Key Takeaways:
Beauty is getting its own marquee moment in New York City this month. Beauty New York, a new consumer-facing festival from the organizers behind Cosmoprof North America, will debut October 16-18, 2025, with an opening night celebration at Hall des Lumières followed by two days of interactive programming inside the World Trade Center Oculus.
Conceived as a “Fashion Week for beauty,” the inaugural event is designed as a high-touch, high-visibility showcase that shines a spotlight on beauty from all angles. This celebration of beauty is long overdue: The $450 billion global beauty industry has been on a hot streak in recent years, expanding at an average annual rate of 7% year-over-year from 2022 to 2024. Fashion, by comparison, is expected to post low single-digit growth in 2025, per McKinsey.
“New York has always been the heartbeat of beauty,” Beauty New York founder Liza Rapay told BeautyMatter. “But unlike fashion, beauty has never had its own cultural moment. Now feels like the time to create it.”
Beauty New York aims to blend curated brand and product discovery with real consumer engagement—hands-on sampling, founder meet-and-greets, and creator moments—while layering in insider access through invite-only awards, limited-capacity masterclasses, and industry programming that pulls back the curtain on how beauty is built.
It’s a bold mission, but one that Rapay is well-equipped to pull off. Since 2019, Rapay has led Cosmoprof North America, a B2B beauty trade show that showcases the entire beauty supply chain, from finished products to packaging and contract manufacturing.
Beauty New York reflects that ecosystem lens. Most Fashion Week shows are invite-only, with guest lists curated by hosts to include celebrities, loyal customers, and other notable industry figures. Beauty, on the other hand, is more accessible, and Beauty New York aims to celebrate that, bringing together brands, retailers, creators, and consumers all under one roof.
“We’re building Fashion Week for beauty, but in our own way,” Rapay told BeautyMatter. “With Beauty New York, I want to prove that beauty deserves its own global stage.”
The Event
Beauty New York opens on Thursday, October 16, with an industry-exclusive evening at Hall des Lumières dedicated to honoring beauty’s changemakers. The Impact Awards: Beauty for a Better Tomorrow will recognize brands and individuals who have positively shaped the industry and the communities it serves. The Impact Awards and launch party at Hall des Lumiéres will be a more intimate gathering, with several hundred beauty industry leaders and executives.
The following two days, October 17 and 18, the Oculus will transform into an immersive “beauty playground” for consumers to explore. By anchoring the festival in a high-traffic, architecturally iconic transit hub, the organizers are betting on visibility far beyond a traditional convention environment.
Early access is now live at beautynewyork.com, offering three options. The Platinum VIP ticket unlocks one-hour early entry before crowds arrive, a dedicated VIP Lounge, access to masterclasses, and a premium gift package valued at more than $1,000—an offer calibrated to the super-user, content creator, or emerging professional who wants facetime, education, and product value in one sweep. The Gold ticket balances perks with approachability, adding a curated Premium Gift Bag to the core experience of brand access and sampling. The Silver ticket provides an accessible entry point for the beauty-curious to explore, sample, and engage with the beauty community.
Beauty New York’s masterclasses, available to Platinum VIP ticket holders, will run across two tracks, Artistry and Industry, offering limited-capacity, working-session intimacy rather than auditorium lectures.
“We want to show these engaged beauty lovers … the fullest spectrum of what beauty is, including the careers, the innovation, and the businesses that drive this industry,” said Rapay.
The artistry curriculum will feature hands-on demos spanning makeup, hair, and skin, while the industry track brings founder-led panels and technical workshops focused on brand-building, operations, and the practical realities of scaling. For aspiring creatives and future beauty industry leaders, the format doubles as mentorship and networking.
Beauty New York is expected to attract several thousand attendees, primarily beauty consumers, alongside content creators, press, and industry professionals. In its initial stages, the event's revenue streams—ticket sales and partnerships—are crucial for funding the event and delivering exceptional customer experiences, with a focus on long-term growth and potential.
