Ingrid FowlerSave this storySave this story
Ever wonder what it’s like shopping with a beauty editor? Welcome to Counter Service, a series where we visit our favorite beauty boutiques IRL. We’re visiting the curated spaces and places that make shopping in person oh-so fun—and you’re coming with. On a balmy winter day in Los Angeles, Shanna Shipin, Allure’s senior shopping director, visited Flamingo Estate’s Los Angeles pop-up shop to get into the sensorial holiday spirit.
As enticing as the entrance: Free two-hour parking in the back.
Ingrid Fowler
Floor to ceiling gorgeosity.
Ingrid Fowler
About a quarter block down, you can smell it. Damask rose, peppermint, and rosemary—the scent wafts along Figueroa, the busy Highland Park street where Flamingo Estate’s holiday pop-up is perched in Northeast Los Angeles.
In This StoryLargeChevron
- Bushels to Beauty, and Back Again
- The Holiday Harvest Shop
- Wrapping Up
- Shop Flamingo Estate
Bushels to Beauty, and Back Again
Long before it launched an experiential arm, Flamingo Estate was a farm box company founded by Richard Christiansen, formerly of Chandelier Creative, a legendary New York-based creative agency with a roster including Hermès, Cartier, and, more recently, Rhode. While that last client was post-Christiansen’s departure, his background as a creative director is as crucial as his upbringing on a rural Australian farm; who else could turn humble produce shipments into lusted-after luxury deliveries? I relocated from New York City to my hometown of Los Angeles during the pandemic, and without entirely joking, I would tell people I moved because the hustle was a lot—that, and the lack of good citrus. A real homecoming was had, then, when I returned in 2021 and immediately signed up for the locally famous farm boxes.
A few years later, Flamingo Estate has emerged as a globally recognized lifestyle brand that doesn’t just curate high-quality produce and pantry essentials, but has also launched bath and body products, candles, books, and, oh, just a few cultural moments. The Heirloom Tomato Candle arguably sparked the entire tomato girl movement of painting our fragrance wardrobes a bright, juicy red. (As Christiansen notes, “It has always been our number-one selling product, and much copied by other brands (but never perfected),” a potential Loewe dig that adds to lore). Then there are the various celebrity collaborations, my favorite of which has to be the limited-run Pamela’s Pickles, inspired by a recipe handed down to Pamela Anderson by her great aunt.
Hand cream secured.
Ingrid Fowler
A+ tablescaping.
Ingrid Fowler
As a beauty editor, I’ve found the most fascinating growth to be in Flamingo Estate’s beauty assortment. Take the Manuka Rich Cream—which felt entirely organic to the brand, considering Christiansen’s parents are beekeepers. And just this year, the Exfoliating Peppermint Soap Brick earned an Allure Best of Beauty Award in the body category. I tested the latter for our awards, and there’s always something exciting about seeing a red-seal product in the wild, watching customers discover its magic, too.
The Holiday Harvest Shop
The corner store shares a wall with the company’s LA headquarters and workshop. When I arrived at the mossy green building, I almost walked in through the back door where its soap bars are produced (one hundred at a time). I didn’t miss out on any sort of sensorial or tactile experience, though—the smelling, the touching, the feeling, the tasting! I got it all when I swung around to the front entrance.
The first thing that hits you is the sight of rosemary and sage bunches hanging from the ceiling. Peeking out from above them is a hand-painted mural of pink flowers, a gentle juxtaposition to the green-drenched interior. The space itself is a small footprint, and although it's filled with candles, soap bricks, and jars of honey everywhere you look, it doesn’t feel crowded. There’s one worker set behind a wooden apothecary-like counter, and Flamingo Estate’s office manager, Alex, who is on olive oil-tasting duty in one corner of the store. Above them, dried peppers serve as an edible crown molding.
I wish you had smell-o-vision right now.
Ingrid Fowler
Dream kitchen alert!
Ingrid Fowler
Each wall is flanked by a checkerboard of products and the brand’s holiday gift boxes—each with a cross-stitch design that feels all at once new and nostalgic. The beauty products are on one side; the pantry essentials are on the other, and the center counter is home to a show-stopping floral arrangement. True to the brand’s ethos of respecting the lifecycles of the natural world, the centerpiece isn’t replaced with a new bouquet each week; instead, stems are swapped out organically until it's transformed into a new arrangement entirely.
There are persimmons dotting the base of the vase, which are found all over Los Angeles (including my mom’s backyard), and not coincidentally, in my favorite vinegar from Flamingo Estate. Next to them is an array of treats, including the seasonal (and viral) Spicy Strawberry Fruit Snacks made from Harry’s Berries morsels, which were noted as having “juice-dribbling texture” in The New York Times. It’s just the kind of if-you-know-you-know touch the brand is so adept at bringing to each product. The last thing I notice is a woven basket on the checkerboard floor with dog toys shaped like various Flamingo Estate items, an ode to Christiansen’s two beloved Cocker Spaniels.
