It’s like Disney World, except Makeup!

– Exclaimed a girl in front of me in line who could not be older than 12 years old.

It has been one week since I have attended one of the biggest beauty festivals in the US, known as BeautyCon. I was one of those people who found out about the festival after tickets were sold out on the Beautycon website, so I set up an alert on eBay to notify me when or if anybody was going to sell their ticket. Lo and behold, I was able to snag a Saturday General Admission Pass for a great price (about $44.25)! Just to compare, one-day ticket prices were 60 bucks.

Since it’s been a couple of days since BeautyCon NYC and I had a lot of time to reflect, I figured I would give my advice and review of the beauty festival.

Sooo what, exactly, is BeautyCon?

BeautyCon is a beauty, fashion, and wellness summit held annually in both New York City and Los Angeles. Attendees are able to purchase makeup on a discount, meet their favorite YouTubers/celebrities/influencers, get their makeup professionally done, or just grab a ton of free stuff (more on this later!). You will also get a chance to watch informational panels.

When should you arrive to BeautyCon?

The site says that doors open at 12pm and that you should arrive much more earlier. And, I arrived at 11:40am (whoops). The line was pretty long when I got there, and people were just standing/shuffling around. However I can say that the line moved very quickly when the doors finally opened at around 11:57am. Plus it only took about 5 minutes from the time I entered the doors to the time I got through security and entered the main area. But once I got inside the main area of the Javitz Center, the booths’ lines were already pretty long.

So my suggestion – if you purchased a General Admission ticket, either get there very early (around 10am) or just arrive whenever you want to.

What should you wear to Beautycon?

Anything, honestly,

I saw people who were dressed up as if their life depended on it. I also saw people who dressed casually and wore just plain sneakers, sweats, and a regular t-shirt. However, I would say that probably 80% of the people there had makeup on and were dressed up.

The only sure piece of advice I can give you – wear comfortable shoes! I cannot emphasize this enough, man. After all, you will be standing a lot. While there are a few places where you can sit, I’m sure you did not pay all that money just to sit down and not enjoy the festival 🙂

Freebies, Freebies Everywhere!

If you love Freebies, then you would love BeautyCon. The vendors in the Wellness area were giving away a LOT of cool Freebies, such as snack packs, sunscreen, or even free vitamins. However, many of the freebies I received were samples and not full sized, which sucks. And yes I was one of those people who kept returning for more snacks because they were good (plus I could not find the food court). I also received free nail polish which was very good quality. I was able to imprint my initials on them too which was also cool.

Who is able to attend/what is the main age group?

They say NYC is a melting pot, and Beautycon NYC definitely showcased this.

Millenials, kids, teens, men, transgendered, elders, people from all races and religious backgrounds were there. And what was great about this is that many of the people there were very nice and accepting. As a woman of color, I did not feel out of place at all and I absolutely loved how diverse the festival was.

How were the guests panels?

I believe I spent most of my time watching the guests panels. You can see who will be in each panel/fireside chat by downloading the BeautyCon app (which is free). The panels I attended were:

• Fireside Chat with Ally Brooke and Julissa Bermudez
• Niche is the New Norm
• Glam Masters Panel
• SHEE-eo
• Humble Beginnings

The panels were very insightful and definitely lifted my spirit.My favorite panel was definitely “Nice Is The New Norm”. Everybody on this panel had a very vibrant, wonderful personality and they all constantly gave the same message – “love yourself, and stop caring about what other people think!”

Vendor Booths = What BeautyCon is all about.

Man, were the vendor booths very extravagant. I loved the creativity behind them, and every booth definitely had its own “personality”. Pictures speak a thousand words, so here are a few pictures:

However, if you love to stand, then you would also love BeautyCon. I spent, on average, 20 minutes in line for each booth. Some booths had an even longer wait time, and you wouldn’t know it until you were on line.

I was also a bit disappointed with the Korean Beauty section, mainly due to the lack of K-Beauty companies that were there. The K-Beauty section only took up a small portion of the main area in the very back – it was actually a bit hard to find. While the companies that were there didn’t disappoint, I expected there to be WAY more, especially since BeautyCon made sure to add in their headline that there will be a K-Beauty section. However, the founder of SokoGlam was there which was pretty cool.

Also, if you want to try out more booths, stay ’til the end. The place started to become a bit more empty when I was leaving towards 5:10pm.

So in summary, would I recommend going to BeautyCon?

DEFINITELY! Especially if you love fashion, beauty, and meeting others. It is also a great way to network.

However, I would also say this – one day is not enough. There were many celebrities whom I would have loved to see but were only coming on Sunday (Zendaya and Jay Versace, to name a few). Also, a few companies were giving out samples only on Sunday. I also did not get a chance to do everything I wanted to do.

Next year, I would also try to get an upgraded package so that I can arrive earlier and beat the crowd.

So what did you think of the BeautyCon festival? Will you be attending one in the future?