Tower 28 built its first standalone popup space for community, not commerce

Beauty brand popups are nothing new. But a beauty popup with no products for sale? That might be.

Tower 28, a beauty brand focused on sensitive skin founded in 2019, brought its brand to life in two back-to-back, notably not-retail-heavy, popup experiences this fall. The first, a collaboration with Jell-O called Jell-o-teria spotlighting the brands’ upcoming co-branded lip product, offered visitors Jell-O-inspired frozen yogurt, exclusive merch, a raffled PR box prize, and Jell-O product samples at a stand in Venice, California.

Then, two days later, Tower 28 opened up its first physical storefront—although it aimed to function less like a traditional retail shop than a community center, bringing nearly 2,000 visitors through the doors. Called the Sensitive Club, the pop-up space was designed with the goal of engaging new and existing fans of the brand, Amy Liu, Tower 28’s founder and CEO, told us. At Sensitive Club, visitors could get shade-matched for the brand’s new Swipe Serum Foundation, refill bottles of the brand’s SOS Spray toner, and purchase limited-edition merch. While there were plenty of opportunities to get hands-on with the brand’s products, none were for sale, a tactic that Liu hopes will encourage focus on true community-building.

“This really is not to make money. To be honest with you, I’m pretty certain we will not make money,” she said before the pop-up opened. “I know it sounds silly, but honestly, the intention here is really more love and depth of relationship.”

Beauty besties

Popups have become a go-to way to connect with consumers, driving brand awareness, buzz, and often providing an opportunity for direct product sales. Recent beauty brand popups have certainly exemplified the latter: Rhode’s Summer Station tour, which kicked off in Newport, Rhode Island, in June, functioned mainly as a novel way for fans to buy its latest bronzer and lip products, while Shinsegae Hyper Ground, a K-beauty pop-up, is bringing more than 30 K-beauty brands to a New York mall space for several months this fall, encouraging visitors to discover and buy new products.

For Tower 28, sales is taking a back seat to a sense of connection it would rather cultivate. Liu said she felt inspired around the time that the brand hosted an open casting call for models with sensitive skin last year; at the resulting photo shoot, Liu said she watched Tower 28 enthusiasts meet and mingle with each other. Later, she said, she heard about two women who attended the casting call and became best friends.

“I thought, God, what a gift it is to be able to find your people in life,” she said.

In the case of the Sensitive Club, Liu said the aim was to create a more physical space where the brand’s fans could meet each other, “creating community amongst our community.” She hopes learnings from the pop-up can build a foundation for the brand to continue hosting more events in the future.

Despite the community lens of today, Tower 28’s growth as a brand so far has been fueled by distribution, Liu said, including TikTok Shop and Amazon. According to Beauty Matter, the brand, which recently expanded to Sephora Middle East, is a “global nine-figure business”; per data from YipitData cited by Beauty Matter, the brand has generated $119 million in gross merchandise value in the last year.

Liu also credits some of the brand’s growth to its doubled presence in Sephora stores, going from one bay to two (the equivalent of four product shelves to eight, she said). And though audiences have a way to physically interact with the brand in Sephora locations, she said there’s still a sense of separation in stores that she’s hoping IRL events like the Sensitive Club will bridge.

“It’s hard to create community. But it’s especially hard to create community when your relationship with your customer is, by definition, structurally disintermediated,” Liu said, noting that Tower 28’s audience mainly interacts with the brand in Sephora stores, which served as a partner on the Sensitive Club popup. “It makes it even more important for us to try to have a relationship with our customer by doing these types of things, because otherwise, really, Sephora owns a relationship with that customer, not us.”

Wear your love

Though no products were available for purchase, the Sensitive Club sold exclusive merchandise, including hoodies, hats, and tote bags. Liu said that even with a price attached, the merch items aim to provide a way for people who feel particularly connected to Tower 28 to identify themselves with the brand and community further.

“It feels like people are maybe more excited to go to concerts, sports games. They’re wanting that thing that is bespoke to that experience because so many other things have been really commoditized,” she said. “My hope is that maybe somebody is wearing this and somebody else is wearing theirs, or they see someone and they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re my person.’”

Visitors also received an exclusive pin shaped literally like a safety pin meant to represent acceptance. Overall, Liu said she hopes the event imbues brand fans with a sense of belonging, which she said is central to the brand’s overall message.

“I want people to feel like when you’re with us, we’re not going to be judging your skin,” Liu said.