Wrapping Up
The shop is curated with precision, yet the effect is one of ease, making it just the sort of space you want to find yourself in when shopping for thoughtful home items or gifts for anyone in your life. No pressure to check out; you feel rich whether you walk out with the $90 fig oil or not. That’s the trick with Flamingo Estate, and indeed anything done well: It’s deceptively simple. There’s a depth you can only capture in person—holding the weight of decadent soap bars, the look on your loved one’s face when they unwrap a candle inspired by their favorite dessert, the warmth of sharing really good olive oil and bread with strangers.
As I’m leaving, my Prinsesstårta Set beautifully packaged in hand, I’m wistful in the way you sometimes get during Christmas. I’m sad it’s over before I’m out of the door. But not to worry: The shop will be open through the end of the year, and the brand has a few more pop-ups planned. There’s one for Valentine’s Day, another for Mother’s Day, and Flamingo Estate’s first permanent location will open in 2026 in Los Angeles. Emerald City, here we come.
I’ll take one of everything, thanks!
Ingrid Fowler
And we’re off—time to wrap these gifts.
Shanna Shipin
Shop Flamingo Estate
You can shop Flamingo Estate directly on its website, at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and surely at a chic boutique near you. Here are some picks I love for the holiday season.
Prinsesstårta Fragrance Oil
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Flamingo Estate
Prinsesstårta Fragrance Oil
Nordstrom
Holiday shopping isn’t complete without a gift for yourself, right?
Ingrid Fowler
The Prinsesstårta Candle is perhaps my favorite item from Flamingo Estate. I’m a gourmand girl, especially during the holidays, and while you could absolutely gift the candle, let them eat, or wear, cake. This newest iteration of the brand’s Prinsesstårta theme is a lovely oil with marzipan and vanilla notes, along with amber, Oakmoss, and lemon to ground the scent and keep it from becoming cloying. In the store, I went back to roll this fragrance on my wrists no less than three times.
Bestsellers Set
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Flamingo Estate
Bestsellers Set
Flamingo Estate
My kind of Jenga tower.
Ingrid Fowler
Yes, Flamingo Estate started in the garden with edible goods, but gifting soap—one of the brand’s signature bricks—is a can’t-miss situation. Accompanying the Allure 2025 Best of Beauty Award-winning Peppermint Soap Brick is the opportunity to help your loved ones laugh in the face of precipitation by lighting up the popular tomato candle in the dead of winter.
Mini Jasmine & Rose Rich Cream
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Flamingo Estate
Mini Jasmine & Rose Rich Cream
Flamingo Estate
Once you go nice-hand-cream, you never go back.
Ingrid Fowler
The mini Jasmine & Rose hand cream is the perfect stocking stuffer your giftee will not want to leave the house without. This is a fabulous scent as a candle, but the sheen the cream leaves on your hands is sublime. (I prefer it over the Manuka version, which is a bit too rich for me as an everyday product.) You'll also be gifting them the ritual of cupping their just-moisturized hands over their nose and taking a deep inhale with every application.
Three Sisters Candle Set
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Flamingo Estate
Three Sisters Candle Set
Flamingo Estate
So cute, it’s us!
Ingrid Fowler
I’m one of three sisters, and I hope my siblings don’t read this story too soon, because otherwise their Christmas gift will be spoiled. This gift set completely surprised me in the store—it was so fun to pop open a box and find these petite candles. I love the idea of me and my sisters lighting these candles at the same time in our three different homes.
The Garden Tour
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Flamingo Estate
The Garden Tour
Flamingo Estate
When you’re tired of that other hand soap, try this one.
Ingrid Fowler
The one product I keep stocked in my bathrooms? Rosemary Clary Sage Hand Soap. It’s what you want your hands to smell like after washing. Plus, Flamingo Estate updated its packaging just eight weeks ago, and while I initially missed the tall jewel-toned bottles the soap and body washes used to be housed in, seeing the new vessels in their glory—meticulously aligned on shelves—was so beautiful. You can get the soap and body wash, along with other garden essentials, in this beautiful gift set to stock their home (and promptly visit).
The Guide to Becoming Alive
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Flamingo Estate
The Guide to Becoming Alive
Amazon
Flamingo Estate
The title says it all.
Ingrid Fowler
While the brand’s first book, Fridays From the Garden, is filled with gorgeous recipes and is an ode to its roots, this latest work is all about food for the soul. You’ll find words, thoughts, and advice from the likes of Jane Goodall, Martha Stewart, Jane Fonda, and so many more inspiring people with unique perspectives on, well, getting your hands in the dirt (literal or proverbial). It’s a lovely kind of sentiment to gift the person looking for renewal in the coming year—and aren’t we all, always?
