The 2024 Beacon Awards is shining a light on 125 outstanding nominees across 27 beauty, wellness and personal care categories.
For the fifth annual beauty awards program produced by Beauty Independent and sponsored by International Products Group and Merit Manufacturing, there’s a wide-ranging collection of contending buzzy brands, retailers, entrepreneurs, executives and investors. The entrepreneur and executive nominees include Huda Kattan, founder and CEO of Huda Beauty, Mona Kattan, founder of Kayali, Monique Rodriguez, founder & CEO of Mielle Organics, David Chung, founder of Innovation Labs and Morae Packaging, Kimberly Villatoro, CEO of Patrick Ta Beauty, David Olsen, CEO of RMS Beauty, Mario Dedivanovic, founder of Makeup by Mario, and Susan Kim, CEO of Kopari Beauty.
Among the brands and investors scoring nominations include XRC Ventures, NewBound Ventures, Top Knot Ventures, Prelude Growth Partners, Silas Capital, Sonoma Brands Capital, Unilever Ventures, Cult Capital, Indu, The 7 Virtues, Subtl Beauty, Ultra Violette, K18, Glow Recipe, 4AM Skin, The Lip Bar, Kindred Black, Good Psyche, Lion Pose, Deinde, HigherDose, Solawave, Flower Knows, Nopalera, Alice Mushrooms, brownkind, Imaraïs Beauty and Kinship.
Bluemercury, Ayla, This is Beauty and Silver Mirror Facial Bar are the retail honorees.
The full list of 2024 Beacon Awards candidates is available here.
The Beacon Awards is highlighting emerging beauty brands, retailers and voices at a challenging time for the emerging beauty segment. Brand and retail closures and consolidations remain prevalent, external early-stage funding is declining while inflation and other pressures are testing the industry’s notorious resilience.
“The Beacon Awards was conceived during the height of the pandemic in 2020, which was a time of unprecedented challenges,” says Jane Carlson, executive editor of Beauty Independent. “There have been a lot of ups and downs since, but the Beacon Awards was created to recognize the entrepreneurs that are driving the industry forward. It is inspiring to see what these people are accomplishing even when things seem uncertain.”
Beauty Independent was established in 2017 and introduced the Beacon Awards in 2020 as the beauty industry was confronting the pandemic. Over the next several weeks, a panel of 23 expert evaluators from the industry will have the difficult task of choosing winners from the accomplished nominee cohort. The experts bring knowledge accumulated over decades about crucial aspects of beauty and wellness such as retail, funding, media and manufacturing.
“As a serial beauty entrepreneur, founder and investor, I’ve experienced firsthand the incredible talent and innovation within our industry,” says Divya Gugnani, the founder of Wander Beauty and Concept To Co founder who’s serving as an expert evaluator for the second time. “The Beacon Awards are crucial in spotlighting both established and emerging brands that are shaping the future of beauty. I’m thrilled to be part of a process that celebrates the diversity and creativity of our community. As a product development enthusiast, my favorite part of being a Beacon Awards judge is testing groundbreaking products and supporting the visionary entrepreneurs behind them.”
The expert evaluators include Ulta CEO and Beacon Award Industry Icon winner Dave Kimbell, Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price, Sundial Brands CMO Taydra Mitchell Jackson, L’Oréal group president of acquisitions Carol Hamilton, former Unilever Prestige CEO Vasiliki Petrou, KSJ Collective founder Kelly St. John, Beauty Pie founder and 2020 Beacon Awards industry icon winner Marcia Kilgore, Hero Cosmetics co-founder Ju Rhyu, Shiseido SVP of Global M&A Carla Ruiz, Caliray founder and 2022 Beacon Awards Industry Icon winner Wende Zomnir, founder and CEO of Merit Manufacturing Madhu Natarajan, president and co-founder of International Products Group (IPG) Tish Poling, and True Beauty Ventures co-founder Cristina Nuñez. Expert evaluators are assigned to committees concentrating on specific awards categories based on their backgrounds and expertise.
The 2024 Beacon Awards winners will be revealed during a live virtual event on Sept. 25 at 1 p.m. EST.
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