Beauty addicts love to stay ahead of the curve. And Nicky Kinnaird, the founder of the British chain of beauty stores Space. NK Apothecary, is now helping New Yorkers feed that passion. This month, Ms. Kinnaird opened her first American store on a stretch of Greene Street in SoHo alongside Louis Vuitton, Jill Stuart, and Kirna Zabête.

Ms. Kinnaird tracks down high-end cult favorite products before they become household names. She travels and relies on word-of-mouth beauty buzz to find worthy selections by little-known companies throughout Europe and Asia while also choosing brands from big-name companies that she feels are remarkable.

“We offer a highly edited assortment of products that have both international appeal, and products that have never before been seen in the United States,” Ms. Kinnaird said.

Space.NK offers skin care, makeup, hair-care, perfume, bath and body, and men’s toiletries. Americans will recognize names like Nars, Laura Mercier, Dr. Brandt, Peter Thomas Roth, and Frederick Fekkai. But they’ll also find lesser-known, and sometimes harder to find brands like Tracie Martyn, Lipstick Queen, Susan Posnick, and By Terry.

Visitors from Europe might be familiar with some of the other lines, such as Eve Lom, named for the Czech-born facialist with several salons in London. She’s the creator of the store’s best seller: a facial cleanser made of oils, which British Vogue magazine called “probably the best cleanser in the world.”

Another name that might not be familiar in this country is Dr. Marko Lens, an Italian plastic surgeon who studied at Harvard and Oxford, and created the popular, antioxidant-heavy Zelens skin care line in Britain.

“The United States continuously interested me as a point of expansion for Space. NK. We have had very strong online and mail order sales from the U.S. and received many requests from consumers and vendors,” Ms. Kinnaird said.

The company plans to open four more locations in the metropolitian area this year, as well as one in Los Angeles.

And local Brits have been cheerily stumbling upon the familiar shop while strolling through SoHo — the New York SoHo, that is. “We’ve had a lot of English people walk in. One woman was like, ‘You’re here! I don’t have to go home anymore to get my favorite things,'” the store manager, Brandy Cusamano, said.

Customers who are looking for European products they’ve seen in magazines or who have received beauty recommendations from overseas acquaintances are in luck, too. A shopper named Diane was pleased to see the French eye cream AR457, made with argan tree oil, which came recommended by a friend in England. “She said this stuff is amazing. I’m surprised to find it,” she said.

The atmosphere in Space.NK is light and airy, with recessed lighting, soaring ceilings, and elegant millwork showcasing the products, which are precisely lined upon glass shelves with an almost museum-like reverence. Heavy magnifying-glass plates announce each brand, while French music plays softly in the background.

“I wanted to provide a quality of service that is equivalent to that of a French pharmacy,” Ms. Kinnaird said. “Where you come in, describe an ailment and then receive a customized solution by skin care experts capable of providing unbiased advice across all brands.”

The staff at Space.NK are trained makeup artists who can teach you new techniques at one of five huge makeup stations throughout the space. Or you can play with the goodies yourself. There are also two rooms reserved for facial treatments with Eve Lom products. Space.NK secures exclusive or limited distribution deals for some collections, including Zelens, Eve Lom, and Lola Kelly, a skin care regimen created by Parisian pharmacist Fabienne Kelly. Exclusives are also on offer from SheerinO’kho, an organic skin care line, and French-favorite Huiles & Baumes.

“Many brands bring us in early onintheprocess, sometimeseven during production or six months before the items are set to hit the shelves,” Ms. Kinnaird said. “That way, wecancontinuebringingour customers products that they’ve never seen before.”

Nick Arrojo — the British hair stylist seen on TLC’s “What Not To Wear” and owner of Arrojo Studio — stopped by recently to teach the staff about his debut line of hair-care products that are available currently only at Space.NK.

The shop also boasts a proprietary brand, SPA NK. It includes bath and body treatments, makeup brushes, candles, men’s products, and fragrances, including several by perfumer Christopher Sheldrake, who is now the director of research and development for Chanel Fragrance.

Ms. Kinnaird’s original shop, which opened in 1993 in London’s Covent Garden, was a busy hybrid that sold clothes and design objects, and also featured a beauty apothecary and juice bar. But the beauty business soon took precedence.

“Until this point, beauty products were primarily available at department stores or high-street drug stores in the U.K.,” Ms. Kinnaird said. “I thought that by creating a space where the best brands and products from innovators and experts in their fields were available was an obvious solution.”

And a good one, too.