Beauty lovers and retail experts hail first Sephora store on island of Ireland

Beauty lovers and retail experts have hailed the opening of the first Sephora store on the island of Ireland as “fantastic”.

Shoppers queued around the Victoria Square in Belfast on Thursday morning hours ahead of the store’s 1pm opening time.

Belfast Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly, content creators including Annalivia McGivern, Billykiss Azeez and Kayleigh Trappe and Harley Street dermatologist and skincare brand founder Dr Sam Bunting, from nearby Donaghadee, Co Down, were among special guests who previewed the store.

Cool FM presenter and stylist Rebecca McKinney led entertainment for the crowd during the build-up, and snacks such as local favourite yellow man honeycomb were handed out to those waiting.

Sephora staff danced in front of the store before gathering with special guests for the final countdown and ribbon cutting

The store is 2,550 sq ft and has been touted as a beauty playground with make-up services on offer as well as products on sale.

It brings a number of internet viral brands which are exclusively available in Sephora to the island of Ireland for the first time.

These include Hailey Bieber’s rhode and Lady Gaga’s Haus Labs, as well as Makeup By Mario, Merit Beauty, INNBeauty Project and Tower 28.

Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Retail NI, said it was great news for the city centre, describing a destination retailer that will attract shoppers to travel to the Northern Ireland capital.

“It’s a fantastic investment, not just in Victoria Square and the city centre, but this is the first store on the island and Scotland, so it will quickly become a destination retailer,” he said.

“We’ve had so many bad headlines about stores closing, it’s actually really good to be here this morning at a store opening.

“It shows there is light at the end of the tunnel for the challenges that our high streets face.

Clare Guinness, chief executive of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, said it had been a coup to secure the first Sephora on the island over Dublin.

“It’s terrific to have Sephora in Belfast, we’re so delighted to welcome them. It’s a global brand we can normally only visit on holiday, we can now visit in our own city,” she said.

“And what’s exciting is, it obviously appeals to people like me in middle age, but also my 13-year-old daughter is excited too, so you’ve got cross-generational appeal.

Sarah Boyd, managing director of Sephora UK, said opening the store has been two and a half years in the making.

She also hinted at potential further store openings on the island if the Belfast store is as successful as they expect.

“We’re beyond excited to be here, and we have the most incredible team all hired locally,” she said.

Asked what had swayed the decision to open in Belfast, Ms Boyd described looking at cities, and for vibrant beauty communities that are maybe a little under-served.

“Belfast was one of the places that really early in the process came up as somewhere that we had so much response from people saying, ‘please come to Belfast, please come to Northern Ireland and please come to Ireland’ generally,” she said.

“We knew there was that community here already, and as soon as I visited a couple of years ago, I knew that it was going to be a great home for us here.

“At the moment all of the other stores opening this year are all either in England or Scotland, but if the response here is overwhelming, then of course we’ll be looking at more locations.”