Beauty products in Moscow

A guide to the best beauty stores in Moscow

Over the course of the recent years Moscow has seen the appearance of a number of beauty stores that invite the customer to do away with the well-established luxury and pharmacy makeup brands to experience something new. Both beauty product powerhouses and niche brands, that no one really had a clue about in Russia a mere decade ago, are eager to conquer the market and usually start their campaigns from the capital city.

The American Kiehl's, for example, have opened 5 stores in Moscow alone in a matter of 3 years. The UK-based Rouge Bunny Rouge have secured their Moscow retail space as well. Cosmotheca, a dynamically developing domestic retail chain has been introducing us to a range of American and Western European designer makeup and fragrance brands since its inception 7 years ago. The world famous Tangle Teezer hairbrushes from the UK, Marvis toothpastes from Italy, beautyblender makeup sponges from the USA, and the like flooded Russian beauty product stores overnight: they are available just about everywhere from major online retailers like Pudra to small showroms like Bling-Blings.

Apart from Cosmotheca, we recommend you to shop for products by luxury fragrance brands at the LeForm concept store that stocks uncommon and the lesser known scents alongside all-time favorites by Comme des Garcons. In contrast, Articoli and TSUM target the more conservative customer. Perfume by niche European brands is made available by the somewhat old-fashioned MayFair "living room boutique".

As for makeup stores, apart from MAC, Inglot, and NYX, there're WYCON, Kiko Milano, and Urban Decay. The latter three brands made their foray into Moscow as recently as 2016. Products by all of them are reasonably priced and come in a comprehensive range of shades.

Local makeup brands, however, haven't lagged behind them. Sergey Naumov started out as a customized lipstick specialist. Nowadays, its modest yet unique product range features adhesive eyeliners patches and jet black eyeshadows with a wet metallic effect among other niceties. Promakeup Laboratory is another local makeup brand worth its name, while the Moscow-based Honey Bunny puts emphasis on making shampoos and conditioners of simple yet effective formulas.

As for Russian online stores, definitely give a try to Organic Mania, Tomodachi, Brities, and You Need It. Organic Mania carries over 50 organic makeup brands. Tomodachi is an importer of Japanese makeup right here in Russia. Just as one would expect, Brities sells products by UK brands. You Need It focuses on beauty bestsellers And by no means neglect ecommerce heavyweights like Pudra and Strawberrynet.