beauty, London

Bringing things bang up to date is Tom Ford Beauty, which, if you’re familiar with the multi-discipline mogul’s aesthetic, will come as no surprise. His first ever stand-alone beauty store not only sets a new benchmark in glamour, but inspires in the field of tech-first retail design.

Tucked between the columns of the historic Covent Garden piazza, Tom Ford Beauty is made up of six specialised rooms comprising grey glass, marble counters, reflective surfaces galore, and the high(est) tech possible. Mirrors that record your make-up tutorials and email them to you in chapters – check. Virtual lip-stick trialling – check. Interactive perfume counter with vast LED screens – check. Downstairs, there’s even an intimate, invitation only consultation room, where you can try on the hottest new launches (virtually, of course).

Tom Ford Beauty, 3 The Market Building, Covent Garden, London, England; www.tomford.com/beauty

You might think Aesop’s 200th global store opening deserves a song-and-dance. But, the ever-understated Australian skincare stalwart has rung in its achievement in typical style – quietly. Designed by Norwegian interior architect and seven-time collaborator Snøhetta, the 100 sq m Sloane Square flagship is a subtle choreography of light, warmth and scent.

Pitched on the corner of Duke Square, surrounded by a catalogue of elegant white-box stores, the rust-red clay walls add texture behind four facade windows, inviting passers-by in from the Chelsea cold.

‘The idea of street presence was central for us,’ says senior architect Peter Girgis. ‘Originating and rising up of from this large central element, we wanted warm-tones to beat out onto the street.’

Said central element consists of a Devonshire clay-plaster clad column that arches out of the floor into what Girgis describes as ‘an architectural tree’. It spans the ceiling, covering it in a breathable, atmosphere-enhancing texture that will help to ventilate the lightly-scented space. The ‘trunk’ surrounds a 4.5 sq m ‘water table’, upon which a slim veil of water cascades into four tin bath-sized fibre glass sinks, used for skin consultations.

The interiors were devised in collaboration with Aesop’s longstanding in-house architect Jean-Philippe Bonnefoi, who provided Snøhetta with a mood-board of inspirations. ‘It included everything from music, notes about the local area, to movie-set scenography and Youtube clips of James Bond,’ explains project architect Gaute Simonsen.

Though the space doesn’t scream Die Another Day, Bond’s influence is ‘textually felt and implied’, says Girgis, in the space’s ‘slightly off notes’. Like the table full of vintage crystal-bottles holding unamed tipples (gin and vermouth perhaps?), or the so-bad-they’re-good Roger Moore-era corduroy chairs. These dressings – handpicked by Bonnefoi – add a comforting living-room feel to the otherwise highly conceptual, warmly-minimal space.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website and the Snøhetta website

ADDRESS

22-24 Duke of York Square
London, SW3 4LY

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Their ingredients may or may not be organic (they famously want to be known simply as ‘natural and scientific’) but the business strategies of Aesop, the Australian global skincare brand, certainly are. Though just entering its fourth decade, and bought from its Melbourne-based founder Dennis Paphitis in 2013 by Brazilian company Natura, it moves and evolves fluidly, marching to its own tune, and not, seemingly, to any commercial timetable. Historically, Paphitis only moved things on when he felt good and ready – and his perfectionism meant the skincare brand didn’t branch globally into treatment therapies until after it was sold, so concerned was he about quality control at a geographical distance. Even now, when Aesop has stores in 44 countries, only in Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Richmond (London) and Hamburg can you get a facial.

This week, treatments come to Paris for the first time. It’s not a permanent arrangement – it’s another organic development that has come about through a chance link up with the family of Pierre Paulin, custodians of the iconic French designer’s archive. The pop-up is occupying the skincare’s European HQ, off a courtyard behind the French capital’s famous fashion strip, Rue du Faubourg St Honoré, and transformed into a zen-like series of carpeted chambers ending in a treatment space for facials.

