When You're Here You're FAMILY

Stop scrolling. Maybe the beauty community you're looking for is in your back yard.

- JAMIE ROSEN

In August some not-so-good beauty news broke, with closures (Farfetch Beauty), bank ruptcies (Biotech firm Amyris, which shuttered Costa Brazil and Onda), and shake-ups (Brooklyn’s Shen Beauty moving online).

Yet the beauty space has never been more crowded. Isn’t someone you know starting a line? As soon as a product goes viral, 14 dupes are immediately spawned. But where are the shoppers who aren’t looking exclusively for trending lip gloss going? It’s closer than you think, and it’s not always happening online.

Call them the Neighborhood Wonders: select beauty retailers that balance familiarity with global curation, a physical location (no more than five branches, usually accompanied by a robust digital and social operation), hyperpersonalized service, and the one unsexy thing no overnight sensation can claim: trust.