Frankfurt was never too shabby for serious beauty shoppers, but since the end of 2018, it’s really quite excellent. I’ll share a hidden gem, and some intel on the new Sephora and Douglas store right in the middle of the city. And do have a look at my old Frankfurt shopping guide – there is still a lot of valid info in there.
Sephora
Let’s start with a bang, shall we? Because: the new Sephora (Zeil 90) is one of the best Sephora stores I’ve been to, and that includes the ones in NYC, Singapore and the one at the Champs Elysée in Paris.
On two levels, we have one floor dedicated to makeup, and one two fragrance/skincare. There’s also some hair products, and the typical Sephora ‘experiences’: makeup service, hairstyling service, gift engraving service, personalised skincare consultation, and the Sephora Virtual Artist – a VR experience for trying out looks virtually.
Makeup brands
And oh, all the brands we waited for: Natasha Denona, Huda Beauty, Fenty Beauty, and Charlotte Tilbury, to name just a few. They also carry a lot of established beauty brands, like Estée Lauder, Shiseido, Lancome, Smashbox and Givenchy.
Their hair care section is rather small (and I’m missing Living Proof!), but there’s bumble & bumble, ouai, and the Professional line from L’Oreal.
You can not only order them online, no, you can swatch them, play with them – and typically Sephora, nobody will bother you doing that. It can, in fact, be difficult to get hold of a SA.
Fragrance/skincare
The basement is filled with fragrance and skincare. I like their organisation a lot – everything is really easy to find. There’re also a lot of little clever sub-groups: Korean skincare has its own corner, and ‘beauty brands from Germany’ as well. (Btw, speaking of German beauty brands: there’s also super high-end eco-brand und Gretel for makeup, and Muti for skincare, both of which I haven’t seen outside of their respective home bases in Berlin and Munich.) Other notable brands I’m excited to see: fresh, Tata Harper, belif, Pixi, and farsali.
Fragrances are filed by alphabet – why doesn’t Douglas do that?! There’s a a small Tom Ford counter (not stocked with all Private Blends), and Armani Prive scents, and a lot of new and upcoming fragrance brands I didn’t know about: Clean Reserve, Derek Lam Io Crosby, and of course Huda Kattan’s new fragrance line Kayali. There’re also the established brands and fragrances: Armani, YSL, Mugler, and many, many more.
And there’s my own personal kryptonite: the ‘aisle of doom’, aka mini heaven – alllll the mini sizes. They do give some samples, but it’s not like in the US – you can’t get a fresh sample from all products in store.
Latest news: There’s still no Sephora card, and Tarte is to be announced to grace the store in 2019.
Douglas (Zeil)
Douglas calls its store a few doors down (Zeil 98-100) from Sephora a ‘premium destination’ for all things beauty, and that’s the main difference to Sephora. While Sephora is play, Douglas is luxury. It’s huge (five floors) and I’m not happy to say that (most of) their SAs are still ranging from stuffy to rude to clueless. (I get incredibly annoyed by them – and they’re the reason I really don’t like shopping there.) If you get over that, you’ll experience all the big brands, and some of the smaller ones, too. Douglas stocks about everything beauty-wise, and even has a hairdresser and spa on their top floor. They have their own rewards system (get their card for free and earn points), but be aware that their prices online and in store might differ.
Beauty counters on the ground floor: Nars, Bobbi Brown, MAC, Urban Decay, Chanel, Armani, Dior, Becca, Too Faced, Tom Ford (one of the brands biggest counters), Hourglass, Laura Mercier, YSL, Zoeva and it cosmetics. They also have a huge tool selection, both of Zoeva and real techniques brushes, lashes, sponges, and many more.
Fragrance/skincare
The basement is all for men, and first floor is fragrance. Now, they have the biggest selection of luxury lines outside of Berlin’s KaDeWe I’ve ever seen, and if you’re looking for the fragrance luxury lines of Chanel, Dior, Armani, Guerlain, and Tom Ford, you’ve come to the right place. By that, I mean Les Exclusifs de Chanel, La Collection Privée Dior, the Exclusive Collection by Guerlain and Tom Ford’s Private Blends.
Also, there’s a huge Jo Malone counter, and about every other mainstream line you might be looking for. Martin Margiela? Check. Etro? Check. Acqua di Parma? Check. I don’t even start with Lauder, Burberry, Prada, Mugler and about every fragrance you can imagine.
Douglas cleverly saw that their core base of shoppers is women with a certain income (and thus, a certain age) – and decided they’ll up their game when it comes to skincare. They not only stock Deciem (and I mean about all of their brands), but also skincare supplements, a Korean assortment, and up and coming brands like Dr. Barbara Sturm, Dennis Gross and Mario Badescu (up and coming in Germany), and malin + Goetz. It doesn’t just stop there – for the women who just want luxury, they stock skincare from uber luxe La Prairie, La Mer, Chanel… and finally, there’re all the established brands in the mid-luxe-range like Kiehl’s, Clinique, and Clarins (and of course, many, many more). The hair brand selection is a bit wanting, stocking Shu Uemura, Moroccan Oil, B&B, and Olaplex. (Oh, and you can also get Dyson’s hair dryer there.)
Ursula Haas Makeup store/Famous Face Academy
This little store on the second floor of a regular building in a little side street (Brönnerstraße 11) is both hard to find, a bit weird to access, but heaven for makeup artists and people who are interested in MUA brands. They stock Ben Nye, Kryolan, Dermacolor, Grimas, Make Up For Ever – although the selection at Famous Face Academy (Roßmarkt 11) is bigger – they really have nearly everything.
But shoppers beware – this is a counter in a MUA school – you ring the bell, and have to ask to go to the shop. They’re very nice both at Haas and FFA – but the shopping atmosphere is definitely different. Best to know what you want before you go, because I found the atmosphere not really encouraging to leisurely browsing and swatching. Haas also stocks a limited selection of Viseart, and for us in Germany it’s one of the very limited options to swatch and look at Viseart instead of ordering online. Much, much appreciated.
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