The venture took shape after Benjamin Paulin passed by the Condorcet store in Paris’ 9th arrondissement and spotted one of his father’s chairs in the window. Intrigued to see such exquisite attention to design in a cosmetics store, he contacted Aesop and a relationship developed. Aesop has always worked on the belief that a well-considered environment contributes positively to the health of the self and skin, so the pair-up was perfectly in keeping with company philosophy. The temporary interior is a collaboration between in-house architect Jean-Philippe Bonnefoi and Paulin Paulin Paulin, the company set up by Benjamin, his mother and his wife to manage his archive.

A screen made from panes of wax covers the windows and diffuses the daylight, distancing those inside from the bustle of central Paris. The colour scheme is beige, but far from being boring, all possible variations of the shade are layered and juxtaposed, keeping the colour so typical of wellness environments fresh and modern. The Paulin pieces selected by Paulin Paulin Paulin come from across the decades (a chair designed in 2008 sits alongside a pouf from 1959) and from manufacturers such as Artifort, the Dutch company that has produced his work since the 1960s; Ligne Roset, which has edited his work more recently and which created a special colour of the ’La Bibliotheque Fil’ shelving for the project; and La Cividina, which makes the statement ’Osaka’ sofa in the middle room. Soon-to-be reissued lights from Paulin’s ’Elysée’ collection will be added when ready. There are even some pieces that have come from Benjamin’s own apartment, since they have not been reissued, and yet they fit the spot.

Treatments must be booked in advance, and six facials are available. However, the exact treatment won’t be selected prior to the consultation, which takes place on the ’Osaka’ sofa over an Aesop brew. With only one customer booked to use the space at a time, it makes for a truly intimate, personalised experience.

Taking bookings from now until mid-May, the address is also to be used for certain events and workshops connected to Aesop and Paulin Paulin Paulin. From May, Aesop staff will be reclaiming their office, but we are rather hoping they will find a way to maintain the current arrangement.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website

ADDRESS

Aesop
205 rue Saint-Honoré
75001 Paris

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For Aesop’s second Sao Paulo location, the Australian skincare brand’s founder Dennis Paphitis tapped none other than international design stars and Sao Paulo natives Fernando and Humberto Campana, who have created a store that perfectly blends the Aesop philosophy with traditional Paulista architecture.

Located on the bustling Rua Harmonia in the city’s bohemian Vila Madalena neighborhood, the latest addition to Aesop’s staggering list of global outposts follows hot on the heels of the brand’s first South American opening – a boutique on Sao Paulo’s Rua Oscar Freire designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Metro Associated Architects - which opened last year.

Set back from the street, the 112 sq m store is entered via a courtyard through an aluminium gate that flips open to create a roof during the day. Here, timber benches, a washbasin and a pergola with climbing plants create a relaxing social space where customers are encouraged to sit and stay a while.

‘[Aesop’s] only request was their desire to include strong elements connected to the Brazilian culture in the store,’ says Humberto Campana of the design brief. ‘So we wanted to combine traditional characteristics of Paulista architecture with the Australian cosmetics brand’s symbols and values to create a space that goes beyond the traditional commercial function of a shop and offer the neighbourhood a meeting point.’

Sitting alongside a material palette of sisal fibre, concrete and plywood, the humble cobogó brick – a staple of Brazilian architecture – takes centre stage in the Campana’s design, forming not only the fixtures and furniture but the flooring, ceiling and an entire wall that stretches from the exterior courtyard right through into the interior. The bricks, which are typically used to provide ventilation and shade inside Brazilian homes, are characterised by their decorative perforated patterns, which are used here en masse to stunning effect.

