PICTURES: Queues and cupcakes outside York’s newest shop on opening day

Popular cosmetics retailer Lush opened the doors to its new home further down Coney Street on Friday (November 22) with a special goodie bag on offer to its first 100 customers.

Inside the building, which was previously Mappin and Webb, colourful shower gels, soaps, make-up products, and bath bombs adorned every corner of the store.

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This included special edition Christmas gift boxes, an archive range (which includes discontinued fan favourites), and a designated party space with products exclusively given to those who book an event.

The new and larger Lush Cosmetics replaces a smaller shop, which was previously at the other end of Coney Street, and sees an increase in size of 35 per cent – bringing the size of the new store to 100 square metres.

The goodie bag, which the first 100 customers received (Image: Alice Kavanagh) Outside, a queue of people snaked past the old TK Maxx store with around 45 minutes until the planned opening.

First in the queue were Danielle and Nathan Carr, who had braved the cold and travelled across Yorkshire to visit the store from Beverley. Danielle said: “We were in York at Lush on Tuesday and the woman serving us suggested that we should come down – she hyped it up to us!”

Danielle and Nathan Carr, who were first in the queue at the new Lush opening (Image: Alice Kavanagh) Just behind them was Helen Brown and Sally Aston, who met in the queue and were wrapped up tight as they waited for the doors to open. Thankfully, this came 20 minutes earlier than planned with customers let in out of the cold and able to explore the shop.

Speaking to The Press, one of the store managers Sarah Baker expressed her excitement around the opening, saying: “I’m so excited and seeing that great big queue outside of all the people who want to see the hard work we put in is just thrilling – it’s exactly what we wanted.

Helen Brown and Sally Aston, who met in the queue (Image: Alice Kavanagh) “As we’ve been merchandising the store, we’ve had so many people peering through the windows, knocking on the door, and wanting to come in. There’s huge excitement from the local community.”

The other manager, Annabelle Hall – who attended the opening despite being on maternity leave – echoed her sentiments, saying: “We’ve waited a really long time for this, we had definitely outgrown our walls. I feel so lucky to be coming back into this space.”

The number of staff has also increased with the size of the store, in addition to the same staff members that ‘regular customers know and love’.

The fresh face mask stand at Lush (Image: Alice Kavanagh)Sarah continued: “With more space is more products for one but there’s also more space for customer experience, we’re keen to be offering sit down, on skin, facials, demonstrations, and having this dedicated space for parties will make it extra special for people celebrating.

“I think excitement is the theme of today. We love being a part of the York high street and we’re excited to offer lovely fresh handmade treats. We love our customers, and we can’t wait to invite them in.”