A recent comment from Amy reminded me that it was high time I collated some of my shopping for frivolities blahblah in my temporary home from home, Hong Kong! Apologies in advance for vague directions (I don’t usually navigate by compass points or street names so much as hopping from one cosmetics shop to another like lily pads); do feel free to ask for clarification or about any other specific brands in in the comments! And if you’re a local, please feel free to throw in your own HK$2 :)
Bearing in mind that Hong Kong changes rapidly, with shops sometimes closing or moving within months, currently (Feb 2014) I would recommend Causeway Bay for a one-stop beauty shopping destination. And, if you dislike crowds, make your visit on a weekday morning/early afternoon.
Right out of the Causeway Bay MTR station, you have a plethora of enticing options already:
Exit A takes you up to Times Square, and in the underground B2 station complex are shops for: Biotherm, Chanel, Dior, Erno Lazlo, Etude House, Fancl, Jill Stuart, Kosé (Esprique), Laneige, Make Up For Ever and RMK.
On the B1 level, opposite CitySuper, is a big Log-On, which sells all kinds of Japanese-import stuff including adorable stationery and clothes, and, for our purposes, beauty stuff, including some brands I rarely seem to find at Sasa: CandyDoll, LineQueen liners, ClearLast, Brigitte, Sana, and Nanocé BB creams — the best textured BB creams I’ve ever come across, sadly only available in shades for NC15-25. In Log-On’s nail section, you can also find &Nail ‘Organic Blend Oil,’ the cuticle oil which has ranked no.1 on @cosme for years and which I highly recommend.
Heading up to the ground floor will bring you to a Lane Crawford, with counters for Armani, By Terry, Chantecaille, Clé de Peau, Deborah Lippmann, Laura Mercier, Nars, Paul&Joe, Pola, Shu Uemura, The History of Whoo, Tom Ford, and Vidi Vici, as well as the usual department store brands (Lancôme, Dior, Estée Lauder, Chanel, Shiseido, YSL etc.)
Leighton Centre is a two-minute stroll away from Times Square (leave by the Salvatore Ferragamo corner and walk down Matheson St) and contains a Sasa Supreme, a new, posh and unusually spacious branch of the chain, and I’d advise heading straight here instead of squeezing in and out of the dozens of other smaller Sasa’s in the area [you’ll see many as you just wander around, but store locator just in case]. There’s also a Caffe Habitu next door with great coffee (I highly recommend the Rose, Oolong and/or Pu-Erh lattes) and delicious truffle-mayo chips and pear&chocolate fondant, if you want to put your feet up or park any non-makeup-obsessed companions while you browse Sasa itself….
In which you can find makeup brands including: BCL, Canmake, Dollywink, Fasio, I Nuovi, K-Palette, KATE, Lavshuca, Majolica Majorca, Media, Palangtong, Pupa, Rose de Versailles, T LeClerc, ZA etc. This branch also has special counters for Anna Sui, Banila Co., Bobbi Brown, MAC, and an Aveda salon.
For skincare, all kinds of Asian and Western brands are available, from Hada Labo, My Beauty Diary, For Beloved One, Mandom and Dr. Wu to Dermalogica, Institut Esthederm, Lierac, Nuxe, Peter Thomas Roth, and various designer ranges from Clarins to SK-II. Most of the high-end products are shelved by brand, often with dedicated SA’s for each, while there are category displays for drugstore/mid-range ones e.g. ones dedicated to BB creams, lipbalms, sheet masks, or sunscreens.
Many beauty tools are also available, including the mascara guards/combs I love, along with dozens of eyelash curlers, puffs, pill cases for decants, nail gizmos etc.
[In between Times Square and Leighton Centre, you might want to pop into the Lee Theatre building, which houses a three-storey Muji flagship — Muji makes my favourite makeup storage, and this branch also stocks clothes (I adore their pajamas and sheer cotton layering tees), beauty products (including lots of bath salts, the refills that fit my Chanel lash curler, and my travel cleansing oil), and snacks *_*]
Also near Exit A is Cher2 on the first floor of Po Foo Building, 84-94 Percival Street, which has very extensive ranges of OPI, Essie, China Glaze, Orly, Zoya, Jessica, Color Club polishes etc. at around HK$60 a bottle for OPI, less than half the UK retail! The staff speak good English, so if you're buying a few bottles, ask if you can join their membership club for extra discounts at checkout.
It's time to leave the surroundings of Exit A, but no worries, we're not going far :) Exit F2 of Causeway Bay station is actually only another 2 minute walk away from Times Square, but you can chose this exit if you want to head straight up to Hysan Place, one of the newer shopping malls in this area, and my most frequent haunt, because of the big Eslite bookstore within <3 If you're walking, just ask directions to Hysan Place, the Apple Store (on its ground floor) or Forever 21 (just across the street).
On Hysan Place's ground floor is a T Galleria / duty free shop, which is a bit odd, because Hong Kong doesn't tax cosmetics anyway... but you can find some DF exclusives here (like sets of miniature Meteorites and various travel palettes and bundles) and the usual high end brands as well as Benefit and Givenchy.