‘We developed a special floor made of cobogó brick filled with concrete; a fully experimental work that resulted in a beautiful pattern,’ explains Humberto. ‘We employed sisal fiber as a natural background that complements the strong graphic effect created by the cobogó brick. We covered the walls with this fiber to use it as an acoustic element that also brings a zen atmosphere to the place. Live jasmine, an original component of Aesop fragrances, became the counterpoint to the earthy color palette, offering a natural colour contrast and a unique scent to the store.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Campana brothers’ website or the Aesop website

ADDRESS

Aesop Vila Madalena
Rua Harmonia, 343
Sao Paulo

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Snøhetta, the internationally renowned practice of architecture, plus landscape, interior and brand design, has collaborated with Aesop on the design of one of their Germany-based stores, located in Düsseldorf’s Grabenstraße. This is Aesop’s first store opening in Düsseldorf, and the second store in Germany to be designed by Snøhetta, preceded by Aesop Fasanenstraße in Berlin.

Designed to be an implicit extension of the plaza where the store is located, which is often host to a variety of markets and fairs, the minimal design of the retail space successfully highlights Aesop’s products. 

Blonde-hued Douglas fir shelving curves over the walls, creating a crescent that envelops the customer, whilst embedded downlights from the ceiling follow the same pattern. A monolithic concrete sink, reminiscent of Düsseldorf’s local fountains, has been centrally located in order for customers to wash their hands, test products and follow demonstrations, amplifying the subtle blur between interiors and exteriors. 

Two timber benches fitted with planter boxes further extend this interior-exterior relationship, as they have been placed just beyond the store’s stone facade, inviting visitors to sit and linger in the shade outside.

After the recent opening of Aesop’s retail space in Berlin, Düsseldorf becomes the fifth collaboration between the Australian skincare brand and Snøhetta.

INFORMATION

For more information on the project, visit Snøhetta’s website

Photography: Snøhetta

ADDRESS

12 Dusseldorf, Kasernenstraße 10, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany

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Aesop has been rolling out boutiques around the world with a fervor; but thankfully, each outpost continues to adhere to the carefully considered and well-designed ethos that the brand holds dear. Chicago’s newly opened Bucktown spot marks Aesop’s first entry into the American Midwest. Located on a busy corner of the stylish neighbourhood, the 1,000 sq ft shop pays special tribute to its Chicagan heritage.

Designed by Norman Kelley, an architecture and design collaborative based between New York and Chicago, the space is built upon an architectural grid motif, made up of Chicago common bricks that have been reclaimed for use.

Age and size were some of the design challenges encountered, explain practice heads Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley. ‘The space sits within a fairly common post-fire (1871) type of Chicago building known as a two-flat. We removed a non-functioning chimney to allow for an open plan and unobstructed view of and from the street. In addition, to carry the load of the bricks – approximately 10,000 [of them] – the existing floor was entirely restructured; new concrete and steel construction[s] fill the crawl space below. Imagine a structural diagram that reads like a Russian doll.’

These porous bricks, which have been arranged in herringbone and pinwheel brick bond patterns in the walls and flooring of the store, are a mainstay of local alley façades and regarded as an economical material.

‘As its name implies, the Chicago Common brick is both local and ever-present in the city. Owing to its low cost, high strength, irregular colouration and unequal dimensions (no two bricks are identical) it was the brick of choice for alley façades, [though] never street fronts, from 1871 through 1981, when it was last manufactured,’ the duo adds. ‘Historically, architects like Frank Lloyd Wright have been trying to elevate its ‘common’ rank by exposing it in unlikely places. We wish to add to this material history by packing the brick’s bespoke qualities into two non-load bearing brick bonds: herringbone and pinwheel.'

Black steel shelves and alcoves laid into these brick walls serve as simple, eye-catching product displays, while low-profile armoires made from black-stained white oak serve as stylish cash desks and demonstration areas.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website

ADDRESS

Aesop Bucktown
1653 North Damen Avenue
Chicago 60647

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Harried workers scarper through the Bourke Street Mall, heads down, noticing neither groups of people staring nor the scene unfolding behind glass. In the windows of Myer Melbourne, one of the city’s leading department stores, the latest in Australian skincare company Aesop’s creative displays is coming to life.

