we heart Bluemercury (and M-61 Hydraboost Body Butter!)

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If you’ve never shopped at Bluemercury, please take a minute to do a Google image search. Go ahead, I’ll wait. I want you to have a mental picture of the breathtaking visual overload that will greet you when you walk in the door. Add to that an array of scrumptious scents and a friendly, chill atmosphere, and you’ll still only scratch the surface of the experience. Shopping at Bluemercury is like a little trip to heaven.

I’m not lucky enough to have a store in my town, but whenever I travel to a city that has a location, I zero in on it like a beauty-seeking missile. Yes, beauty stores are a dime a dozen these days, but there is still something unique about Bluemercury.

Shopping at Bluemercury is like a little trip to heaven.

The company was entirely unique when Barry and Marla Malcolm Beck founded it in 1999 as–believe it or not– an online beauty business. Remember, online shopping was in its infancy back then, so the Becks were way ahead of their time!

bluemercury-lune-aster-makeup-productsLune+Aster Glow & Contour Bronzing Palette in Moonrise

They quickly expanded to their first physical store in the toney shopping district of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. This “neighborhood store” aimed to be an alternative to department stores and drugstores, a friendly “try before you buy” kind of place. I can’t say it better than Bluemercury does: “Our teams would rather have clients leave the store with handfuls of samples, so that they can be sure to find products that work for them, rather than ever buy anything that is less than 100% right.”

bluemercury-spa

Bluemercury offers spa services like oxygen facials, peels, waxing and microdermabrasion. (Stef recently had an oxygen facial at their Santa Monica, CA location and was blown away by the results. “The GLOW they left with me!”) But even if you don’t have the time or budget for spa treatments, you can shop from a huge selection of products spanning every type of skincare and makeup imaginable. Among the brands Bluemercury carries are the company’s own proprietary skincare and beauty lines, M-61 and Lune+Aster.

bluemercury-m61-skincare-products

Marla Beck used the experience of Bluemercury’s nearly 100,000 spa treatments per year as well as input from the company’s hundreds of makeup artists and estheticians to create M-61 in 2006. The product range includes head-to-toe skincare– peels, creams and butters.

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I got to try out M-61 Hydraboost Body Butter ($24), a weightless fluff of a body cream, which has the incredible texture of a moisturizing mousse. It’s like whipped cream, and it sinks right in, making my skin feel incredibly soft, smoothed and toned. It’s super-moisturizing yet totally non-greasy thanks to peptides, which, along with Vitamins B5 and E and hyaluronic acid, plump the skin and lock in moisture. Tamarind, aloe and coconut oil work together to give long-lasting moisture. Fragrance free, too. I love this cream!

bluemercury-m61-hydraboost-body-butter-consistencySo fluffy!

If the rest of the M-61 products are anything like the one I got to try, I’ll be trying them all! I’m also looking forward to seeing the Lune+Aster “minimal effort, maximum effect” makeup line. The company’s expansion plans include a projected 115 stores nationwide by 2017, and in the meantime, their website features endless temptations in every price range.

I know there must be some Bluemercury fans out there, let’s hear the love!

Melissa loves road trips, bargain shopping, drive-in movies, lip gloss and rock ‘n’ roll. She lives in Baltimore with her precious pups Zeus and Bellarina.
skin tone: NC25
skin type: dry to normal
favorite beauty product: skincare

Author

  • turboterp

    Melissa loves road trips, bargain shopping, drive-in movies, lip gloss and rock 'n' roll. She lives in Baltimore with her precious pup Bellarina. skin tone: NC20 skin type: dry to normal favorite beauty product: skincare

2 Comments

  1. Great post, @turboterp! I’ve been to that Georgetown Bluemercury! Back when I lived in Maryland, I’d get my Bluemercury and Sephora fix when I’d go to Georgetown. I bought my first non-department store makeup at Bluemercury and now that I live far away, I shop them online–they have a great selection! I’m super intrigued by their M-61 line now…

  2. Wish we had one : (. I really want to try that M61 cream, I am in a constant state of lather, in the winter months here, just to keep up with the dryness?

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