We're no Space NK invaders, says Nicky Kinnaird

Primrose Hill residents have failed to stop a branch of Space NK opening on their high street, but its founder says it’s not the Starbucks of skincare

p30 Nikki Kinnaird founder of SpaceNK at her shop Hans Place, Knightsbridge. Commissioned for use by The Evening Standard only.

Tony Buckingham

Rosamund Urwin

7 December 2012

In Primrose Hill a war over warpaint has broken out. Space NK, the beauty chain founded by Nicky Kinnaird 19 years ago, will open a store on Regent’s Park Road tomorrow, despite a campaign by locals — including actress Sadie Frost and the artist Sam Taylor-Johnson — to stop it.

More than 1,200 residents signed a petition, claiming its arrival will drive up rents and force out independent businesses. Mary “Queen of Shops” Portas even waded in last week, declaring: “When locals decide they don’t want a chain to come into their high street, the chain should listen.”

So what does Kinnaird, who started out with a single store in Covent Garden, make of the row? “I find their objections quite strange,” the 48-year-old says, in a thick Belfast accent that has prevailed despite her living in England since her university days. “It is a stretch of the imagination to call us a high street chain or a multinational. A lot of our locations are in very specialist areas, we are all about integrating with the local community and have always supported young innovators.” She reels off a list of brands she has introduced to the UK: Eve Lom, Nars, Laura Mercier, By Terry, Dr Brandt.

Space NK, she argues, is a good fit in a “London village” such as Primrose Hill: “We become a regular stop-off for people. They drop their kids at school, then pop in to see what’s new. Or they come in to have their make-up done before they go out. And we have customers who have remained loyal to us for almost 20 years.”

So Space NK isn’t the Starbucks of skincare? She laughs: “Absolutely not. And I am getting people contacting me saying, ‘We can’t wait for you to open in Primrose Hill’.”

Kinnaird is steely. She admits to being “hideously competitive” and has a businesslike, slightly brusque manner that people perhaps don’t expect from a beauty boss. The consummate saleswoman, she not only tells me what I should buy for my dry skin but also manages to slip in the name of a product every few sentences (all available from a Space NK near you).

Kinnaird is one of Britain’s most successful female entrepreneurs, but she shrugs off any suggestion that it has been tougher to get to the top as a woman: “I never had this male/female thing going on. As far as I’m concerned it’s a level playing field.”

We meet in an office below Space NK’s Knightsbridge store. Like the shop above, it is a paean to cream, with everything in its place. The chocolate muffins on the table go untouched.

Kinnaird inherited her interest in beauty from her mother, a fragrance-obsessive who loved Diptyque candles long before they started popping up on every gift guide. As a teenager, Kinnaird’s love was fuelled by the long stays in Spain the family took to escape Belfast. There, she would slope off to perfumeries, collecting samples and asking for the stories behind the smells. She initially followed her father into property though, before realising beauty was her calling.

Five years ago, 90 per cent of the chain was sold to the private equity house Manzanita Capital (Kinnaird is thought to have made “several million pounds” from the deal) and its chief executive is now Christopher Garek, but the empire remains her baby.

There are 62 UK stores and 23 in the US and Kinnaird says she would love to open in the Far East too. According to its most recent accounts, total sales for the 12 months to the end of March 2011 came in at £49.7 million, up 6 per cent on a year earlier.

Kinnaird says the chain has been boosted during the recession by the “Lipstick effect”: “The feelgood factor can come from make-up rather than a new outfit. Also, people are looking for solutions: how to extend their blow-dry or make their hair colour last longer.”

Unsurprisingly, Christmas is one of Space NK’s busiest times, while January sees such a spike in returns that it has just launched a “Christmas Angels” personal shopping service to stop men buying unwanted presents. “There’s this guy — particularly in the City — who comes through the door in the run-up to Christmas with ‘panic’ tattooed on his face.”

Although customers — female and male — have become more sophisticated in the last two decades, the main motive for a purchase hasn’t changed: the fear of looking old: “It’s always ‘How do I look younger?’ The first area of concern is always around the eyes, because that’s where everyone sees the first signs of ageing.”

I ask her if the potions her shops sell actually work, if all moisturisers aren’t just glorified E45 cream. An arched (perfectly-shaped) eyebrow: “You get what you pay for.”

Although Kinnaird is too scared of needles to consider Botox, she describes it as a personal choice: “You do see some horror stories — particularly in America. People who've had a lot of Botox, relaxers and fillers, they start losing their identity.”

She’s happy to play the chain’s human guinea pig, though. The bathroom of the Kensington home she shares with her partner Bob (a furniture designer) is packed with lab samples. Occasionally, her skin protests. “The worst was in Paris, with a customised body lotion. I had a very tight turnaround before I had to go out for a dinner, slathered the lotion on and turned lobster red. Thank God I hadn’t gone further up my neck and could get away with a scarf.”

It seems angry Primrose Hillites aren’t the only issue if you’re Britain’s beauty queen.

LOCAL VS GLOBAL: THE BEAUTY BATTLE

Lost in Beauty
117 Regent’s Park Road, NW1, lostinbeauty.com
Bestsellers: Skinceuticals and Environ products, particularly Skinceuticals hydrating B5 gel. Lost in Beauty is one of the few places you can get these products in London. Space NK usually sells these brands but the Primrose Hill branch will not.
In treatment? You bet. Facials, waxing, haircuts — this shop does it all and is a hub for the best beauticians and hairdressers from all over the world. Nichola Joss, who does make-up for the Oscars, comes regularly and Lana Del Ray’s hairdresser is visiting this month. Sadie Frost and Daisy Lowe are fans of the store.
USP: was voted UK’s best independent shop for health and beauty 2012.

Space NK
Branches across London
Bestsellers: Eve Lom cleanser, Zelen’s triple action advanced eye cream, By Terry Baume de Rose, and By Terry Touche Veloutée eye concealer.
In treatment? Spas in the Hans Crescent and Westbourne Grove stores. Laura Mercier make-up artists come in every month for tutorials.
USP: high-end products in one place. Staff are trained in all the brands.

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We're no Space NK invaders, says Nicky Kinnaird

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