Pink Moon Pops Up In Manhattan’s Upper West Side To Preview A Permanent Clean Beauty Store Expected Next Year

It seems like Manhattan has everything, but it doesn’t—at least not yet.

The borough lacks a multi-brand clean beauty and wellness boutique in the Upper West Side, a gap indie beauty consultancy Pink Moon and skincare brand Prim Botanicals are joining forces to fill, initially with a three-day pop-up starting Friday and, next year, with a permanent location. Called Pink Moon, the spot of the permanent location hasn’t been finalized yet, but it’s expected to occupy at least 1,200 square feet.

“We really want to be a one-stop shop where women can go and buy products for themselves, their kids, their husbands, their dogs and their homes. Normally in Manhattan, if you want to do all those things, you have to go to several different shops,” says Lin Chen, founder of the consultancy Pink Moon and co-founder of the retailer bearing its name. “It’s a place where the retail selection is carefully curated to help women at every life stage live cleaner, more sustainable lifestyles, and where she can escape the daily stresses of life. When you walk in, you will feel immediately transformed.”

Aside from its clean beauty and wellness retail deficiency, the Upper West Side appeals to Pink Moon because it has an affluent population that’s skewed toward women and has a bumper crop of mothers. There are roughly 214,000 Upper West Siders, 57% of whom are women and 6.2% of whom gave birth within the last year. That means there are 7,200 new moms. Pregnancy and recent parenthood are transition periods that often cause women to reevaluate their beauty routines and turn to clean beauty.

What the moms will find at Pink Moon is a prestige, tailored selection of primarily skincare products paired with services that aren’t commonplace. The 300-square-foot pop-up will showcase merchandise from 10 eco-conscious beauty brands: 5YINA, Cupid & Psyche, Activist Collective, Lhamour, Hellen, Malaya Organics, Moss Skincare, Strange Bird, MO MI Beauty and, of course, Prim Botanicals. Ursa Major, Earthwise Beauty and Leahlani Skincare will be in the mix once the permanent location debuts.

“We really want to be a one-stop shop where women can go and buy products for themselves, their kids, their husbands, their dogs and their homes.”

“We’re not going to have 100 different brands, and our staff will make sure they know each product intimately,” says Chen. “We really want to change the entire customer experience, and be an advocate for moms and busy women as they try to live cleaner, more sustainable lives. We won’t tell them they need 10 different products to solve their acne and aging concerns.”

Pink Moon zeroes in on woman-owned clean beauty and wellness brands with ethical practices across their operations from ingredient sourcing to employee relations. Chen explains it tests products thoroughly before bringing them into the store and likes to have conversations with founders to fully understand formulas to be able to communicate about them properly to customers. Although the store will stock a few relatively recognizable brands, the brands will be primarily smaller than those carried by clean beauty retailers such as Credo, The Detox Market and Follain, which all have New York units.

The services set for the Pink Moon pop-up are a preview of the services that will be on the menu at the future store. The pop-up will have aromatherapy sessions conducted by wellness practitioner Hellen Yuan, founder of bath product brand Hellen; life coaching from Tina Chow Rudolf, a counselor and founder of skincare brand Strange Bird; and mini gua sha facials, and scalp and hand massages performed by aesthetician Arianna Neri.

At the permanent location, Pink Moon will have services Chen describes as “journeys” lasting 30, 60 or 90 minutes featuring facial acupuncture, head massages and gua sha. CBD facial oil, hand massages, aromatherapy blends and Reiki energy work will be incorporated in the services as well. They will be offered a la carte or via two tiers of membership probably priced at $70 and $130 monthly. Memberships provide a journey per month, discounts on purchases and additional services, personalized shopping experiences, and access to events.

“We really want to know our customers on a personal level, not just be behind a computer processing their orders.”

“We want to create a total sensorial wellness experience and having these custom journeys will be important for that, especially if a woman is just coming to relax,” says Chen. “There are enough facial studios that focus on the message of getting rid of your wrinkles and acne. We want to focus on the positive message of skin healing.”

Pink Moon’s forthcoming pop-up will mark Chen’s fifth temporary retail installation. She secured its space, at 249 W 60th St., on Storefront, where she notes its price of $600 to $900 per day was affordable compared to spaces priced at $6,000 per day. The location on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building has a fireplace, and is meant to be a cozy environment for perusing beauty and wellness merchandise. Over the course of four pop-ups, Chen has learned that Facebook and Instagram advertising isn’t effective to drive pop-up traffic. To raise awareness this time, she’s spreading the word in Facebook Groups chockfull of Upper West Side moms and tapping the networks of the brands involved.

Prior to opening its permanent location about a year from now, Pink Moon hopes to raise roughly $1 million through an iFund Women crowdfunding campaign in the first quarter of 2020 and subsequent angel investment. It’s already developed the look of the store that will be simultaneously retro and Instagrammable. The color palette will include pink, purple and pale yellow, and the atmosphere will be tranquil.

At the moment, Chen is concentrating on getting the pop-up underway. She singles out Lhamour’s Hand Butter and Activist Collective’s Sea to Skin Cleansing Gel as possible bestsellers at it. For the fall and winter, products formulated to address dehydrated skin should be popular, but she also mentions products intended to calm and boost mental health such as Hellen’s Bath Brews could be big for gifts. The primary goal of the pop-up is to interact with women who could become customers of the permanent Pink Moon outpost.

“Beauty is so emotional, and it’s great to connect with your customers and be able to talk about it with them. Skincare goes much deeper than skin concerns. People’s issues can be tied to what is going on in their lives,” says Chen. “We really want to know our customers on a personal level, not just be behind a computer processing their orders.”