Aesop Ponsonby

The heart of the high-ceilinged space is occupied by a capacious central counter hewn from Greywacke, a grey-green sedimentary rock with pronounced, angular grains of quartz, feldspar and other rock fragments set in a compact matrix of clay and sand. The stone is present throughout New Zealand’s alps and, due to its mechanical properties and durability, is used as gravel on the country’s roads and as aggregate in concrete construction. Here, however, the mineral is treated as if it were refined marble, its irregularities polished and admired. By coincidence, aggregates of the same stone were revealed in the concrete screed that had been hidden by the previous tenant’s parquet floor—creating a certain serendipitous correspondence between old and new. In a nod to the region’s strong industrial past, custom-made cast steel basins, wax-moulded from recycled and re-melted metal, are set into the Greywacke table. Their form was dictated by the logic of an Aesop product demonstration, where customers can explore our formulations for the skin, hair and body directly onto their skin, and receive individualised advice from dexterous consultants. Enveloping the perimeter of the room, shelves crafted from amber-hued Kauri timber echo the colour of the jars and bottles they support. This New Zealand wood, little-known outside the country, was encountered in the form of dusty planks recovered from nearby demolition sites. Planing and notching the timber brought out its inherent warmth and allowed for an instinctive method of assembly, without nails or screws. Tucked away in the depths of the store, a petite room lined with Greywacke cabinets offers customers the opportunity to immerse themselves in our world of nonconformist Eaux de Parfum. In this domain of sedimentary serenity, the atmosphere shifts to something moodier and more private, allowing customers to linger, discern their olfactory preferences, and savour their chosen scent.