Planet Beauty to Celebrate Grand Opening in Encino Friday

Planet Beauty, a California chain of beauty boutiques, celebrates the opening of its 30^th store Friday in Encino with free, mini cosmetic makeovers, skin treatments and hair care demonstrations.

The new store is located at Ventura Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue in the Encino Marketplace. Free gift bags will be given out to the first 100 customers who attend the grand opening from noon to 3 p.m.

The 20-year-old, privately owned company is based in Costa Mesa with stores from Santa Clara in Northern California to Del Mar near San Diego. It had been eyeing Encino as a logical addition to its current stores in Studio City and Canoga Park and in Valley-adjacent Calabasas and Westlake Village. When the site on Ventura suddenly became vacant, Planet Beauty swooped in and transformed the 2,100-square-foot space in little more than two weeks to open in time for the holidays.

For the Encino store manager, Christine Diep, the new location is the third Planet Beauty shop she’s started from the ground up. The 27-year-old has worked for the company for nine years, beginning as a part-time sales associate in the Dana Point store in Orange County and going on to open and manage the Calabasas and Westlake stores.

“I used to shop at Planet Beauty long before I ever worked there because I just love cosmetics and I’m a product junkie,” Diep said. “So, when I started working for Planet Beauty I realized what my passion was.”

Diep discovered she wanted to help others with their skin and appearance problems and was inspired to train at the International Dermal Institute in Costa Mesa and become a California state-licensed esthetician, or skin therapist.

“I feel I’m constantly learning new things because there are always new products and new ingredients and the technology is always going to get better,” she said.

The focus on personalized assistance is what Planet Beauty seeks to incorporate in all of its stores to set it apart from other beauty chains. The Encino store, like others in the chain, will carry more than 200 product lines for skin, body and hair care, plus cosmetics. Each store carries luxury, innovative and popular brands such as Smashbox, Perricone MD, GHD, Stila and Umberto Beverly Hills. The offerings will become more customized to Encino as shoppers dictate what items they prefer, Diep said.

The Encino store differs a bit from others in the chain with its warmer, white-painted wooden shelves, instead of glass, but, like the other locations, it offers facials and provides a hair salon. Over time, Diep said the Encino store will also hold events and participate in the life of the community as do the Planet Beauty stores elsewhere.

“Opening up Encino is another chapter in my life,” Diep said. “I love my job and I love my employees. It feels like a home to me.” 

Planet Beauty, 16417 Ventura Blvd., No. C-1, Encino; 818-990-1389.