Beauty Store Simulator

Beauty Store Simulator puts you behind the register of a cosmetics and fashion shop, restocking shelves, pricing products, hiring staff, and slowly expanding from a single cramped storefront into a full beauty empire. Developed by NovaraGames and published by PlayWay S.A., it released on 10 April 2026 for $9.99 on Windows and macOS. This review's research found a "Very Positive" review sample (166 of 190 total, 87.4%) built on real fondness for the genre's now-familiar stock-and-serve loop, set against a genuine and specific stretch of developer silence that shaped much of the game's early reputation before a substantial update turned things around.

A cozy loop reviewers compare directly to Supermarket Simulator

The clearest reference point in this review's research was Supermarket Simulator, invoked repeatedly and specifically rather than as a vague genre gesture. One reviewer described the game as "basically the exact model down to the tools you use," while another summarized the appeal simply: "I love playing in this loop and I enjoy these games." A more detailed endorsement praised the flexibility baked in from day one, specifically calling out options to "turn off shop lifters, events or weather" and an in-game bank loan system with an early payoff option — concrete, checkable features rather than generic "lots of options" praise.

Steep prices, daily rent, and stuck stockers

Set against that praise, this review's research found specific early-game friction. One reviewer objected directly to starting economics, writing that "the PRICES FOR SOME OF THE PRODUCTS that you start out with are insane" and questioning why "rent being due DAILY" rather than on a longer cycle, describing the early hours as a tight, punishing squeeze rather than a gentle onramp. A separate, more mechanical complaint recurred around staff behavior: one reviewer detailed how "the stockers will pick up ordered boxes but then be unable to stock anything else until their box is emptied," creating avoidable bottlenecks precisely when a store gets busy — a specific, fixable system complaint rather than a vague pacing gripe.

A real, months-long silence, and reviewers who called it "abandoned"

The most serious thread in this review's research wasn't a design complaint but a support one. Multiple reviewers explicitly described the game as abandoned, with one writing bluntly, "game abandoned by developer already focus on other game don't waste your money," and another going further: "devs promised updates months ago and then disappeared and won't respond to anyone on the Steam discussions or Discord." This review's research found that complaint genuinely corroborated by the game's own news history: after a flurry of four patches in the first week following launch, the developer's next public update didn't land until nearly four months later — a real, verifiable gap that lines up with when these complaints were posted, not an exaggeration.

The gap explained, and the missing features finally delivered

That August update, titled simply "Major Update Now Live!", directly acknowledged the silence rather than ignoring it: "the reason this update took so long is that we've been working on something huge: a COMPLETE OVERHAUL of the game's core engine," the developer wrote, describing a full rebuild aimed at improving performance "even on laptops." Crucially, this review's research found the update also delivered the two features reviewers had most vocally been waiting on: a Steam achievement system ("every milestone in your store's journey will now be recorded") and a store decoration system covering walls, floors, and shelf colors. One earlier negative review had specifically complained that "there will be achievements, there will be this and that" was promised and never delivered — a complaint this update answers directly, even if it arrived later than reviewers wanted.

A generic-feeling genre entry to some, with one unconfirmed AI-art complaint

Not every reviewer came away convinced the reskin adds enough of its own identity: one review described it flatly as "same generic game with lifeless NPCs exactly as the other games of this genre," a fair complaint given how closely the core loop tracks its inspirations. A smaller, distinct concern came from a reviewer who flagged the shop's decorative wall posters as apparently AI-generated artwork, tying it to a broader complaint about "the copy paste model of the game." This review's research could not independently verify that claim from Steam's public storefront data, so it's reported here as a specific reviewer observation rather than a confirmed fact about the game's asset pipeline.

An achievement system too new to read as a real difficulty curve

Because the achievement system only shipped with the August Major Update, this review's research treats the resulting completion data as an early snapshot rather than a mature curve: the most-earned achievement, "FullyStocked," sits at 26.4% after roughly a month in the wild, and the rest fall off steadily from there down to a handful of sub-1% late-game milestones tied to running a fully expanded, multi-department salon. That's a far lower "easiest achievement" ceiling than games that shipped achievements at launch tend to show, but it mostly reflects how recently the system arrived rather than a genuine barrier to entry — worth watching over the coming months rather than reading as a verdict on the game's accessibility today.

Beauty Store Simulator lands as a competent, cozy entry in an increasingly crowded shop-sim genre, whose real strength — and real stumble — both show up clearly in its own history: a fun, flexible core loop that won people over quickly, undercut by a genuine four-month support gap serious enough that reviewers reasonably called the game abandoned before it wasn't. The Major Update's frank explanation and substantive feature delivery go a meaningful way toward repairing that trust, but anyone buying in today should weigh the game's demonstrated willingness to go quiet for months at a time against its clear capacity to eventually deliver on what it promises.