Do you remember the last time you went into a shop to buy a beauty product? Unless it was an emergency purchase, I can’t. For many of us, that Saturday afternoon ritual of wandering through beauty aisles has been replaced by a scroll through TikTok Shop, a one-click checkout and next-day delivery. It makes sense. It’s easier, often cheaper and increasingly social—in a very online, social-media way.
TikTok Shop alone generated around $1 billion in U.S. beauty sales in 2024. And yet, the frenzy around Space NK’s Oxford Circus flagship reopening suggests the in-person thrill of beauty shopping isn’t dead. People queued for hours on launch day, and even weeks later, when I walked past, the place was still heaving.
