Beauty Base

Beauty Base is where you go when your basket contains both a Rabanne and a Lattafa and you would rather not place two orders.

The catalogue is the argument. It carries more than 200 brands, and the largest single line is not a designer house: it is Lattafa, ahead of Rabanne, Versace, Hugo Boss, Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani and YSL. Behind Lattafa sit Armaf, Arabiyat, French Avenue, Khadlaj and Bujairami. That ordering says something real about where UK fragrance buying has gone, and few retailers carry both halves of it at this depth.

Oud has its own top-level category for men and women rather than sitting under Oriental, which is a small merchandising decision that signals the category is taken seriously.

There is a beauty side too, chiefly cosmetics and Korean skincare. If you are here for fragrance you can ignore it.

A few practical things. Free UK delivery over £45. A 10% student and 16-26 discount, which is unusually specific and worth knowing if you qualify. A Fragrance Finder tool, and a Beauty Base Exclusives range you will not assemble elsewhere.

This is a shop for arriving with a name already in mind and finding it in stock at a sensible price, alongside whatever else is on the list.