August 10, 2015

Fun Places You Probably Never Thought To Shop Beauty and Makeup At

unique obscure makeup beauty

I like obscure beauty and makeup brands! I like indie brands, I like little niche brands, and I like brands that you may have never heard of or even used. You might think I’m referring to Korean or Japanese brands but nope, I’m not.

I’m actually talking about brands like Dianne Brill, 4160 Tuesdays, Johnson and Johnson’s skincare, and more.

So here are fun places you probably never thought to shop beauty at and where you can discover a plethora of makeup, beauty, and fragrance brands you may never even have heard of!

LuckyScent
LuckyScent can only be described as the crème de la crème of the fragrance world. From niche to indie to high end brands like Annick Goutal (a favorite of mine!) and 4160 Tuesday this is the end all shop for all your fragrance needs. I have a huge obsession with interesting, unique, and obscure fragrance and Luckyscent is truly the perfect location to get my fix!

Smallflower
Two locations, one online store, and 140 years of history makes up Smallflower which sells personal care items, makeup, beauty, and health products from brands like Outremer (aka L’Aromarine), Diptyque, Perfumeria Gal, and more!

Beauty Habit
Brands like Paul & Joe, Rouge Bunny Rouge, and the entire line of Dianne Brill Cosmetics call Beauty Habit home. This incredible online store sells some of thee most interesting indie, high end, and niche makeup and fragrance brands imaginable. It’s a beauty and makeup mecca for those who like unique products!

Indie Scents

One of my favorite online stores for scoring incredible deals on new niche and indie brand fragrances like 4160 Tuesdays, Tokyo Milk, and Imaginary Authors. Best part? You can buy complete decant fragrance sets to try plus they have an incredible rewards program!

The Vermont Country Store
Mail order is fabulously fun when you’re shopping it from the Vermont Country Store! Old school remedies, penny candy, and yes, even beauty and makeup can be purchased here including BB Cream, Johnson and Johnson’s Skincare, and other vintage finds like Max Factor Pan Stick makeup and 1960’s Coty Fragrances.

Feel Unique
Feel Unique not only gives us access to Bourjois Paris but also a range of Maybelline and L’Oreal products not available in the US and exclusive to Asia and even Europe! This fun shop carries items like high end fragrances and budget friendly makeup pieces that can’t be purchased in any store!

Feel free to share some obscure places you like to shop beauty! I’d love to hear about them!

About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

    • Isabella Muse

      yeah, when I was in London it was available too at Boots. Kinda sad it never launched at US drugstores!

      • Maria A

        I know : (, when I go back to Greece next summer I am going to snag some, or I can always ask my sister-inlaw to send : )

  • Lauren

    I LOVE Lucky Scent! I’ve ordered a bunch of samples from them, and they’ve got my Byredo 1996 Inez & Vinoodh for about $30-35 cheaper than everyone else (even the Byredo website). I’m just waiting to see if FragranceNet.com gets 1996 back in stock, since their prices tend to be really good for perfumes.

    Speaking of FragranceNet.com, I was really very surprised by the variety of higher end and/or lesser known perfumes that they have, and at very good prices, too. Annick Goutal, Serge Lutens, Byredo, Penhaligon’s, Molinard, etc. I’ve been able to find several discontinued perfumes there, too. And up until today, they were running a 25% off sale (right now it’s 20% off), so I was able to get a 50 ml bottle of Byredo Seven Veils for $88.49 (normally $118 on FragranceNet, but sells at Neiman Marcus for $145).

    • Isabella Muse

      I shop fragrancenet a lot Lauren! You are too right about the great discounts they offer on fragrances 😀 I’ve purchased fresh juice from many great brands at such amazing prices 😀 great rec!

      • Lauren

        It’s not really an obscure site, but I was always hesitant to order from them, since I thought they were like the sketchy perfume stores in strip malls, where half the stuff is counterfeit or old. One of my friends is a real perfume addict, though, and vouched for the quality. I’ve made three orders in the last few weeks and got:

        Byredo Seven Veils
        Penhaligon’s Malabah
        Bvlgari Omnia (discontinued)
        Annick Goutal Mandragore
        Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille
        Habanita De Molinard
        Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge

        I’m going to have to go on a no-buy after this, lol.

