Shen Beauty

YAY! My first review of 2016.
OK, to be perfectly honest, I discovered Shen Beauty earlier this year — I mean LAST year. This review totally slipped through the cracks, but boy, I couldn’t be more thrilled to start the year reviewing something I absolutely love… BEAUTY!
It’s like a breath of fresh air. Shen is the Credo before Credo existed. A natural beauty mecca that’s high-​end, stylish and comfortable. Think of one of those places where everything is so carefully crafted and curated. In fact, I had the pleasure of speaking to the owner of Shen, and she knows her sh*t.
Definitely worth the extra few stops on the subway out to BK. By the way — I used to live in Brooklyn way back in the dazaay (like a LONG time ago), and there was nothing this beautiful in my ‘hood, let me tell you.
So what will you find…
An ambiance that is open, spacious, clean, beautiful, aspirational. A range of beauty brands that are pioneers of this «new wave» of natural beauty. Don’t expect to find the hippy-​dippy granola brands. You’ll find brands like RMS, Vapor, Juara to name a few. Brands that are here to stay. On the same token, you’ll find a few of the NY-​local, cherry-​picked natural beauty products that you might not find in these neck of the woods.
Well what else can I say?
When my beauty line takes off, this is the place I want to be!

I hope this business closes sooner than later as their business practices are completely unethical. They are nasty people and by supporting this business you’re supporting pure evil. Happy holidays.

Love this place. Giving it four out of five stars because it’s pretty expensive, but the staff is wonderful. Got a facial from Carrie, and she is so knowledgable and kind. I left feeling more informed about my skin, with samples in tow, and although I looked like I’d gotten stung by a thousand bees after being punched in the face (super sensitive skin), the next day my face was blemish free and radiant. Highly recommed.

simple review: walked in, asked for a specific brand, and was told they did not have it. would be fine except the woman said it with attitude, like i should not even grace their store. for this reason alone, will never go back in. may sound harsh, but there are so many other options for these types of products.

This is a gorgeous space. It took a bit for me to get helped as someone was getting her brows done, and the other SA was busy helping a woman choose the correct shade of makeup. However, when I was finally helped the SA asked me what I was looking for. I had two specific things in mind. She was informative with both lines and had in-​depth opinions about all of the products. This tells me that the SAs, or at least the one I dealt with, actually used the products in the store in order to give customers a real-​world opinion rather than something learned at a sales meeting.
She did try to steer me in one direction even after I told her I was willing to buy all of the products I was interested in. I thought this was nice that she wanted to help me to save money. I’m not sure if the ladies survive on commission. If they do, then bless her for trying to protect my wallet.
I was offered a try-​out in the restroom at the back of the store. The restroom is a bit cluttered, but it’s still usable. One thing I was kind of surprised about is that the SA didn’t offer to try the products out on my face. This is something I’m used to in any other department store, but I guess the ladies at Shen want customers to evaluate products for themselves.
Anyway, I ended up purchasing a lot of product and joining the mailing list. This was a very nice experience!

First time I went to Shen was not so great. I even wrote a review about the experience. That was 2 years ago and after being at a friends house and using their soap I fell in a deep love and asked where it was from. When my friend said Shen I was like oh yea I know that place. I was excited to return back because I just felt it had to be a better experience plus I knew Carrie who does facials works their and shes so awesome. Both owners where there and we excellent help and we had great conversation. In fact I was on Unilocal to check their store hours to drop in today and saw my old horrible review so I had to write a good one. Yay Shen!
I like to live in the moment and I don’t want to hold my bad experience against enjoying this store!

they are sooooooo rude and incompetent. I would never shop here. The products are over priced and they know nothing about customer service. I really suggest you go somewhere else

