Lips 'N' Sips
Austin sisters pop the cork on new beauty shop and champagne bar
When ElevΓ© Cosmetics founder Gertie Wilson and her sister/co-owner Ginger Averitt decided to open a flagship, they wanted a place where customers could relax while experimenting with the products in their vegan-based beauty line. The result is a unique, multi-use space that's half makeup shop, half champagne bar, and one hundred percent Austin.
Located at corner of Davis and Brodie lanes, ElevΓ©'s stylish new boutique features the company's entire line from, as they like to say, "lashes to lippies." Among ElevΓ©'s star products are the must-try rose gold highlighter, Nail POP nail polishes, and Lash Party, the company's first-ever mascara.
The shop's streamlined, modern interiors provide a neutral backdrop for customers to try out new looks using an app which snaps a selfie and then projects the makeup directly onto the photograph for a virtual makeover. (Trying stuff directly on your face is so early-aughts.)
It's not just the company's approach to trying on makeup that's modern. Since launching in 2015, ElevΓ© (which is a French term used in dance to mean "rise up") has taken a unique approach in the crafting of cosmetics, attempting to blur the line between makeup and skin care. The vegan-based line foregoes the fillers found in most commercial makeup and instead packs its products with antioxidants and peptides.
After nearly three years of selling online and at a handful of Austin-area boutiques, it was time to elevate the ElevΓ© brand with its own store. In March, that dream became a reality when the sisters chose South Austin for their first shop.
βWe found that the Austin market had limited access to nontoxic beauty products β specifically in the South Austin area," Wilson tells CultureMap. "On top of that, we saw a need for a champagne bar that wasnβt your traditional bar scene. [We] wanted ElevΓ© Cosmetics to be a multi-use space where women could get ready with friends and try out clean beauty while sipping on delicious bubbly.β And sip they can while seated behind the space's all-white bar or perched on plush blue velvet couches.
While we are firm believers that champagne is reason enough to go anywhere, it's ElevΓ©'s ethos (not to mention the fact that's it's a locally owned business) that keeps us coming back. After all, isn't it time we "rise up" and leave those mall makeup chain stores behind?