The event offers various participation levels for brands, aiming to include a diverse range of brands at different stages of maturity. Partnership opportunities range from gifting and turnkey activations for smaller brands to large-concept activations and custom sponsorships.
Why Now?
Post-COVID, beauty experienced a boom like never before. As beauty grew, the consumer demand for connection did, too, leading to an increase in brand pop-ups and retailer showcases like Sephoria and Ulta Beauty World.
“We never had a platform for beauty,” said Rapay. “There are food festivals, fashion festivals … beauty is just as important. Now is the time to have a stage that celebrates the industry and the community in the city all at once.”
The success of retailer-led consumer events proves that the consumer appetite is already there. Beauty New York hopes to create a democratic platform to showcase brands of all sizes.
“We want to create this space that everyone wins: the consumers, not just one retailer, but all of the retailers, the press, the influencers … Our goal is to build it, and they shall come.”
Hosting the first event in New York City is a strategic move. It’s an important market for all beauty brands, both big and small. US GDP grew by approximately 3% during the second quarter of 2024; reports from late 2024 and early 2025 from the New York City Comptroller's Office suggest a 3.0% GDP growth for the US in the second quarter and a 5% economic growth rate for New York City during that same period, indicating stronger growth in the city than the national average.
The consumer focus is also a response to how influence now moves. In years past, brands drove the trends. Now, with the rise of TikTok, consumers are taking the lead, and brands are following.
Beauty New York is designed to help brands listen better—and faster. “Beauty moves at the speed of light …Here today, gone tomorrow, and you have to be in front and ahead of the game, ahead of the curve, otherwise you're going to be obsolete. With AI and technology, we need to move even faster,” said Rapay.
Part of her conviction stems from her nearly 15 years at The Estée Lauder Companies, where she helped shape the growth and positioning of Clinique.
“One of my favorite things [at Clinique] was traveling to the market and talking to consumers directly,” she said. “A lot of retailers want to go back to that experiential moment … Beauty New York is going to give them a view into feedback, and a direct touch point with the consumers.”
The event is being produced by USA Beauty LLC, a joint venture between Informa Markets, BolognaFiere, and the Professional Beauty Association, the same coalition behind Cosmoprof North America. USA Beauty has made a “significant” financial commitment to launch Beauty New York, aiming to establish it as a premiere cultural phenomenon in New York City and beyond. The inaugural Beauty New York aspires to be the most significant cultural event in beauty, fostering annual growth in scale and influence, with the potential to become an industry cornerstone.
“We’re not simply hosting an event; we’re establishing a transformative platform that will reshape how the beauty industry connects with its most passionate advocates and consumers for years to come,” said Rapay.
The mid-October timing situates the festival on the front edge of holiday launches and sampling windows, making it an ideal moment for brands to secure that crucial customer engagement ahead of the year’s biggest shopping season.
For retailers, the floor will serve as an early indicator of what resonates for Q4; for founders, it’s a venue to test storytelling, packaging, and price elasticity in real-time with a broad cross-section of shoppers.
“I want people to come away feeling inspired, connected, and very proud to be in this community,” Rapay said.
Her definition of success goes beyond turnstile counts. “Success for us means creating a Beauty New York debut experience so compelling that both attendees and partners eagerly anticipate next year's event,” said Rapay. “We're establishing the foundation for what we envision becoming the Fashion Week of beauty in New York City, a transformative industry cornerstone defined by its scale and influence … Our focus remains on building something extraordinary that will deliver sustainable value over time.”
If the debut delivers, Rapay already has her sights on scale. Similar to Fashion Week, Beauty New York hopes to set up shop in different markets, with New York serving as its anchor. Beauty is a global force, but for Rapay, New York will always be the global hub of beauty.
“Imagine Beauty New York: Seoul edition. Wouldn’t that be something?”