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Carrie who works at Shen Beauty as an eyebrow and skin care specialist. I am very particular about my eyebrows and have had a hard time for 3 years to find anyone in Brooklyn who can shape them exactly how I want them to be. I would travel out of Brooklyn just so I can get them waxed. After making an appointment with Carrie (right here in my neighborhood) I found that she was very patient and as meticulous and I am when it came to eyebrows. I am happy to say I found a phenomenal eyebrow shaping expert close to my home.
Carrie’s expertise does not stop there she has spent so much time to really talk about my skin and what is the best regimen we can come up with in order to truly get to optimal skin. She goes above and beyond any esthetician I have met. She works with you and tackle skin issues both with her skin care knowledge and experience. She has even gone out of her way to contact me to check in to see how a product is working. I have been blown away by her dedication to her craft. I am pleased to have met Carrie and happy to have her handle my eyebrow and skin care needs.
With that being said, someone as wonderful as Carrie would not work along side less than a magnificent team. The team at Shen has been more than helpful in regards to skincare as well. Their products are all one of a kind and the combination of the products Shen sells, employees such as Carrie and the rest of the team Shen is a go to for me for all my beauty needs and I would suggest it to anyone else as their go to as well.
Thank you Shen for your dedication to beauty care.

I love this place, they have truly beautiful fragrances you can’t find anywhere else. It’s an open, clean space — I went again last night and this terrific woman «Jill» took a lot of time with me, showed me a lot of beautiful products (including off-​the-​radar organic brands of cosmetics) — she truly knows her stuff and didn’t have that pressure to buy vibe. They even offered me a lovely cup of organic rose tea. Really nice experience. :)

Definitely my favorite beauty store, by FAR. I have visited two times, and both times, I left extremely pleased with the service and with my purchases. On both of my visits, every employee was genuinely friendly from the minute I walked in and they knew about every product range in the shop. When I asked one employee about the Tangle Teezer, she knew all about the brand and the founder (I later returned to the store to pick up another for my sister, because it was that good.) I asked the same employee if she could recommend a shampoo and conditioner, and her first recommendation was something I already had (she knew my taste right off the bat!), and her second recommendation, Percy & Reed, was fantastic. She knew the whole product range and all about the brand. When she noticed me eyeing a ByTerry mascara, she told me she had it on, and told me her thoughts on it. They also had a makeup artist from ByTerry in the store who was incredibly talented and very sweet– she recommended two colors for me that I would never have thought to try on, but I’m very glad I did. Another employee recommended the Monoï oil, which I have been unable to find in any other brick-​and-​mortar store, and it is now one of my favorite products. Of the things the sales team recommended that I ended up purchasing (tangle teezer, RMS Lip2Cheek, Percy & Reed hair products, Monoï oil, ByTerry mascara and eyeshadow, and a LAFCO candle for 40% off,) I have been beyond pleased with all of them! I also got my brows tinted for free the first time, and have since returned because the aesthetician is my favorite. (If you have never gotten your brows tinted, DO IT, it’s worth it.) The store has a really pretty apothecary-​like atmosphere and the products are organized beautifully. The store as a whole is much more genuine and better-​stocked than most beauty chains, and they have harder-​to-​find brands which you’d normally only be able to get online. The main qualms I’m seeing in the reviews seem to be for the service, and I have to wonder if people simply get the service they invite– if you walk into a store scowling and don’t say a word to the salespeople, don’t expect the royal treatment. Salespeople can usually tell if you come in with a crap attitude, and it pays to be nice and to at least say hello when you enter a store. It’s simple etiquette, but a lot of people get it wrong and then complain about the «horrible service.»
Regardless, I seriously can’t recommend this store highly enough, to beauty junkies, New Yorkers, tourists, spa-​goers, gift shoppers… It is fantastic.

Had my eyebrows shaped here, a service they recently added. Had high hopes and left happy, but when I got home and looked in magnifying mirror i saw that one brow was narrower than the other. it was first time i had threading, and the woman who did it worked very fast. maybe too fast? disappointed because I liked her and the space is pleasant enough.

