The high-performance luxury cosmetics brand, acquired by Unilever in 2017, established a retail presence in Downtown New York during the fourth quarter. Here, Beauty Insider takes a tour to scope out what the retailer has to offer in terms of assortment and experience.

The name Hourglass conjures timeless style and femininity, and the brand’s newest store in New York delivers that in spades.

Opened in December on Crosby Street, Hourglass’ second flagship store – the first is in Venice, California – is both sleek and luxurious, as well as warm and inviting, thanks to an engaged and passionate staff.

Hourglass, the luxury cosmetics brand that is synonymous with innovation and a superior product experience—its tag line is luxury performance makeup—has had rapid success since it was founded by CEO Carisa Janes in 2004. The brand, which was first sold in Barneys New York, took off when it entered Sephora in 2007, and its trajectory has been steady, making it a brand to watch. Today, the brand reportedly has net sales of approximately $70 million, and is growing in double-digits. Hourglass was acquired by Unilever in the summer of 2017, the first color brand to join Unilever’s Prestige portfolio, alongside Ren, Murad, Dermatologica, Kate Somerville and Living Proof.

Hourglass’s Crosby Street store boasts state-of-the-art design, including elegant marble, eye-catching gold art pieces featuring an array of products, black concrete, walnut wood, exotic cacti bouquets as the store’s centerpiece, a floor-to-ceiling screen that creates a private area for makeup services, and sayings that define the brand’s spirit: Innovation is Luxury; Creativity is Luxury.

The brand defines its positioning as existing at the intersection of science, beauty and luxury, and its hero products live up to brand founder Carisa’s vision, a former product developer.

Veil Mineral Primer is Hourglass’ claim to fame. The brand sells one product every minute, somewhere in the world. The primer is oil-free and water-free, pulling redness out of skin and waterproofing makeup when applied over it. In humid climates or when one is sweating, the primer keeps foundation perfectly in place. Hourglass staff demonstrates this effect powerfully by applying the primer and foundation on the back of the hand, spritzing it with water, and wiping the hand dry. The foundation remains untouched and beautifully fresh.

The Ambient Powders (‘create your perfect light’) are also brand bestsellers, with a custom Ambient Lighting Bar that lets customers build their own palettes. Based on photo-luminescent technology, the powders are all about the kind of light customers want to see themselves in, as opposed to the traditional approach of matching foundation to skin tone. Inspired by Carisa’s mother, who had pink lightbulbs in lamps in her childhood home, because everyone looked better in pink light, she believed, the powders are free of talc and recreate different types of flattering light, including candlelight, morning light, sun-kissed glow and moonlight.

Equilibrium, Hourglass’s three-in-one serum, moisturizer and eye cream, mimics a youth lipid responsible for cell regeneration in the human body, and does away with the ‘ceremony’ of applying multiple products to create healthy, beautiful skin. The store’s staff explains that more skin care products aren’t necessarily better, just as the most innovative fabrics with the latest technology are frequently the thinnest.

Product packaging is modern, sleek and sculptural – and eminently touchable. Curiously, though, despite the brand name, not a single product is in the shape of an hourglass.

In-store services include a Keratin Lash Lift (the treatment takes 45 minutes, costs $150) that has results lasting between eight and 12 weeks, as well as full makeup services, and brow sculpting with an artistry expert.

Hourglass is aiming to be 100 percent vegan by 2020 (it is well on the way to achieving this, having been predominantly vegan since the beginning), and this is in line with the brand’s commitment to creating cruelty-free products.

Aside from two flagships on either coast, Hourglass is also sold in Sephora throughout the world, as well as at retail locations including Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Blue Mercury, Space NK, Harvey Nichols and Liberty in London, and Lane Crawford in Hong Kong.