Along a 50m length, four actors – dressed in white with grey aprons as if they have stepped out of a scene painted by a Dutch master – work with a flowing length of fabric, representing the skin. ‘It’s an abstract interpretation of the rituals that are important in caring for the skin,’ says head of creative Marsha Meredith of the piece, entitled Derma. ‘The key emphasis is on the nutrition and fortification of the skin.’

The performers play the part of a tailor, appraiser, conservator and curator. The tailor sits at a vintage Victor treadle sewing machine using it and a needle to stitch pieces of fabric together. In the window farthest away, the conservator carefully drapes the derma’s length. Each spare scene represents part of the skin’s life cycle. Every action is precise, perfected during two weeks of rehearsals with New York-based artist Iván Sikic. The accompanying soundscape is a combination of recorded bodily functions and the noises picked up by contact microphones within the window. When the conservator places a Petri dish of derma, a bottle, test tubes and tweezers on a metal bench, the noise clatters onto the street. The effect is surprisingly meditative.

Accompanying the performances, which take place for 90 minutes twice a day until 31 May, are smaller displays, a tribute to the cabinet of curiosities, viewed through small openings. ‘The four small windows each house something that’s meant to make us contemplate skin,’ says Carolyn Jackson, Aesop’s head of visual merchandising. ‘The snakeskin,’ she adds, standing before one, ‘represents the constant regeneration of skin.’

The unveiling of the window coincides with the Australian launch of Aesop’s latest product, 'Parsley Seed Anti-Oxidant Facial Hydrating Cream', and prefaces a project to be revealed in 2017. ‘The broader conversation that’s going to play out is about the impact of the environment of your skin,’ says Meredith, ‘and the role skincare takes in protecting you against environmental factors.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aesop website

ADDRESS

Myer Melbourne
314–336 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000

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Snøhetta has been busy of late. As well as unveiling the highly anticipated San Francisco Museum of Modern Art extension and polishing off the landscape design of Lund’s MAX IV laboratory, the Oslo-based design and architecture practice has now also launched a new signature store for Australian beauty brand Aesop in Singapore. 

Their second designer boutique in Singapore, Aesop ION also marks the fourth Snøhetta-designed Aesop store globally (adding to their tally in Oslo, Berlin and Singapore).

Mace pink walls brighten up the space and complement the brass accents of the boutique, which include functional elements like a long sales counter and a trio of sinks, gleaming under the overhead lighting. 

The rather sparse decor at eye level – the focus is kept on the products and their packaging – is the mirror opposite of the ceiling, which is covered in timber battens of different lengths, tones and materials, described as ‘an upside-down forest’; hanging down to form walls that curve throughout the space like trunks in a grove. The intentional forest motif pay tribute to the store’s location, Orchard Road, which was once a nutmeg plantation. 

In short, it is nothing less than we’d expect from Aesop. Or Snøhetta, for that matter.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Aesop’s website

Photography courtesy of Aesop

ADDRESS

Aesop ION
#B3-66/66A ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Singapore 238801

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Australian skincare brand Aesop is the whole package. Actually, 'skincare' is perhaps a reductive term given the brand's exploded remit, that now also comprises organic deodorants, fragrances, burning oils and timeless shaving ephemera – but either way, the label's efficacious plant- and lab-born products would be top-tier even without the irresistible minimal design of its packaging and the organic, design-led interiors of its stores.

A new outpost in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo – Aesop also has stores in Tokyo, New York, London, Melbourne, and more – is a defacto apex for a brand with an irrefutable knack for retail architecture. 

Spanning a modest 48.6 sq m, the Stellar Place store interior channels both Sapporo city and the broader Hokkaido Prefecture's benign, poetic landscape – from white birch forests to fog-washed mountains, silhouetted above the city itself.

It's a wilfully lofty – and perhaps sentimental – remit, keenly realised by Koichi Futatusmata and Ritsu Shibata of the Fukuoka-based design firm Case-Real (with lighting design by Branch's Tatsuki Nakamura). 

