Beauty retailer HARMAY‘s Shanghai’s Xintiandi location is the second in the city for the brand. In this latest beauty store you’ll find face masks, mascara and body cream alongside dairy products, vegetables and other fresh goods. The store carries the brand’s own line of cosmetics fragrances, but also items from a range of foreign brands, such as Dermalogica, Botanist, Rose et Marius and SG79|STHLM.

The design is inspired by local wet markets that used to be in the area and is an ongoing spatial strategy of Harmay. Spread across two floors in the middle of a popular shopping area, the interior design was made by Shanghai-based architecture practice AIM Architecture. Large windows let daylight in, but also enable the displayed merchandise to gain full attention from an abundance of foot traffic.

A staircase of seemingly stacked slabs of concrete is flanked on two sides by tiled up walls which give away the aesthetic on the second floor. Here, shoppers first encounter a sizable steel cage filled exclusively with beauty products which have not been tested on animals. The floor is clad in entirely in white tiles and furnished with open faced tables and tall painted steel shelves serving as both storage and display. 

Since HARMAY started out as an online retailer and the company’s turnover is largely based on online sales, the store also serves as an e-commerce fulfillment site.