Smallest little shop in Burlingame

Owner Linda Bullis moved into the space 25 years ago selling Avon, the popular cosmetics and skincare line known for beauty advisors who sell the product directly to customers.

At the time, she was sharing the tiny space with other entrepreneurial women, but they quickly left the storefront. Bullis, however, stayed, expanding the Avon business to include consignment items.

“After four months, the girls were just dropping off, and I stayed on,” she said. “I also started adding consignment, and I was doing well, and the rent was really reasonable for me to do the business.”

Bullis still sells the most popular Avon products to a few loyal clientele through the storefront but, for the most part, she’s adapted her business with the times. Now, she focuses mostly on selling vintage clothing pieces of all kinds, from spangled tops to shoes to costume jewelry.

She also lists the pieces on eBay, an online marketplace for goods of all kinds. That, alongside a bartending job, keeps her in business in what is undoubtedly Burlingame’s smallest shop, she said.

The market for shopping is changing, Bullis said, with younger generations of women preferring those online options to the in-person experience she grew up on.

“When I was young, I loved thrift stores, and my sister and I would like to go rummage through jewelry at flea markets and things like that,” she said. “I enjoy that.”

But for those in San Mateo County who still enjoy the tangible feeling of fabrics on their fingers and a rainbow of colors on display, BellaLuna Boutique’s unique interior — where customers are face-to-face with wares on either wall — may be for them. Other shops in Burlingame — like Velvet 48, a downtown wine bar — also have a small storefront, but the space expands as customers walk back.

That’s not the case at BellaLuna, where customers are surrounded with unique, beautiful pieces from the moment they step foot inside. Some people love it, and others don’t — particularly men, Bullis said with a laugh.

“They're overwhelmed. They don't like anything this cluttered,” she said. “[Some] people call it clutter. Some people call it unique. Some people call it a little shop in New York. People call it like a little shop in Italy.”