“The whole concept with Cos Bar was, ‘Everything I dislike about department stores, we won’t do,’” she said during a Beauty Independent In Conversation webinar in 2020. “The beauty specialist at the department store represents the brand. We, on the other hand, represent the customer.”

Instead of isolated beauty counters, Cos Bar integrates brands into its assortment and offers intimate, personalized service to customers. It started with a 200-square-foot space in Aspen, Colo., and attracted big beauty names such as Clinique and Chanel to provide best-in-class luxury products to locals and tourists.

Today, Cos Bar is backed by private equity firm Tengram Capital Partners and has expanded its physical footprint across a dozen states. Brick-and-mortar stores account for 85% of its sales, and it has 19 locations nestled in wealthy cities and suburban markets like Vail, Colo., Red Bank, N.J. Carmel, Calif., Maui, Hawaii, Santa Fe, N.M., Scottsdale, Ariz., Red Bank, N.J., Edina, Minn., and Dallas. Its 20th location is slated to open in Houston this month.

Below, we check in with Cos Bar director of buying Michelle Sereno, former Sephora chief merchant Margarita Arriagada, founder and CEO of Valdé, a luxury lipstick brand that entered Cos Bar in December 2021, and more about what it takes to break into Cos Bar’s selection.

Cos Bar’s luxury positioning is a key differentiator, especially in a modern beauty retail landscape where the barriers between mass and prestige barriers are blurring. “Their No. 1 strength is that they’re a specialized retailer in a luxury market,” says Arriagada. “They’re not trying to be all things to everyone. They’re very clear on what their positioning is.”

Cos Bar carries over 9,000 stockkeeping units from 86 brands spanning skincare, makeup, fragrance, haircare, men’s, and bath and body care. Among the brands are La Prairie, Dr. Barbara Sturm, Augustinus Bader, Charlotte Tilbury, La Mer, Cle De Peau, Oribe, Sisley, Tata Harper, Vintner’s Daughter, Shiseido, Tom Ford and Westman Atelier.

The sorts of brands Cos Bar carries have elevated prices and tend to limit their distribution to department store and prestige beauty specialty retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bluemercury. It avoids brands that don’t have a limited distribution. Cos Bar works with Adit, the retail matchmaking service owned by Beauty Independent’s parent company Indie Beauty Media Group, to find brands suited to its selection.

Cos Bar customers trust the retailer’s in-store sales associates to curate their routines. Its white-glove service sets the retailer apart from the likes of Sephora and Nordstrom, says Oliver Garfield, who took over the reins as Cos Bar’s CEO in 2021 after his mother Lily stepped down to be co-chair.

“The heroes of our organization, I truly believe, are our in-store managers and beauty specialists, and that real, authentic, genuine relationship and trust that they have with our clients,” Oliver told Beauty Independent last year. “As my mom would say, ‘It’s like ‘Cheers,’ where everyone knows your name,’ but you come here to shop and come frequently because it’s fun and it’s people that you like.”

Cos Bar’s high-touch service drew Westman Atelier to the retailer in 2019. It’s since become one of the retailer’s top-performing brands. “Cos Bar is unlike any other account in our portfolio in that it operates with an incredibly focused customer service, rooted in their communities all while having the support and strategy from their corporate team,” says Westman Atelier co-founder and CEO David Neville. Westman Atelier is also available at Sephora, Nordstrom, Credo, Onda Beauty, Bergdorf Goodman and Goop.

When Arriagada decided to place Valdé in retail, Cos Bar was an obvious choice. “Where does a niche luxury brand like mine with a small presentation go?” she says. “There are no other luxury specialty retailers that have this level of service and the special touch like they do.” Valdé is now available at Neiman Marcus, too.

At the helm of buying at Cos Bar, Sereno has three buyers reporting to her. The buying team is divided by brand matrix, and buyers aren’t confined to a particular category. For instance, they share the skincare category that constitutes a majority of Cos Bar’s sales.

Cos Bar’s buying team evaluates potential brand partners by zeroing in on four key attributes: point of difference, formula performance, positioning and store support. “We’re very different from an Ulta or Sephora or even a Neiman Marcus,” says Sereno. “So, I would really encourage brands to look at our current assortment, get familiar with it, and see where their brands can be that point of difference for us. It’s impressive when a brand comes into pitch already familiar with what we do.”

Internal conversations about what brands to stock are open and free-flowing, says Sereno. She notes there are no rigid buying cycles at Cos Bar, although buyers don’t ignore seasonality and changes in consumer demand. Sereno says, “If we want to bring on candles or something more specific to holiday, we’re not going to bring that on in Q2.”

Performance is usually top of mind for beauty retailers. At Cos Bar, which has an upscale clientele 35 to 55 year olds that don’t want to part with their money for subpar products, efficacy is of the utmost importance. If the efficacy is there, Cos Bar’s customers aren’t price resistant. They don’t scoff at a $200 serum, but that serum better deliver. Cos Bar buyers are on the lookout for compelling content that underscores performance, notably before-and-after photos, clinical studies, and customer testimonials or reviews that in-store associates can leverage to verify product results.

Whether it’s a new category, technology or innovative packaging, Cos Bar seeks brands with distinct points of difference to fill gaps in its assortment and not have a product compete directly with another in the assortment. In an assortment largely dominated by established luxury players, it’s especially critical for small emerging brands to carve out a niche. Cos Bar snapped up Valdé after buyers determined the brand’s $200 lip sets are uniquely giftable items.

