Thousands of beauty lovers, founders, makeup artists, hairstylists, creators, and people who can identify a lip combo from 20 feet away all gathered last Saturday for Beautycon University. There’s always another booth to visit, another demo happening, another product being swatched on the back of someone’s hand, which means in order for a beauty product to stand out it has to work pretty hard to hold anyone’s attention.

So when the same products kept coming up throughout the day, Refinery29 editors took notes. For this year’s Beauties, we’re highlighting the items generating excitement within our community on Threads, along with the beauty finds that surfaced throughout the full day of activations, demonstrations, panels, and those very unofficial but extremely persuasive you need to try this exchanges happening all over the Rolling Greens campus.

Some came from brands we already know well. Others made us wonder where they had been hiding. And a few solved beauty problems so specific that we immediately DoorDashed a Sephora order.

These are the products that managed to cut through the Beautycon noise, and earn a spot on our 2026 Beauties list.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Skin Savior

La Roche-Posay

Sunscreen has one fairly important job, yet finding one you actually want to put on every morning can feel unnecessarily difficult. So Beautycon took the question straight to its Threads community: “What sunscreen would you recommend to someone who hates sunscreen?” Among a very crowded field of SPF favorites, La Roche-Posay came up more than once. One community member simply answered, “@larocheposayusa anthelios,” while another doubled down: “@larocheposayusa for sure! Sooo many options to choose from!”

And options there are. The Anthelios lineup spans lightweight face formulas, mineral SPFs, tinted options, and higher-protection formulas, making it considerably easier to find one that doesn’t make applying sunscreen feel like a daily chore. When the assignment is convince someone who hates sunscreen to wear sunscreen, getting independently named-checked twice by the Beautycon community feels like a pretty convincing endorsement.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Breakout Destroyer

Beautycon involves thousands of people, a full face of makeup, lots of touching things, and approximately 700 opportunities to wonder, Should I really be putting my hand on my face right now? Enter Personal Day’s hypochlorous acid spray. The mist is designed for acne-prone skin and gives you an easy spritz-and-go step when your face could use a refresh. Personal Day already has Beautycon history too: founder Lili Reinhart previously dropped by to discuss acne and the relationship between skin and mental health. This year, we spotted the bright-green bottle being enthusiastically pulled from an attendee’s Beautycon haul. Coincidence? Our pores think not.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Body-Care Hero

Some lotions moisturize. Others make the boring act of hydrating your skin feel slightly more like you have your life together. SANTU’s Lima Mexicana Body Lotion is aiming for the latter. The silky formula popped up among the Beautycon haul discoveries we spotted after the event, and its lime-inspired proposition immediately stood out in a sea of face serums and lip products. Because your skincare routine technically does not stop at your neck, no matter how much your neglected shins would have you believe otherwise.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Post-Shower Perfume

We love a product with an identity crisis when the result is this good. Despite being called a Body Splash, Her Fantasy Box’s Santal Driftwood is a hydrating body oil with a fragrance-forward sensibility (exactly the sort of hybrid product that makes getting out of the shower considerably more interesting). It also arrives during a major growth moment for the brand: Her Fantasy Box expanded into more than 4,000 CVS locations this summer and participated in Beautycon during ESSENCE Festival before turning up again among the products Beautycon LA attendees couldn’t stop talking about. If body care and fragrance are going to keep flirting with each other, we’re happy to third-wheel.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Forever Glow-Up

Before seemingly every skincare product promised glass, glazed donut, dolphin, or some other variety of suspiciously reflective skin, there was Pixi Glow Tonic. The 5% glycolic-acid exfoliating toner has been around long enough to qualify as a beauty throwback, yet there it was again the superstar of Beautycon Universities student hauls. And maybe that’s the point. In an industry obsessed with whatever launched five minutes ago, there’s something deeply satisfying about a product that simply refuses to leave the group chat.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Brow Freeze

If your brow hairs have independent thoughts, hopes, and travel plans, NYX would like to put an end to that. The Brow Glue Crazy Lift promises up to 24-hour wear, and its built-in styling comb is designed to give brows that brushed-up laminated effect without booking an appointment. It was another product staffers couldn’t stop talking about and a superstar in haul videos. For brows that constantly consider staying in place as a mere suggestion, class is officially in session.

NYX Brow Glue The Brow Crazy Lift Brow Lamination Gel

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Meal-Proof MVP

A lip combo can look flawless in the mirror. The real test begins when the appetizers arrive. So when Beautycon asked its Threads community, “What’s the lip combo that survives eating?” I had an immediate answer: “Anything that starts with Make Up For Ever’s lip liners.” Makeup artist Joslyn Spurlock cosigned the note with a heart. And Beautycon’s response? “Oooh!! Love!!”

And, yes, we stand by it. A good lip liner is the insurance policy of a great lip combo, giving your color a defined base before gloss, lipstick, or whatever else you pile on top inevitably meets a coffee cup, cocktail straw, or dinner reservation. Make Up For Ever’s liners have become the kind of beauty-bag staple we reach for when the goal isn’t merely a good lip. It’s one that has plans afterward.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Dewy Delivery

There comes a point in a long beauty day when applying another layer of anything sounds exhausting. That’s when a mist starts looking very attractive. Anua’s PDRN mist delivers the kind of quick, satisfying skincare step that requires almost no effort: spray, bask in the dewiness, carry on. And at an event where everyone is moving between panels, activations, photo opps, and product discoveries, we’re especially appreciative of skincare that doesn’t require finding a bathroom mirror first.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Pocket Treasure

Beautycon gave us plenty of elaborate routines to think about, but sometimes the product that wins you over is simply the one you keep reaching for. eos Cashmere Lip Butter takes the brand’s famously dessert-coded approach and shrinks it into something you can stash in a pocket, purse, or the increasingly chaotic bottom of a Beautycon tote. It’s a soft, sweet, uncomplicated beauty treat (and proof that not every award-winning item needs a 12-step instruction manual).

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Damage Controller

There is “my hair feels a little dry,” and then there is we need to call someone for professional help. UNOVE’s Deep Damage Repair Hair Mask is for the latter mood, no appointment required. The Korean hair-care brand’s treatment is built around intensive conditioning for damaged hair, making it especially interesting in a Beautycon lineup full of products devoted to styling, slicking, and asking quite a lot of our strands. We first spotted UNOVE among the mountain of product coming out of Beautycon VIP totes, but it kept coming up in the zeitgeist thanks to its fast-working ingredients. Consider this our apology letter to everything we’ve put our hair through before discovering UNOVE.

DashDividers_1_500x100 The Cutest Clean-Up

Hand sanitizer winning a beauty award? Hear us out. After a day spent swatching products, opening testers, grabbing freebies, shaking hands, and digging through tote bags, sanitizer becomes less of a practical afterthought and more like Beautycon survival gear. The Fruit Fusion verison makes the whole thing considerably more fun, which is why one attendee’s reaction to receiving it couldn’t go on without highlighting how cute the keychain it comes with is. Sometimes innovation is just as simple as making the thing you already need cute enough that you remember actually to carry it.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

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