The revamped Sephora Takashimaya is clearly designed to reward their VIPs. If you aren’t a gold member yet, just spend $1,500 in a calendar year to qualify. Most tempting of its gold member privileges is the introduction of its Personal Shopper experience, that is exclusive to this outlet. Book your slot online or via the Sephora app (iPhone users, click here; Android, here), and get treated to a dedicated hour-long personalised shopping experience with a team of specially trained personal shoppers. What you’ll get in that session is a welcome hand massage (complete with a warm towel and done using a Jo Malone cream), beverage, skin analysis  and expert advice on skincare and makeup.

You can also book a complimentary makeover and hairstyling service once a month (for that special dinner date or just to pamper yourself), and get free engraving service with any fragrance or lipstick purchased.

Sephora Takashimaya is the first store in South-east Asia to offer Skincredible, a skincare consultation service that helps you determine your skin needs. The personal shopper will place the tool on three parts of your face (forehead, cheek and chin) to tell you how your skin fares on moisture levels, and the appearance of wrinkles and enlarged pores so the algorithm can curate a list of product recommendations customised to your skin needs. Your personal shopper will then narrow it down by asking leading questions about your preferences and lifestyle habits. It’s part of the Gold Member Personal Shopping experience, but is also free for all Sephora beauty pass members (sign up for free, if you haven’t already) as well as walk-in shoppers on a first-come-first-served basis.

Like most of the Sephora outlets, the newly revamped Takashimaya store is segregated into sections according to broad categories – skincare, makeup, fragrances, and a small section for hair care. But what’s different here is the addition of what the brand calls Discovery Bars. It is to highlight or showcase a certain brand to tempt you to discover them (thus, the name) and helps keep your shopping experience from becoming staid. There are two in the fragrance section, and one in the skincare section (yes, that’s the one with the sink), where brands will be displayed on a rotation every two weeks. While we think the fragrance Discovery Bars are nothing to shout about (they do make trying out of fragrances less intimidating, somehow), we like the addition of the sink, which adds a homey touch and really draws home the emphasis on how Sephora wants to make the in-store shopping experience feel more relatable and interactive.

Sephora Takashimaya is the first outlet to have what it calls a Fragrance Boutique. You can’t miss the Jo Malone counter which stands at the corner of the store (beside the Armani Exchange boutique), and the dedicated shelves for Aerin, Miller Harris and Loewe, as they take their places among their counterparts. That, and the earlier mentioned two Discovery Bars, make this outlet a great stop for trying out new fragrances, because of the new brands available and how the layout lets the fragrance section take centrestage.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re geeking out as Pat McGrath Labs takes its rightful place among the rest of the beauty giants in the Sephora Takashimaya store. It was previously only available online and has a small end-cap shelf space at Sephora Ion featuring only its lipsticks. You can find makeup palettes, eyeshadow pots and more at its new and latest home in Sephora Takashimaya. Adding to our excitement is also finding out that Drunk Elephant, Dr Dennis Gross and Sephora Collection will have expanded shelf spaces, so their fans can spot them more easily.

We’ve all been there. Whether you have one or 25 items in your shopping basket, you join the snaking queue at the cashier counter hoping to pay and make a quick getaway only to find yourself suddenly becoming like a kid at a candy store with the myriad of offerings that are bombarding you at the shelves that mark the queues. At Sephora Takashimaya, the mini-sized products are placed in shelves of their own, to minimise distractions. The redemption gifts are also placed on a shelf end at the skincare section, so you won’t have to jostle your way to the cashier to find out what they are.

Okay, we’re not terribly excited about this but since it’s complimentary, why not, right?