Striving for an aura simultaneously 'dynamic but somehow fragile, with a sense of roughness but also delicate', the duo harnessed Sapporo freestone as the space's key material. An easily-mined and lightweight volcanic tuff, freestone has been used as a public building material in Hokkaido for over a century; in its smooth and roughly unrefined forms (both are utilised here), the rock is simultaneously practical and highly evocative of its regional environs. 

The light grey expanse is offset with shelves and fixtures in vibration finish stainless steel, together creating a muted, refined space that screams gallery more than concession. That the products themselves – here reconstituted as 'man-made artifacts co-existing with the harsh side of nature' – remain a focus is testament to Aesop's ever-ascendent identity.

The lofty design brief has been keenly realised by Koichi Futatusmata and Ritsu Shibata of the Fukuoka-based design firm Case-Real – with lighting design by Branch's Tatsuki Nakamura

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Aesop’s website

Photography: Takumi Ota

ADDRESS

Aesop
JR Tower East 2F
Sapporo Stellar Place
Kita 5-jo Nishi 2-chome, 060-0005

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Australian natural skincare brand Aesop is serving up a new treat: facial treatments. 

Showcasing their cult favourite formulations in the best way possible (by mixing up them for you personally in their in-store laboratory) the new service arrived to London's Richmond. 

Starting with a pre-treatment skin consultation, one of six different directions follow, with most of the concoctions being whipped up in the large basins in each treatment room. The attic of the Richmond store houses a beautiful bathroom, a homely consultation living room, as well as the vast treatment room itself; it feels like a botanist's private laboratory. Ticking away too is an immense steamer that adds to the atmosphere of experimentation and precision. Hidden upstairs from the store in Richmond, the treatment centre occupies the top floor apartment. (There is also a kitchen where guest chefs come in for a supper club style dinners on the floor below.) 

The Aesop treatments each have a clear, almost clinical, purpose – aside from relaxation. Whether to detoxify, re-lactate or hydrate the skin before long-haul flights or travel to a hot climate, the facial treatments developed by Aesop are bespoke and leave no stone unturned. Treatments are followed by an intense head and shoulder massage. 

Available in Hamburg, Melbourne, Sydney and now London, the treatments have been in the mix for quite some time, but have finally made their mark in Richmond as a further dimension to their already coveted services.

INFORMATION

Signature facials: Lactate Surge, £95; Ascorbic Action, £75, Skin Quench, £75; Double Edge, £75; Detox Overhaul, £75; Parsley Seed Intensive, £75

For more information, visit Aesop’s website

ADDRESS

Aesop Richmond
19 King Street
Richmond TW9 1ND 

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In a design-led response to the threat of online retail, luxury fashion houses are riding the new wave of bold minimalistic store fit-outs. They have invested in expensive and weighty materials including marble, steel, bronze and brass, perhaps to convey a sense of strength and permanence.

On the flipside, Aesop – the cult Australian skin, hair and body care company distinguished by its use of both plant-based and laboratory made ingredients – continues to build its empire with approximately 112 uniquely different stores operating across the world. Many are positioned outside retail hubs and incorporate fit-outs using utilitarian, natural, and in some cases, discarded materials.

'The majority of our designs are with local architects who understand the environment in which a store will trade and therefore will be sympathetic to the light, climate and streetscape, but also how customers shop and use retail spaces,' affirms Michael O’Keefe, Aesop’s CEO.

Designed under the leadership of Shinichiro Ogata, the serene Kyoto store eloquently demonstrates the site-specific nature each store possesses. The stark black and white space draws inspiration from the simplistic design of 'Machiya' townhouses and the vertical alignment of Japanese text. A black mesh curtain hangs in the entrance with rows of floating brown Aesop bottles turned on their sides like calligraphic scrolls.

