JAMESPLUMB Studio Casts Aēsop’s Cambridge Store in Calm Elegance

Aesop has reunited with James Russell and Hannah Plumb’s creative studio, JAMESPLUMB, to design its Cambridge store. Emitting a sense of calm elegance, the new store marks the third time the two entities have worked together.

Created with longstanding collaborators James Russell and Hannah Plumb, Aesop Cambridge is an artefact of the surrounding water and land. Proximity to academic and archival collections provided further inspiration – the store is a place to leaf through books in quiet comfort, enveloped in botanical textures and aromas.

After spending time on-site and exploring the location’s context and feel, James and Hannah presented many insightful ideas, along with a wealth of poems, images and inspirations. Notably, they engaged with Felicity Irons and her bulrush practice, which became a core element of our Cambridge space. We then worked with JAMESPLUMB in constant dialogue to compose, juxtapose, and collage ideas. The result was what feels like the essence of the city and a special place for Aesop to host customers. Marianne Lardilleux, Aēsop’s global head of store design

Like the binding of an antique book, the shopfront is the hue of well-worn leather. Using ancient and pioneering techniques, local plant matter is the interior’s primary material. 

What stands out about the new location’s style is that the South-London-based creative studio was able to keep the aged architectural elements while also casting the space in a modern light. At first glance, everyone will notice the exterior’s rich worn leather hue that is complimented by a collection of pelargoniums that sit pristinely in the store’s window beneath the subtle Aēsop branding. Once inside, the store offers up a relaxing atmosphere with natural shades inspired by Bulrush.

Oversized shelves are made from English freshwater bulrush harvested and woven by Felicity Irons and her team at Rush Matters, who have brought this archaic and yet renewable practice into the twenty-first century. The bulrush is hand-cut from long punts on the River Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire, then air-dried and sun-bleached before being braided into furniture at the nearby workshop.

Other shelves are formed from hemp – grown just twenty miles from Cambridge – pressed with resin. This warm, dense, tactile material is also inlaid into cabinetry, recalling the burnished surfaces of old writing desks. Underfoot, nineteenth-century floorboards are polished with two hundred years of footfall.

Amidst the serene shades and elevated rushes, is the array of Aēsop’s products, which stands tall on hemp shelving with its popular minimal yet enticing design style. Like some of Aēsop’s other locations, the new Cambridge store extends the brand’s cadence of crafting elevated yet tranquil shopping experiences. Come into the beautiful world of Aesop.

Aesop
3535 Trinity Street
Cambridge, UK

Aesop Resurrection Rinse-Free Hand Wash

 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that’s gripping the world at the moment, we’ve seen panic buying all over the world, at every supermarket, drugstore and pharmacy. People are out to get their hands on this year’s hottest-selling item: masks and hand sanitisers.

In addition to the appropiate distance that we must keep to each other of at least 1.5 meter, hygiene is very important. With hygiëne we mean washing hands regulary (how simple!) and using hand sanitisers. There is a brand you may not think about these days, but it has unexpectedly gorgeous beauty items that help sterilise surfaces or keep your hands clean on the go.

When you’re out and about and don’t have water close to hand, why not indulge in a wash-free, rinse-free hand wash courtesy of Aesop? With a botanical scent that’s also a sensorial trip, this hand wash can combat bacteria and contagions when you can’t find fresh water nearby.

Aesop’s Resurrection Rinse-Free Hand Wash is the aristocracy of hand sanitisers. With a 58-62% alcohol content, it cleanses your skin and kills germs (approximately 99.9% of bacteria) without requiring a sink, so it’s perfect for travelling and looking after adventure-prone little ones. The packaging is so much chicer than most hand sanitisers and regular use won’t dry your hands, instead, moisturising agents make for soft and re-hydrated skin. It comes in a lightweight plastic bottle and the gel smells divinely of mandarin rind, rosemary leaf and cedar wood atlas: making this a real pleasure to use – as well as a bacteria-busting powerhouse.

This is a standby you’ll want to keep in your handbag, in your pocket, and in your travel totes for those adventures to come…….. Aesop’s Resurrection Rinse-Free Hand Wash is available as 50ml travelsize flacons, that are easy refileable from the larger 500ml pump flacon. Aesop’s Resurrection Rinse-Free Hand Wash and Aesop’s regular handwash are available at Aesop and selected stores worldwide. Come int the beautiful world of Aesop.

 

 

 

 

Aesop just saved the Holiday season with these new gift kits

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the holidays, look no further. Aesop ‘The Enigmatic Mind’ collection offers six different sets to pamper yourself and loved ones, as well as try out all the favorite products.

The kits all pay homage to studies on human behavior, celebrating influential social psychology from the 1950’s, ’60s and ’70s. Packaged in a reusable case, the sleeves are designed with inspiration from psychology books from the era. The kits are named as following: ‘Sway’, ‘Regard’, ‘Proximity’, ‘Pereception’, ‘Concord’ and ‘Association’.

