World Duty Free Beauty Shopping at Manchester Airport #JetSetBeauty

As the Head of Marketing for a luxury Swiss watch brand, I find myself travelling a lot. I spend a lot of time waiting (and working) in airports and have never really taken the time to discover the amazing deals that can truly be had at World Duty Free stores… That is until everything changed this week!

This week I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to take part in a spot of special Christmas shopping at the World Duty Free Biza store in Terminal 1 of Manchester Airport, as part of their #JetSetBeauty event. The idea was to help us complete our pre-Christmas gift shopping (and even tick off some wish list wants of our own) whilst experiencing the great tax free benefits on luxury beauty brands that can be found at airports across the UK (and in 66 countries across the world).

As well as the already amazing tax duty free discounts to be had at World Duty Free – which can see massive savings on designer and luxury beauty brands and special travel exclusive sets and sizes that aren’t available anywhere else, there is now an extra 5% off to be had on top of these existing serves! During our shopping trip, we were told about the new Duty Free loyalty reward shopping program which is run through an app called RED.

The RED app by Dufry helps you to earn points each time you shop at World Duty Free and at many other Dufry stores and partners worldwide. Plus, when you sign up to the app you automatically earn your Silver status and save 5% on all orders. That means you get an extra 5% off discount on top of all already tax free purchases at World Duty Free. Honestly, when you consider most of the beauty brands sold in World Duty Free rarely offer discount at any time (such as MAC, Dior, Chanel, Benefit Cosmetics), an extra 5% off truly blew my mind.

If you’re jetting off soon for work (or play, preferably) and don’t think you’ll have much time to soak up all the joys of duty free shopping, you can also Reserve your shopping online, and Collect before you fly, meaning you get to take all the time you want to look at the offers and even pick up items that might not be available in your local World Duty free. And you can even get your 5% off with the RED app when you pay at the till for these goodies too.

At this event, we were given the full airport experience (albeit without the boarding a plane part!) including checking into the gorgeous Radisson Blu Manchester Airport hotel, taking our passports, going through security and being greeted with the huge Biza store at Terminal 1 of Manchester Airport. We were even welcomed with a duty free Corkscrew cocktail to set us off on our shopping trips!

With it being a pretty quiet time for flights right now, we were treated to a (mostly) private shopping experience with excellent help from friendly beauty experts from key brands. We were treated to hydration demonstrations from skincare experts Clinique, including demonstrations of their revolutionary new gel texture moisturiser, the super slick Dramatically Different Hydrating Jelly. For makeup, representatives from Benefit Cosmetics were on hand to talk us through their exclusive travel sets (hello They’re Real full size duo set) and MAC Cosmetics, YSL, Urban Decay, Dior and Chanel were all on hand to give us a full demo.

Of course, duty free is probably most well known for their fragrance deals, and the perfume and aftershave on offer at World Duty Free on Biza was second to none. They do pretty much every famous fragrance you have ever heard of, including classics such as Chanel No.5, Armani, Hugo Boss and Ellie Saab to more affordable options like Calvin Klein, to even the most niche in luxury perfume, such as Replica by Maison Margiela. In fact, we were spoken through all of these scents by Michelle in the fragrance department and it was the first time I had smelt any of these and I haven’t stopped dreaming of By The Fireplace Maison Margiela Replica Eau de Toilette – it is the most sophisticated, subtle perfume I have ever tried. You can literally smell the burning fire, marshmallow scent.

Across the way from the main Biza World Duty Free store the Jo Malone Store was also on hand to talk us through their festive fragrance and body moisturiser gift sets for the ultimate luxury beauty gifts, with makeup offerings from Bobbi Brown to help us get glam for Christmas. There were even haircuts and beard trims available for the lads back in the main Biza store, too! Perfect for getting us all ready for a lovely meal and overnight stay in the amazing premium rooms at the Radisson Blu at Manchester Airport. Going to bed at night with a World Duty Free goodie bag on my bed and my new luxury beauty treats and gifts, I felt very pampered and very spoilt – totally lucky!

Honestly, for premium beauty shopping, I can’t see a better way to shop than to do it duty free. Where else can you make savings on luxury brands like Dior, Lancome and YSL and get the added benefit of having experience sales experts guide you through the best products for you and conduct demos and makeovers where you wish? Thank you World Duty Free for the Beauty Shopping Event at Manchester Airport #JetSetBeauty for opening my eyes to this!

If you are looking to stock up on your beauty stash, I would seriously recommend checking out your local World Duty Free store next time you fly. I know I will be.