In contrast, vibrant mint and emerald tiles line the walls and floors of the clinical Mitte store in Berlin. Weiss-Heiten Design pays homage to the city's Bauhaus ties with feature lighting, and its tiled U-Bahn stations. Yet entering the green-dappled space also evokes the feeling of stepping into a forest clearing.

'Our desire to create uncluttered, harmonious environments is driven from architectural sensibilities, and a notion that rejects the sameness of globalisation and retail norms. This work speaks for us, and perhaps could be considered a form of advertising. Our clients respect us for rejecting more commercial avenues,' explains Aesop’s creative director, Marsha Meredith. Notably, the cult beauty brand doesn’t use the promotional mechanisms that the beauty industry is renowned for: celebrity endorsements, product sampling, or gift with purchase.

Architects and designers are granted a high level of creative freedom, yet the common denominator amongst their brief is finding novel ways of displaying products. Examples include: thousands of timber planks jutting out from walls; hammered rows of nail shelves; and a multitude of drawers in an antique archival desk pulled open to reveal bottles, jars and clusters of coloured tubes. Most ingenious is the Nolita, New York, store that utilises 2,800 copies of the New York Times cut into strips then stacked and bound for wall cladding. The notion of layered history is incorporated in the feature wall of oak shelves densely stocked with products in serial order.

In response to customers requesting a book chronicling their shops and their design details, Aesop launched a digital archive called the 'Taxonomy of Design' in October of this year. It features a selection of its stores worldwide, profiling their designers, and includes filmed interviews. Materials and furnishings used are also credited as inspiration for home decoration.

An appreciation for the arts is emphasised in every part of the business – from literary and philosophical quotes on packaging to a series of online city guides that celebrate rare and offbeat discoveries. Aēsop’s monthly EDM’s and website strive to nourish the intellect and sensibilities of their customer with book reviews and eclectic cultural event listings. Adding an online store seems more like an afterthought. Yet, ingeniously, Aesop builds strong brand loyalty through shared values.

INFORMATION

For more information, see the Aesop wesbite

Marking the tenth anniversary of their seasonal Gift Kits, cult beauty brand Aesop is reaching for the stars this month with their Maps of Light celestial offerings.

Their new kits containing varied face and body care products, slickly packaged in re-usable black tins, are ambitiously themed around six of the eighty-eight ‘modern’ constellations: Auriga, Cepheus, Perseus, Andromeda, Delphinus and Cassiopeia. Each is wrapped in a striking sleeve that graphically represents its respective constellation and provides information about its Greek mythological associations.

'Our preference is to add value to the festive season with intelligent content and design over more traditional promotional techniques,' explains Aesop’s Creative Director, Marsha Meredith.

The 2015-16 range offers two face care kits collectively comprising serums, creams and masques from the Classic and Parsley Seed families, whilst three body kits combine cleansers and hand balms plus a trio of the popular Geranium Leaf products. Skin and body care staples for men including a hydrating post-shave lotion complete the range.

'It was important for us to make a link between the Greek myth and product selection,' adds Meredith. Associations are subtle and eloquent. The constellation of Auriga references an Ancient Greek charioteer’s helmet, so the kit’s face and body essentials fittingly provide the essential natural ‘armour’ required to embrace the outdoor elements. Cassiopeia, a regal kit comprising rich anti-oxidant Parsley Seed products, befits the story of a queen who believed her beauty surpassed that of the sea nymphs and attracted the wrath of the sea god Poseidon.

INFORMATION
Available internationally at Aesop signature stores, selected stockists and at Aesop online from November

Photography: Courtesy of Aesop

Aesop’s slick new São Paulo store is the first foray into the Latin American market for the cult Australian skincare brand, whose careful branding also extends to a made to measure approach to the design of each shop. The premise of this latest project was a desire to create a seamless transition between the store and its surroundings, free of partitioning where possible and providing uninterrupted views of the interior from the street by way of vast glass panes.