        • Isabella Muse

          I was too. For a long time I didn’t trust them. I didn’t see them at strip malls in all honesty, but just the whole online thing worried me. I ordered a single fragrance from them about a year ago, it was Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille which I was running low on and felt like being cheap and getting it from fragracenet! I had a little left over so I could compare the boxes/scents when the one arrived from fragrancenet and low and behold it was a total winner. I even cross checked date of the juice at cosmetic calculator and the bottle was only 6 months old (I was worried it was so cheap because the juice was old!!!!!). So they def are a great place to shop fragrance for less 😀 many of the members of fragrantica vouch for them too which is why I decided to order because those men and women are super serious about fragrance 🙂 Since last year I’ve placed several orders with them and have been happy. One bottle arrived broke and they had me ship it back free and within 10 days I had a new bottle! so good customer service too!

        • Isabella Muse

          PS enjoy your hauls ;-D You only live once at least smell pretty while you’re doing it hehe!!

          • Lauren

            Exactly! I’ve hauled some good stuff on Ebay lately, too, like a full bottle of discontinued Byredo Green (I’m super excited to try it), a full bottle of Tom Ford Italian Cypress for less than half retail price (and it’s real, too!), etc.

      • Nicole

        Oh crap, this place has Creed. Creed perfume is my newest obsession after a recent trip to Von Maur, and it’s so expensive! I, uh, I may have to get a bottle of Love in Black.

  • Michou

    Oh no! I got so excited that I could finally buy Dianne Brill at Beauty Habit… and can’t seem to find it on the site. Am I doing something wrong? If they don’t carry her line anymore, do you happen to know of another place I can buy her lip glosses?

    • Isabella Muse

      wow you’re right when did they stop carrying Dianne Brill!? I’m crushed! I was absolutely sobbing when they stopped carrying her fragrance but they still had her color cosmetics but apparently not anymore! I’m really sad now. You can actually contact her sales reps directly on the site. She has an excellent customer service team that ships worldwide. This is how I restock on her fragrance. They typically send me a paypal invoice for the items I want, I pay it, and they ship! 🙂 If that helps! BeautyHabit was the nicer option though as I could get free shipping and such from them! So sad…!

      • Michou

        I’ll definitely contact their sales reps to find out if there are other sites I can purchase from (or buy from them directly). Thanks for letting me know!

        • Isabella Muse

          unfortunately I haven’t found a website that sells her products and ships to the US aside directly from her website 🙁 My pleasure! Good Luck! I’m still shocked it’s no long available at beautyhabit!

  • nelle

    Fragrancenet.com is the best, they enable my seriou perfume addiction with their low prices and discounts, lol!

  • Renu

    I LOVE FeelUnique forever! Also Beauty Bay and LookFantastic. Both ship worldwide from the UK 😀

    • Isabella Muse

      All the sites are US sites aside from Feel Unique Allie, all ship within the US. Hope this helps.

  • Katherine T.

    Thanks for the info! Good to know there are ways to get some obscure beauty brands or products, but I do miss the generous return policies of the more mainstream retailers

  • Miss_silk

    Oh man…Tokyo Milk is my guilty pleasure! I love the different scents and cute compact bottles soo much that, I plan to collect them all! So fun! Too bad Sephora doesn’t carry the regular line except the “Dark” collection.

  • Stephanie Hofmann

    Try Urbanoutfitters.com too! They have some cool finds in the beauty section 🙂

  • TerriB

    I love b-glowing.com. They usually have a nice sale selection too. : )

  • Sadra

    I like to poke around overstock.com – it’s a treasure hunt, but often you can find interesting stuff on sale. For instance, right now there are MAC, BLINC and TheBalm items. Some are on sale, some full price, but it’s often worth the hunt.

    • Isabella Muse

      I agree. Overstock.com is a great hunting ground for not only makeup but a lot of different things 🙂

  • Diana

    Does the Paul & Joe cat head lipstick in the photo really exist? I can’t find it on any site that sells the brand. I’d love to get it as a gift for my sister.

    • Isabella Muse

      Yes, it was a limited edition collection they had. They might release again at some point but as of now it’s no longer available 🙁

  • Laura

    6pm.com has some good deals on cosmetics sometimes, also Hautelook has some good brands now and then. Also kohls.com carries some Creed fragrances online and coupons work on them!

  • Michelle Flamingo

    I had to google what indie makeup is. I never heard of it before! 😀
    Very interesting! I had no idea!

  • Justin

    Omg how come I’ve never seen this post of yours before I love it! I’m bookmarking all the stores I’ve never seen before. You’re the best Miss Muse