These six beautiful kits will be available in November at all Aesop signature stores, as well as at aesop.com.

 

 

 

 

Aesop Aromatique Room Sprays

Common’ in and step into any Aesop store and you’ll always find yourself in a magical wonderland that features rows upon rows of botanical-based products all lined up nicely. Turning 30 this year, the Australian skincare label has established itself as a leader with a strong focus on using plant-based ingredients that are high in anti-oxidant properties.

Spray two to three pumps throughout the immediate space and refresh as needed; the aroma will last for several hours.

Which brings us to these all-new Aromatique Room Sprays, a welcome addition to Aesop’s extensive range that has everything from skincare and haircare to body and even fragrances. Encased within its Instagram-worthy amber glass spray bottles are 3 cleverly named after ancient Greek cities formulated scents that reignite the senses with a spray or two into the air whenever you need that perk-me-up.

Aesop Istros Aromatique Room Spray

Istros is a scent of what has been left behind: a street baked by heat during the day, cooled at night; tendrils of tobacco smoke long dispersed; bazaars that bear the etchings of commerce, commotion and carnival. But more than this, it is a communion with the creative spirits who have journeyed through—an energy distilled from their traces

Evoking the energy and intoxicating aroma of street bazaars, Istros Aromatique Room Spray by Aesop features a vibrant union of pink pepper, lavender and mimosa, with lingering undertones of cedar and sandalwood. Housed in Aesop’s signature amber glass bottle, the Istros Room Spray is refined with a floral and smoky fragrance, and offers an aromatic way to enhance a living space or bedroom.

 

Aesop Cythera Aromatique Room Spray

Cythera conjures a moonlit garden as vespertine flowers relax their petals and nocturnal animals emerge from sleep. Drawing us into the present, an atmosphere of reverence is stirred as darkness returns. The air in this space holds a delicate aroma woven with the memory of the day, and the promise of the evening ahead.

Inspired by the serenity of a moonlit garden and the quiet anticipation of the evening ahead, the Cythera Aromatique Room Spray by Aesop presents a sensual blend of neroli, geranium, and patchouli, infused with the botanical warmth of Myrrh. Housed in Aesop’s signature amber glass bottle, the Cythera Room Spray’s woody, oriental and spicy fragrance offers an aromatic way to enhance a living space or bedroom.

 

Aesop Olous Aromatique Room Spray

Just as words are born of our breath, Olous rouses an exhalation of clipped, green aroma. Boundless as it is, nature makes its presence felt inside the home—stillness ensues. The environment is redefined to an elemental time, when life was all silence—pleasantly devoid of the babble of phone chatter, or the burring hum of the mechanical.

Inspired by the calm and natural surrounds of the Mediterranean seabed, the Olous Aromatique Room Spray by Aesop is an uplifting blend of grapefruit, bergamot, jasmine, infused with the refreshing aroma of cardamom and cedar. Housed in Aesop’s signature amber glass bottle, the Olous Room Spray’s green and citrus botanicals offer an aromatic way to enhance and redefine a living space or bedroom.

All 3 room scents will join Aesop’s permanent range and will be availble from July is 100ml bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

Aesop’s new Hamburg store

Aesop’s latest German signature store, and its first in Hamburg – located in a glass-fronted ground-floor unit of a nineteenth century building – opened recently in German city’s ABC-Viertel. Created in collaboration with Antwerp firm Vincent Van Duysen Architects, it features the brand’s first facial treatment room in Europe. The design relies on simple, natural materials and a subtle palette; it is informed by two primary influences: the building’s status as a protected historic site and the neighbourhood’s vibrant, sophisticated milieu.

Serene and timeless, Hamburg’s new store is made out of special and unique materials that, just as Aesop’s products, you’ll want to touch, feel and hold, creating the ultimate ‘experience for the senses’.

Walls and ceiling in the 112-square metre space have been stripped back to their original state and clad in pale, roughly textured plaster, providing a refined tactile element. A sink of solid bluestone, conceived as a sculptural element and evocative of ancient fountains, effects a commanding presence and emphasises the product demonstration experience integral to Aesop’s gracious hospitality. Bluestone is also used for flooring, working in concert with the plastered surfaces to define a serene and timeless setting.

Display shelves are crafted from untreated European Oak and blackened steel – the latter referencing the store’s original cast-iron facade. Floor-length Belgian linen curtains hang in a discreet curve behind the point-of-sale counter, secluding the treatment room from the retail area.

Aesop’s sought-after facial treatments are performed in a select few doors internationally by in-house facial therapists. In the aromatic calm of a purpose-built treatment space, the brand’s meticulous formulations are employed to detoxify and stimulate skin and spirit.