“The point of differentiation has to be major because otherwise, why would they need you?” says Arriagada. “It must feel like a major discovery.”

New brands face a high hurdle attempting to crack Cos Bar’s assortment. In addition to seeking unique and efficacious products, the retailer gravitates to brands that have formidable luxury positioning. Unless it’s a well-established player like Charlotte Tilbury, Bobbi Brown or Clarins, Cos Bar will typically pass on a brand that has masstige or entry-level prestige pricing, packaging and distribution. Distribution at Sephora or Ulta Beauty isn’t generally appealing to Cos Bar as neither are seen as luxury retailers. The brands at Cos Bar typically price their products from $40 to $500 and opt for luxe, weighty packaging.

Cos Bar’s bestselling products include Cle De Peau Concealer SPF 27 ($75), Natura Bisse Diamond Extreme Serum ($395), Augustinus Bader The Face Oil ($245), U Beauty Resurfacing Compound ($228), Westman Atelier Lip Suede ($85), and Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau De Parfum ($195).

Lastly, brands striving to land at Cos Bar must be able to support a multi-door brick-and-mortar relationship. According to Sereno, a big piece of that support is the capacity to educate and motivate store associates. “The majority of our business is done through our beauty specialist in store. When we bring in a new brand, I tell my buying team, ‘We’re selling to our beauty specialists,’” she says. “If we’re passionate about something, we need to ‘sell it’ to them so they can sell it to their clients.”

Oliver echoes, “If you want to be successful at Cos Bar, you’ve got to convince our store teams. That is hard because they’re the biggest beauty junkies, so they’re a tough audience.”

Swiss luxury oral care brand Vvardis entered 13 Cos Bar doors in March 2022 through Adit. Natasha Goldberg, head of Adit’s retail success team, explains the brand had the right differentiation and positioning to stand out to Cos Bar’s buyers. “Cos Bar loved Vvardis’s branding and packaging, and they didn’t have an oral care brand in their assortment at all at that point,” she says. “The brand was going to add dollars to their assortment because it was something new that their store team could sell without competing with another brand partner.”

Additionally, Vvardis’s dentist founder helped to imbue the brand with credibility in the eyes of the buyers. The brand went on to secure partnerships with Bluemercury, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus via Adit. At Cos Bar, its sells White Enamel Anti-Aging Toothbrush ($19), New White Enamel Anti-Aging Toothpaste ($29), Breath Highlighter Mouth Spray ($29), Enamel Highlighter Mouthwash ($25), New White Enamel Anti-Aging Serum ($149), and set New White Enamel Anti-Aging Ritual ($199).

Goldberg advises brands interested in working with Cos Bar to focus on defining the white space they can fill in the retailer’s assortment and how they can support stores during pitch meetings. “Cos Bar is a luxury high-end retailer that caters to a clientele who loves great service and who wants to be introduced to the best brands in the world,” she says. “So, they already carry a lot of amazing brands across categories. You have to be able to answer the question, ‘Why should we carry you?’ How is your brand going to be additive to their assortment? They’re not interested in taking dollars away from one brand and replacing them with another.”

For example, if a luxury skincare brand has similar products and packaging to a different brand within Cos Bar’s existing assortment, it will need to make an extremely compelling argument as to why and how it’s additive. What unmet need in the market does the brand tackle? Does it utilize a proprietary technology in its products or have an innovative delivery system? Potential brand partners have to outline the market opportunity and convince Cos Bar that it’s the solution to that opportunity.

After a brand properly outlines the white space or market opportunity it addresses, it must demonstrate how it will support Cos Bar’s store associates to ensure long-term success. “If you’re selected to onboard at Cos Bar, you will go both online and in store right away,” says Goldberg. “That means having a field team that can go into the different locations to do in-person training or events or at least be able to virtually meet with their store associates. You have to get them excited about your products. Be able to provide gratis products for them to try and incentivize them for events and key selling periods.”

For makeup brands that require display units, they have to show them at pitch meetings. “Elevated, premium packaging means a lot to Cos Bar. They love when a display unit fits with their style,” says Goldberg. “So, they want to see what it looks like and that you have that ready to go. It’s part of a brand’s overall readiness to get into retail.”

Brands shouldn’t focus their pitches on beating Cos Bar’s category price points. Instead, brands need to persuade buyers that their products are worth their price tags and will be accretive to Cos Bar’s business. “They don’t want to sell a $50 serum when they have no problem selling a $300 one,” says Goldberg. “But if they can say to their customer, ‘You can still buy your $300 product, but this $50 product pairs really well with it and improves the experience,’ that makes a lot of sense for them.”

Sereno refers to Cos Bar’s internal review process as “slow and steady.” Once a brand is officially accepted into its assortment, onboarding can often take months. Such was the case with Valdé, which wasn’t EDI- or electronic database interchange-compliant at the time it launched at Cos Bar. Arriagada describes Cos Bar’s onboarding as “intuitive, easy to understand and easy to follow.” She says the buyers are responsive and hands-on during the process.

While Arriagada and Cos Bar decline to comment on the costs associated with launching at the retailer, Arriagada says Cos Bar is “very workable and reasonable” in terms of those costs. As a caveat, she emphasizes, “Being in retail is expensive. There’s no way around it—and it’s not getting any cheaper.”