The Ultimate Guide to Scandinavian Beauty Shopping at ILLUM

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Shopping for beauty products can feel overwhelming, which is why ILLUM’s beauty hall is your Scandi-saviour. With a huge range of luxury products, from make-up to skincare to fragrance, all your beauty needs can easily be met at Copenhagen’s premium department store.

The beauty hall doesn’t just have great products; the space itself feels elegant, filled with beautifully-appointed branded booths as well as a larger, multi-brand areas. ILLUM specializes in two things: international luxury brands and top-tier Scandinavian brands that might be hard to find elsewhere, even in Denmark.

You don’t even have to go out to get your items of choice. With ILLUM On Demand, you simply snap a picture or screenshot of the item you want, send it to a personal shopper, then have it delivered straight to your door! Orders made before 2pm will be delivered the next day.

Here are the best Scandinavian beauty, skincare, and haircare products available at ILLUM:

Beauty

Aside from ILLUM’s range of designer and luxury beauty brands, including Dior and Chanel, the department store has the Scandinavian beauty brands that you can’t always find online, or even at international multi-brand retailers.

Clean and sustainable Danish beauty brand Kjær Weis tops the list of cosmetics to know. Their beautiful, refillable metal and glass packaging contains high-quality cosmetics including lipstick, blush, foundation, and oils.

The prices for the initial packages might be high, but the refills are quite reasonable, and the quality is fantastic. It’s no wonder this brand has become a favorite of cosmetics-lovers around the world.

Skincare

More-so than any o the other beauty-related categories, there are plenty of fantastic Scandinavian-born skincare brands. The best of them can be found at ILLUM, including the locally beloved, clean and effective Nuori. If you’re looking for a great moisturizer or serum, this is a brand to know. Similar gentle-but-functional skincare includes Danish Karmameju and Rudolph, a brand that offers excellent natural sun protection products in addition to their more typical skincare.

Ole Henriksen, though headquartered in the USA, was founded by a Danish cosmetician so…it counts! The brand is well known globally for clinically-proven, targeted skincare that’s reasonably-priced for the quality. Swedish brand Verso, which offers a higher price point and much more aesthetically-pleasing packaging, makes an array of skincare with high-performance active ingredients. Their numbered system makes it easy to find the products you need in your skin routine.

Barberians is a Danish brand that makes skin and facial hair products; they’re targeted at men, but of course anyone can use them. Their beard oil is particularly beloved in Denmark’s cold climate, as is their beautiful shaving kit. Other tools of the trade available at ILLUM include Swedish brand Foreo, who make the famous Luna cleansing brush as well as other items like toothbrushes and blue light treatment for acne.

M2 Beauté, a brand best known for their eyelash and eyebrow growth serums, can be hard to track down – luckily it’s here! Eight weeks of application and you’ll be looking at fuller brows and lashes.

Haircare

There aren’t many Scandinavian haircare brands available generally, but the one that ILLUM carries is far and away the best: Sachajuan. Aside from their sleek, minimalist packaging, the Swedish brand makes a selection of shampoos and conditioners, serums, and even hair perfume. Their ocean mist spray is a cult favorite; adding the perfect blend of salty volume and hold to the hair.

Other hard-to-find (in Denmark) haircare brands available at ILLUM include fashionable favorite The Ouai and Christophe Robin.

Fragrance

Perhaps the best known Scandinavian fragrance brand is Sweden’s Byredo. ILLUM’s shop-in-shop offers a sophisticated experience where visitors can sniff and test out many of the Byredo products, as well as ask a representative any questions or request samples. There’s nothing quite as luxurious as a Byredo perfume or lotion!

Danish brand Zarkoperfume makes scents that respond to each individual’s skin, producing a unique smell on the wearer. They’re a special range of perfumes that offer something truly different.

Available on the fourth floor at the Design Atelier, you can find Danish-born, Scandinavian-inspired fragrance brand Skandinavisk. They have perfumed candles, home fragrance, and body fragrance all based on the scents of Scandinavian nature. Skandinavisk’s subtle fragrances are an ideal gift to take home after visiting Scandinavia – a piece of the region captured in delicate, subtle notes.