Two decades ago, the lighting for Aesop’s first stores was set deliberately low and warm, offering a serene space where people could talk about intimate topics such as their skin and hair condition. For French architect Marianne Lardilleux, the mastermind of Aesop’s retail design since 2019, lighting is a key first step in ‘caring about people’s ease’, and equally, provides a calming backdrop where people come to care for themselves.