THE next time you go into a spa, don't just walk out straight away. Take the time to walk around before you leave, for you might be able to find some pretty interesting products to buy.

This is because spas are becoming increasingly popular as alternative retail spaces, stocking mainly unique or cult beauty brands, albeit in smaller quantities compared with the department stores.

One such example would be Digital Crown Holdings Pte Ltd (DCHL) which has recently started selling French cosmetic brand Ed Pinaud at their spa - Estebel Spa. The company chose to sell at the spa because they wanted to keep things niche.

"We decided to sell it at our spa as we are reaching out to our existing VIP customers. We want to keep it exclusive, and to prevent it from becoming a mass brand," says DCHL's spokesperson Sally Huang.

"It might be less accessible to the masses, but with adequate publicity and education, the masses who are interested in Ed Pinaud would come to us naturally. This would actually help maintain the exclusivity of the products."

Another spa that has managed to get rights from well-known international beauty brands is the Spa Esprit Group. The group managed to secure exclusive rights to cult New York brands like Malin + Goetz and Co as well as an Eastern European organic brand called Eminence.

Says its founder Cynthia Chua: "These products complement the spa itself. We understand that people cannot come for a massage every day, so we provide them with a solution by offering them products that help them to relax at home.

"For example, if you buy a peppermint scrub from Malin + Goetz, the relaxing smell and effects of the scrub helps you to get by a trying week."

Other spas like Spa Botanica and GLOW International use their spas as platforms to stock and sell their in-house brands (Spa Botanica and NUDE make-up respectively).

As a bonus, selling at their own existing spas naturally mean that no additional rent would be incurred, keeping costs lower. It also helps to buy them time to build up the brand.

Says GLOW's owner Lily Kew: "We need time to find the right retail partner to work with and to properly train our staff.

"Mineral make-up (which Nude is) application is different from the conventional type. It can only be applied with a kabuki brush with quick and circular strokes. GLOW would like to take the time to educate their existing customers first before opening it up to the masses."

Apart from spas, many other independent brands have been making their way into the Singapore beauty market. At least six new brands, including Benefit, Sephora, Clinelle and Sugarbaby have been launched in the last year alone.

Unfazed by the competition from big beauty groups the likes of L'Oreal, Luxasia and Estee Lauder, these brands tend to be brought in by small cosmetic companies that survive mainly by catering to a more niche clientele.

A good example would be APOTHECARY + CO that is bringing cult make-up brand ModelCo.

Clearly unafraid of the big guns in the market, APOTHECARY + CO's marketing manager Michelle Yow says: "We are confident that ModelCo has its niche in today's market. Today's consumers are becoming wiser and more discerning than before.

They are more likely to be more well travelled and hence more aware of international brands that are not available locally.

"We did a poll in our retail outlet, APOTHECARY + CO, over the past year and at least three out of every 10 customers mentioned ModelCo. This gives a good indication of the sort of demand for such cult brands with a niche status, compared with mass market brands."

That is not to say that being small doesn't come with problems. The biggest of which must be advertising dollars for as smaller outfits, they inevitably lack the deep pockets of the bigger groups.

Hard though it may be, it is not impossible to make it big. Take Palmers, for example. The brand managed to become a big hit worldwide despite not being a part of a big group. The trick it seemed, was to focus on the quality of the products themselves. Unable to compete with the huge budgets of the big groups, Palmers has been attracting customers by giving out samples of their products.

And it worked. Their Cocoa Butter Formula is the category leader in USA and their Formula Stretch Mark is the best selling stretch mark product in Guardian in Singapore.

Says Mr Daniel Dean, Asia Pacific regional director of E T Browne that distributes Palmers: "The strategy was born out of the unique qualities of the product.

"The product is so good that the strategy was to get as many people to try it as possible. Once people try it they are addicted!"

And sometimes, being small is the way they like it.

ays Spa Esprit's Chua: "The brands that we bring in are exclusive. They are not for the masses. We don't intend to be mass. We only want to sell to people who understand the product."

Mass or otherwise, one thing's for sure though: the beauty industry in Singapore is certainly on a roll, and will be for some time yet.