Shopping in Belgium

[Downthemedow]

Off to Belgium for a few days, and distressed to find there is no Sephora there! I assumed it was like France and I would be in beauty heaven, but sadly not. Is there an alternative to Sephora?

Any recommendations for good shops (42, not too middle aged just yet, but also not a spring chicken) or things to bring back? We’ll have a car so liquids aren’t an issue.

Where are you going, it varies regionally?Something similar to Sephora are Ici Paris XL and Planet Parfum which both often have very competitive offers. There are also a lot of boutique style shops for perfume and makeup and brands but I'm most familiar with the ones in Antwerp/Flanders myself.

To Ghent and then to Brussels. I’d love to go to Antwerp too but it will have to wait for another time.

In Ghent there's Skins Cosmetics and Fin du Jour for more boutique style cosmetics. I think there's also a perfume house there where you can make custom perfumes but I've forgotten the name.

I'm not a big fan of shopping in Brussels as it's very disjointed, I mainly head for the Rue Dansaert area which has a lot of independent shops. Avenue Louise is the traditional high end shopping area, there's the odd nice shop there too. Probably of little use, but in case you're staying somewhere self catering, I love the Rob supermarket, it mainly targets wealthy expats and has all sorts of delicious things from all over the world.

Edit: oh and for chocolate, Pierre Marcolini is the one to go to, or a small independent. Neuhaus and Leonidas are fine but it's all factory made (and I do really like the filled bonbon style bars from Galler at the supermarket, cheap and surprisingly good).

Thank you! I’ll make some notes on the map.