Ciaté London to open its first store in L.A.

Ciaté London is journeying to Los Angeles for its first store. “Our English fans will be very upset with me, but it’s a very cool hub,” said founder and chief executive officer Charlotte Knight. “We want to be able to have a place where YouTubers and press can come and hang out.”

As of late last month, Ciaté London was close to signing a lease for its retail space in L.A. The opening date for the upcoming store remains to be determined. But Knight revealed that a store in London is expected to follow shortly after the L.A. location makes its debut.

Originally established as a nail specialist in 2009, Ciaté London has recently been expanding its merchandise portfolio beyond nail into lip, eye, cheek and body products, a move that enables the brand to enter its own retail with a wide beauty assortment. The brand will be extending into face makeup next year.

“When we branched into makeup for eyes, lips and cheeks; we felt we needed to build a customer loyalty in those areas before venturing into base,” said Knight. “We need to have our own base line before we can open a store because people are going to come in and have makeovers, and we want to give them full makeovers.”

Today, makeup represents about 70 percent of Ciaté London’s sales. The brand is available at roughly 4,000 global doors with its nail products, including Sephora, Bloomingdale’s, Birchbox, Mecca Cosmetica, Selfridges and Asos, and 200 doors worldwide with its makeup. It’s adding 700 doors to its color cosmetics distribution in the spring.