The project is a collaborative effort between Pritzker and Mies Van de Rohe prize winning Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes and Metro Associated Architects. Utilising the kind of locally sourced, everyday materials – such as concrete, glass and paint – usually employed in civil construction, the team’s sensitive and imaginative approach has created a functional elegance with meticulous detailing and finish, the hardy materials offset by artisanal patterned cement tiles more commonly associated with residential properties. The store has a dual frontage, with the main entrance located on Rua Oscar Freire, both providing great street-side visibility of the interiors.

One of the salient features is the impressive counter located in the sales area, a central cylinder fashioned out of exposed polished concrete which was cast in situ and cantilevered from a painted steel cylinder for support. Three squat pillars act as display plinths for the brand’s apothecary style bottles, each fashioned from raw concrete and peppered with air bubbles trapped during casting. Multi-shelved display units sit against mirrored walls to invoke an even greater sense of space.

ADDRESS

Aesop
Rua Oscar Freire
540 – Jardim America
São Paulo, 01409-003

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Our longstanding love affair with the Aussie skincare label, goes far beyond its conscious formulations and pretty packaging. The individualized, design savvy approach that the company takes towards each of its boutiques is enough to push any cynic clean over the edge.

Over the last 28 years, Aesop has carefully assembled an array of un-missable stores by working with a range of emerging architects to create separate identities for each outpost. The fruits of its creative efforts have now been immortalized as a microsite called , an online archive of stores that showcases the creative processes, materials and features of each location – perfect for those who can’t visit all in person.

Each boutique is presented with a vivid description, along with sumptuous images of the materials used in the space and its trademark features. From the white oak-lined  in Boston to the pink walled , located in an old Victorian manor house, each space is a distinctive treasure to behold.

The site also features a series of film interviews with partner architects and designers, such as , who created a reverent, church-like space for the Prinsengate boutique in Oslo, and  and  who designed a modernist interior for the Sao Paolo store. Easily organized by locale, materials or signature features, the site is a seductive visual glossary that spins the conventions of retail architecture and design on its head.

INFORMATION

Website

Launching worldwide in September, Tacit will only be Aesop’s second perfume (if you don’t count the long-discontinued Marrakech and Mystra), but this being Aesop there won’t be lots of razzmatazz. Everyone’s favourite Australian skincare brand likes to do things quietly, and Tacit – which means 'what’s left unsaid' – captures the essence of Aesop pretty well.

Created by New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances perfumer Céline Barel, Tacit is an intriguing take on a classic eau de cologne, though with grapefruit-like Japanese yuzu replacing the usual lemony opening, and basil leaves taking the place of rosemary and lavender at its herbaceous heart.

The result is a fresh, unsweetened unisex scent, with a touch of the bracing vermouth dryness of Haitian vetiver, extracted from the root of a tropical grass. But this is no ordinary vetiver: instead, Barel has used IFF-LMR’s trademarked Vetiver Heart – a cleverly smoothed-out version of traditional vetiver oil, using hydro distillation followed by fractional distillation to extract its usual earthy smell, leaving its slightly bitter dryness intact.

Tacit comes as a 50ml eau de parfum (the fragrance industry’s slightly vague term for a solution containing around 10–20 per cent pure perfume) in Aesop’s standard brown glass bottles. Despite the concentration it doesn’t outstay its welcome; in fact, we'd personally like it to last a bit longer. The packaging is rather more extravagant: a slim card box decorated by Australian artist Jonathan McCabe, which nestles inside a chunkier brown box, lidded with a card, which in turn slides inside a brown card sleeve.

Tacit is unlikely to turn heads on the street, but that’s not what Aesop’s about: it’s sexy but well-mannered and discreet, which pretty much sums up the brand. Try it for yourself in-store from September onwards.

Australian generative artist and designer Jonathan McCabe created a short video inspired by Aesop's new fragrance, converting information inputs into algorithms that direct movement of colour and pattern. Courtesy of Aesop