After hearing lots of good things about this store, I made an especial trip from Manhattan to check it out. I feel like Brooklyn has so many nice, niche artisans, that this shop must have some special things.
To tell you the truth, I was kind of disappointed. My mental balloon of excitement slowly deflated as I walked towards the back of the room. The product selection was eclectic and it was hard to tell what was going on. There was an area where they were selling some wacky cartoonish shower caps. The color cosmetics were a bit more interesting, but nothing I haven’t seen before. The skincare was pretty boring and there were brands I could just order online anywhere. I did ask one of the shop girls about a bottle of face oil and its application. But I didn’t get much of response. Another girl tried to help but she did the gawd-​awful, awkward moment of taking the bottle from me and just reading off the instruction label, which is exactly what I did ten seconds before calling her over. I walked out not buying anything.
I thought this would be a great Brooklyn find, but it’s just another shop. I wish I had spent my afternoon in Manhattan.

I had a really lovely experience here the other day– I’m not sure how these other reviewers could have had experiences THAT terrible. That said I’m fairly knowledgeable about what I want from a beauty product, so I generally don’t expect much from sales people. I
was left to walk around and peruse their amazing selection of (mostly natural) products. If I found something I liked I tried it. The woman who was running the store was helpful without being pushy.
Love that I can finally try products I’ve read about online, but never found in stores. Love the layout. Love that they left me alone (in a friendly way.) I’ll definitely be back.

my daughter bought me a few different things from shen for a present. the expensive lippman nail polish she bought was either really old or a bad batch (I buy lippman a lot so am familiar with their product). I tried putting on two coats– it was lumpy as well as didn’t cover properly I took the nail polish back to exchange it. The pissy, arrogant saleswoman I spoke with tried to tell me that a) it was as it is supposed to be and b) there are no returns. Really? To keep or encourage a customer, you’d think a store would operate under the maxim ‘the customer is usually right’ and even if they were gonna lose 8 $ or whatever the nail polish wholesales for, they’d have a better chance of me spending money there in the future. Ridiculous place! It was a chanukah gift bought more than 7 days before chanukah so hey…
give it a break, girls!!!

As has been stated before, the people who work at Shen really are awful. I was there today and was admonished for testing something on my hand. Had this not happened I probably would have dropped $ 60-​$ 80 on a few things, but because this moron (male) working there was so rude I walked out empty handed. I have decided to never go back to Shen, even though it is on my neighborhood. I leave angry and feeling sort of abused every time I go in there and I just don’t need it when I can buy what they sell online. It really is a shame but they could have a great store if they could hire the right people to work the floor.

The ‘face’ of Shen doesn’t really do too much to boost the business. Whilst some of the products are lovely, they aren’t enough to speak alone. I believe this is a badly run business. Let me explain…
Firstly, the sales women seem to have very little knowledge of the products themselves; nor do they seem to be aware of the extent of their range, how much everything is and what the products are like. Do they not try these products? Are they not interested in them? Wouldn’t it be interesting for their customers to be given a little information about what a product does and why it’s good?
Secondly, it seems the ladies who work here are also a little grey. Disinterested faces and no customer care. Don’t get me wrong, I hate being fawned over but if I start asking questions that should be some indication that I’m interested. Get it?

It’s hard to be a delicate lady with a yen for pure, non-​chemically stuff. Shen has the good stuff like RMS Beauty and Kahina Giving Beauty, which is fabbo. One star off for also having the toxic stuff in there. Either way, it’s great to have a makeup place in the ‘hood where I can run in and grab my basics.

Amanda Lacey Camelllia Face Oil — Nuff said!

I LOVE this store! It is so nice to have such great products in the neighbourhood. The customer service is awesome and the prices and affordable. Thanks Shen!

Lovely store and completely worth a trip to Cobbill Hill for this East Village resident.
Great selection of special cosmetic lines not easily found (my favorites: Jemma Kidd, Lipstick Queen, RMS) and absolutely delightful customer service. Not pushy, friendly (but not overly so), helpful and quick to assist with any questions, and I was very comfortable playing with product for an hour without any looming or staring or pressure to purchase.
Also, there are huge fantastic mirrors right inside the storefront windows by the make-​up counters, so you can sample make-​up in natural light, so critical yet completely overlooked by nearly every beauty store, except Shen!
Just a really nice shopping experience with great ambience, energy, and products. I bought a skin and lip product and will positively return.