On the first floor is a small Joyce Beauty boutique, which stocks a SpaceNK-ish lineup of skincare brands, By Terry makeup and Deborah Lippmann polishes, as well as scents from Annick Goutal, Diptyque, Frederic Malle etc.
The next main cosmetics cluster is on the sixth floor, with Korean brands Dr Ci:Labo, Holika Holika, the saem, and too cool for school, as well as Dermalogica (British) and Ettusais (Japanese), and a few organic lines like Amika, Beyond Organic, EcoG, VC etc.
Eslite (floors 9-11) will usually have some kind of indie/greeny Taiwanese brand on display as well -- currently exquisite handmade soaps by Monga -- as well as lots of tea and edibles, and a great selection of magazines and mooks, with discounted older issues; the staff are happy to take books/mags out of their plastic wrapping if you ask, so buy a big cup of bubble tea, find a comfy seat, and browse away.
Leaving Hysan Place by the ground floor Yun Ping Road exit, you'll see the tree-lined Innisfree shop on the corner right across the street, with my beloved soybean eye cream, and plenty of nail polish and makeup to play with, as well as the rest of their skincare.
The next lilypad is SOGO, separated from Hysan Place by the double-crossing of Hennessey Road, or reachable directly from Causeway Bay MTR Exit D, which leads into its B2 level. I've written about this Japanese department store before, but it's not usually that heaving -- the layout is dated, but it's worth the trip for Cosme Decorte / AQMW, Kanebo brands (Coffret D'Or, Lunasol, Impress), Sofina (including Aube Couture and Primavista), IPSA, Borghese, HABA, and Burberry makeup, all on the ground floor. Upstairs on the second floor are counters for Anna Sui, Shu Uemura, Paul&Joe and Jill Stuart, while the eleventh floor bookshop is another good source for Japanese magazines and books.
Just opposite SOGO (Shiseido/MAC-store side) on the same strip as Island Beverly, is a violently pink Etude House shop, and if you follow this path as it curves around SOGO, you'll also come across shops for Missha and SkinFood on Lockhart Road.
General notes: you'll probably see several branches of Bonjour and Colormix on your travels -- both are cosmetics chains similar to Sasa, stocking a wide range of brands. Small branches of all three can be found on Lockhart Road, just behind SOGO (Gucci side). I personally never seem to find anything at Bonjour that I can't find in Sasa, but Colormix is worth popping into for Korean/Taiwanese brands like Naruko / AMPM, CLIV, Vitacreme, Baviphat, Shills, Lioele, The Face Shop, Hope Girl, Lotree etc. If you're specifically looking for these brands, the most conveniently located Colourmix is in the Central MTR station complex (diagonally opposite Fancl).
The two major drugstore chains are Watson's and Mannings -- branches vary but the big ones will have a good selection of makeup brands (from Ettusais to KATE, and from GOSH to Max Factor) along with lots of French (Avene, LRP, Bioderma, Uriage etc.) and Asian (Dr Wu, Hada Labo, Shiseido Senka etc.) skincare.
Also, note that most shops in Hong Kong will charge HK$0.50 for paper bags, so if you plan to haul, make sure you bring plenty of reusable totes with you!
Finally, a few things that can't be found at Causeway Bay:
Dolce&Gabbana makeup is sold exclusively at Harvey Nichols in Pacific Place (Admiralty MTR). This is also where to head if you want to find By Killian perfumes (and for other UK expats, their basement foodhall has a lot of Waitrose stuff, randomly).
Kowloon-side:
3CE has a store in I.T. at Silvercord (on Canton Road), down one floor from Din Tai Fung -- which is reason enough to visit this mall, as you have no hope of ever reaching the end of the queue at the CWB branch of the xiao long bao joint.
Opposite Silvercord is the Harbour City mega-mall, which rivals Causeway Bay as a one-stop shopping destination. The beauty epicentre features FACES (a cosmetics-only department store with the likes of Kose, Innisfree, Paul&Joe, RMK etc.) opposite another large Lane Crawford (for Chantecaille, Cle de Peau, Fresh, Tom Ford, etc.) while Laneige, Shu Uemura and Fancl are just some of the brands with standalone shops within the compex. In the LCX zone are various high street Korean brands, along with a Donguri Republic with giant cuddly Totoros <3 and over by City Super, there's another branch of Log-On with various Japanese imports and a PageOne bookstore again well stocked with Asian magazines.
A few streets away in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Granville RoadSasa was the biggest, most well-organised, and quietest branch before the opening of Sasa Supreme and well worth a visit if you're in this area -- especially as it's only a block away from Lab Made, home of liquid-nitrogen-frozen ice cream in flavours such as Hong Kong Custard Bun and Gingerbread Man&Milk.
WALL OF PROSE. I know. If you have bricks you'd like me to add (or indeed if you'd like to hurl a brick at me) leave a comment :)