Hey everyone! I'm just going to recount what happened as I walked past Toys R Us, almost going past Target on level 2 in Hurstville Westfield on 1st July 2012.
I'm walking at a slightly fast rate, when I look up and see an Asian woman in front of me in a white jacket, holding up her phone to the left direction, as if she was taking a photo. I follow the 'line' created by where her phone camera was facing to the what was taking a photo of. Like as if it was an arrow lol.
Guess what? I see a gleaming picture of a young Korean Asian man, Kim Hyun Joong, with a brilliant white, teethy smile. If you haven't heard of him, I'm explaining in detail later down this post hehe. The background of this picture was foliage, he was the focus. This woman was taking a picture of him, but what was he doing in Hurstville Westfield? It was a mystery. My eyes wandered a metre to the right. I saw the words of a famous Korean brand's logo, 'The Face Shop' in caps along with the words 'Coming Soon' also in caps. I was absolutely stunned; The Face Shop was going to open in Hurstville! Who could have imagined this moment coming true, especially a Korean cosmetics & skincare branded shop opening in a suburb that was probably never classified as being remotely a Koreatown? I was excited on the inside once I saw the words The Face Shop plastered over this closed up, white walled "I'm under construction in Westfield" shop front that was going to be a new The Face Shop branch. I was absolutely stunned, like 'is this for real?'. Thank you very much to the marketing genius who proposed to put TFS in Hurstville! Now you know I'm definitely going to be spending some money now. :P
I'm really happy because I don't need to go to Town Hall in the city to get my TFS goodies in The Galleries Victoria anymore, and putting it in Hurstville is really convenient for me because it's near the locality I have lived by whole life! So I would rate the effectiveness of putting a TFS in Hurstville is a A++ for me, personally. :) Also it's nice to think that Korean cosmetic and skincare companies are slowly being more active by taking a further step by opening another branch in Australia, which is lacking in both brands of Korean makeup & skin care available and Kpop. We don't even have a Skinfood or Tonymoly official store here yet, but I'm glad TFS made another store in Sydney because not everyone lives in the city! We have a city Missha store by the way, and we never had a smtown here before ):
I'm not sure when they're opening exactly but according to this job listing by The Face Shop on Gumtree Australia it's in July. Somewhere in July... Gosh I want it to open by the time it's 17th July because I am truely excited. I love their sheet masks and I'm interested in trying out their other skincare and makeup and probably their nail polishes. TFS is one of my favourite brands overall, but nothing beats another greatly priced Korean skincare & cosmetics brand, Tonymoly on my list, hehe.
Also I stupidly did not take a picture of the shopfront under construction, really sorry. But I will on 17th July and will definitely update all of you when it opens. ^__^
If you would like to check the unique under construction shopfront out or just take a pic of KHJ, TFS is on level 2 in Hurstville Westfield, near the newly opened jewellery store Louvisa, Target, Bras N Things, and Toys R Us and the escalators. It's kind of opposite Insport. Hopefully I have helped. :)
For details on getting to Hurstville Westfield, it's literally a 2 min walk from Hurstville Train Station and many buses (such as the m91 from Parramatta and m41 from Macquarie, Burwood, Concord, Croydon Park) literally stop in front of Hurstville Westfield and at the Hurstville Bus Interchange which is 5 mins from Westfield. If you're heading by car, there's heaps of free parking in Hurstville Westfield (there's no carparking tickets here), maybe not at lunch hour (noon to 2pm) hehe.
Have any of you guys seen TFS as you walked past it recently in Hurstville? Or have any other thoughts suggestions about what you think about the new TFS location? Yay or nay? (Yay for me of course!) Please leave them in the comments below and I'll reply to them asap!
For those who wanted to know more about Kim Hyun Joong, he's involved in the Kpop scene, he debuted with SS501, a 5 member Kpop boy group which has since debanded unfortunately; all 5 members have made solo music debuts and Kim Hyun Joong debuted last year as a solo artist. SS501 was under the same label as the Kpop girl group of 4, Kara. Kim Hyun Joong has also made an Kdrama acting debut before. As for his association with makeup and skincare, he was previously a brand ambassador for Tonymoly in 2009/2010. And now is the brand ambassador for The Face Shop. Also my friend loves him, but I like Taemin of SHINee instead hehe. :)
--Nicky
Disclaimer: These are my own honest and independent opinions in this post and always will be. I was not, or at present, paid, asked or encouraged to represent opinions of other individuals or companies. I am not or have been affiliated with The Face Shop or Westfield or any other entity for this blog post.
