Honest Beauty Pop Up Shop Review

Note from Liz: Yay! I'm so excited to introduce the first post from forum moderator Chris on the blog!

Liz is a big fan of The Honest Company. So much, in fact, that MSA picks a monthly winner of a $100 Honest Co. gift card from the list of newsletter subscribers. Although my family hasn’t been using Honest products as long as she has, we like everything we have used from them so far.

The company launched its newest line, Honest Beauty, a couple of weeks ago. When they announced a pop up shop would be coming to The Grove in Los Angeles for six months beginning September 25th, I immediately knew I wanted to go.

So early the first morning the shop opened, I hopped into my car and headed north one county. Because I was super excited and you never know how LA traffic will be, I got there early. Very early.

There I saw the most permanent-looking pop up shop I have ever seen.

Since they were nice enough to give me a sticker to mark my place in line, I looked around the farmer’s market next door a bit and then found a great spot to hang out just steps from the Honest Beauty shop. If I was going to wait, I might as well wait in style.

Since I was one of the first 50 people in line on opening day, I received this cute makeup bag:

Here is a quick tour of the shop itself.

On each side walking into the shop.

Looking in.

Along the left wall.

Checkout counter.

On the front wall.

From the back wall looking into the shop.

Display cases on the back wall.

You can try any products you want. The shop has large photos all along the back wall showing Honest Beauty products being used to create a wide range of looks.

Most of the time I personally prefer to have a simple, classic look.

They have makeup stations in the middle of the shop where they will help you try anything you want. Everything was well-sanitized—trust me, I pay attention to this—and they even had outlets to charge your phone or whatever you wanted while you were there. They seem to have thought through the small details in this shop. (Rumor has it that makeup brushes are in the works.)

My makeup artist, Delrissa, was super sweet and helpful. (I found out she is an MSA reader. How cool is that?) I wasn’t sure where to even begin and she offered to do the works. Who am I to turn down an offer like that? Awesome.

Before with no makeup or filter:

After with makeup, no filter:

I am wearing Everything Cream Foundation in Linen, Eye Shadow Trio in Soft Sand, Truly Lush Mascara + Eye Primer, True Velvet Eyeliner in Truly Cocoa and Truly Gold (layered, who knew?), Truly Kissable Lip Crayon – Sheer in Rose Kiss, Crème Blush in Truly Exciting, and a touch of the Magic Balm for a little glow. (I apologize that it is difficult to see the Magic Balm in my photos.) Side note: Everyone else there at the time seemed to favor the Chestnut Kiss lip crayon shade.

Per the FAQs on their website, Honest Beauty products “are made without any questionable ingredients, such as parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde carriers, PEGs, MCI/MI, steareth-n, synthetic fragrances, propylene glycol, butylene glycol, petrolatum, mineral oil, SLS, SLES, sulfates and chemical sunscreens.”

I noticed that everyone was super helpful and seemed excited to be there. While Delrissa was working, I also found out some kind of interesting behind-the-scenes information about The Honest Company. Apparently they treat their employees like family and anyone who has an idea or suggestion is encouraged to share it with everyone else. They do a lot of thinking as a team and frequent teambuilding activities. They have a fully stocked kitchen at their office and can bring their dogs to work with them. Sounds great to me. The employees were also excited because they had been working on Honest Beauty for several years and were anxious to see the public getting to try the products.

Jessica Alba, one of the co-founders of the company, was not at the shop while I was there. I was told she had been there all day the day before and will be at the pop up shop from time to time so if you stop by you may meet her.

One of the things I found most interesting in the shop itself was the two interactive tablets that can take a live video feed of you and show a particular makeup look of your choice virtually applied to you in real time.

And then there is the secret door. You know I had to see what was behind there.

Behind the door is a small room with a place to sit and a photo booth area where you can take a picture of yourself with whatever makeup look you want digitally applied to you. Even as someone who never takes selfies, I have to admit it was fun to play around with that a bit.

I wasn’t sure what the Magic Balm was for at first but the name intrigued me. As it turns out, you can use the balm for practically everything: face, lips, nails, probably a lot more. I have been using it on all of those regularly for over a week now and it looks like there is hardly any gone from the container. I am also a bit obsessed with the packaging of that item. I purchased some Magic Balm and Truly Kissable Lip Crayon – Sheer in Rose Kiss while I was at the shop.

They place your shop purchases in a small, reusable tote bag.

I plan to include the Everything Cream Foundation – Linen, Magic Balm, and Beyond Protected Daily Beauty Fluid SPF 30 that I sampled earlier from the trial kit I ordered the first day Honest Beauty launched in my first beauty bundle. An Honest Beauty subscription contains a bundle which is $50 for 3 products of your choice and includes free shipping. You can also add up to 5 more items at 25% off to each bundle. It is a monthly subscription but you can make changes to the delivery schedule on the company website if you want to.

I would like to see Honest Beauty either include a blister pack or find some way to add sample foundation shades to their trial kit. Hopefully they will do this soon. Right now unless you go to their popup shop, you find your appropriate foundation and/or tinted moisturizer shades by looking at the different photos on their website and finding which one looks closest to your skin tone. If you are trying to decide which of two different shades would work better for you, I can tell you the darker one worked better for me. If you end up choosing a shade that is not a good match for you, Honest Beauty’s customer care will exchange it for you. I have not done this myself but have contacted them for assistance a couple of times and had good experiences when I did.

If you can stop by the pop up shop, I would recommend doing so—it is pretty fun. If you aren’t near LA and are interested in trying Honest Beauty, give it a shot online. I was a fan of The Honest Company’s products before and visiting the shop and being introduced to a lot more of the new line only increased my enthusiasm.