The Surprising Dethroning of 3 Major Beauty Brands in the Allure Readers’ Choice Awards
And our voters' unproblematic choice for Favorite Beauty Creator.
This week, we dropped the 29th Allure Readers’ Choice Awards, an annual franchise that lets our readers declare what they think are the best products, brands, and creators in beauty. To celebrate, I got our associate beauty director, Sarah Kinonen, on the phone to take us behind the scenes to see how this massive project comes together every year.
Kara: Sarah, hello! Before we get into the Readers’ Choice Awards, can you tell the readers a little bit about yourself and your job?
Sarah: I’m Allure’s associate beauty director. I wear a lot of hats at Allure, but specifically, I oversee all of our tentpole awards as a project manager. Those tentpoles include the Best of Beauty Awards, Readers’ Choice Awards, and our One to Watch franchise. I also help with market work, which just means I help find new and exciting launches and keep tabs of potential product trends we should cover.
Kara: That’s a fun job. So, now tell us about the Readers’ Choice Awards. How long have they been running? And how are they different from the Best of Beauty Awards?
Sarah: We’ve been doing the Readers’ Choice Awards as a standalone award since 2007, but it’s been around for 29 years. RCA actually originated as a category within our Best of Beauty Awards in 1996, but it became so popular that we made it its very own franchise. It exists so our readers can vote, obviously, but it's also a way for us to get to know our readers.
Once a year, we put out an annual survey with 700-plus beauty products for them to vote on, plus a bunch of additional questions about things like their shopping habits, what draws them to buy a product, where they get recommendations from—stuff like that. Six weeks after the poll closes, we tell them who wins.
In terms of what products we include on the ballot, it’s a mix of fan-favorites, bestsellers at stores like Sephora and Ulta, some of our past Best of Beauty winners, and products that are going viral that year. We really do let the readers decide what is cool and what's not, unlike Best of Beauty, which is when the editors decide with the help of experts.
The RCA Categories
Kara: How many categories are there to vote on? And how many products are in each category?
Sarah: The six main categories are Hair, Skin, Makeup, Body, Clean, and Breakthroughs. In those categories, we have about 10 to 13 subcategories, like favorite cleanser or favorite lipstick, which have 10 products to choose from. Unlike Best of Beauty, brands can’t nominate their products to be included in the poll. This is really just about what’s cool in the world right now.
Kara: Can people write in their favorite product if it’s not an option?
Sarah: Only in the survey portion, which is separate from the poll. We have had some really interesting write-ins within the survey. That survey is how readers can enter our annual sweepstakes to win one of three beauty bundles of past winners that are worth about $400 each. Within that survey, we also ask them what they like and what they don't like about Allure. And we’ve gotten some really interesting answers, but also some really great product recommendations that we definitely want to consider for next year.
Kara: Has there been a time that you can remember where a ton of readers wrote in a product, so the brand got added to the ballot for the following year?
Sarah: I think that’s how Rhode got added.
Kara: OK! Good for Hailey Bieber. How many people voted in the poll this year?
Sarah: Almost 400,000.
Kara: Oh wow, that’s almost half a million!
Sarah: Yeah! Our newest category, Favorite Beauty Creator, really brings people in. Katie Fang is our winner this year.
Kara: Tell us more about the Beauty Creator category.
Sarah: That's something that I worked on with the social team because we just wanted to tap into a brand-new audience. The category gets a lot of people on Instagram and TikTok excited. Alix Earle won last year. We saw so much engagement, and readers were so excited, and the creators themselves were so excited. (See the Lipstick Lesbians below.) They were creating content telling their followers to vote for them. It’s an opportunity to highlight people who I don’t think get recognized enough within the industry.
Kara: So the Allure social team helps you identify who should be included in the poll?
Sarah: Oh yes. Their FYPs are quite different from mine, so they were definitely helpful in figuring out who was interesting and cool. Otherwise, I would've just listed authors.
Kara: Yeah, and I would have just picked knitters.
Sarah: Maybe next year we can get some authors and knitters in there. [haha]
Kara: And there’s a new subcategory this year, right?
Sarah: Yes, Favorite Indie Brand. If you look at all of the winners and nominees, a lot of these products are very mainstream. They are talked about year after year. And so this Indie category is a way for us to highlight the smaller brands that everyone loves so much, but might not get the spotlight as often.
Kara: Who won this year?
Sarah: Tower 28.
Kara: Oh, I would vote for them.
Sarah: Yeah, same…and I did! Because Allure editors can vote in the poll.
Kara: True, I am an Allure reader as well.
Sarah: Another newer category is Favorite Viral Product. This is the second year we’ve done it. I leaned really heavily on the social team to report back on what they were seeing. This year, Hailey’s Rhode Pocket Blush won, which I can’t deny. I feel like I have seen that blush in pockets and on cheeks for forever.
Kara: Right! It’s just everywhere. It’s like it’s always been here. There has never been a time before Pocket Blush.
This Year’s Upsets
Kara: You get to see the results of people voting in the poll in real-time. I love when you give us updates in team meetings like, “Ooh, this body wash is pulling ahead!” How often do you check the poll results?
Sarah: I really try to limit myself to just once a week, but it’s open in a tab pretty much 24/7. I like to keep track of the upsets.
Kara: Can you tell us what some of the surprising upsets were this year?
Sarah: Totally. I think a really fun one was our creator, Katie Fang. We had a lot of great people in that category, and it was really, tight at the end. Another one was Favorite Eye Shadow Palette. Every single year, Urban Decay Naked Palette wins. It will always be a winner in our hearts, but this year, Makeup by Mario took home the award, which was really exciting. Another repeat winner is Charlotte Tilbury Lipstick Revolution, but YSL Beauty Loveshine Lip Oil Stick won this year, which was quite surprising.
Kara: I guess our readers aren’t too affected by the looming recession yet. Or they’re just buying lipstick and nothing else. Are repeat winners more common in certain categories than others?
Sarah: Makeup has always been very, very stable. But this year, we had the most upsets in that category. Skin Care is pretty consistent.
Kara: That makes sense. People find something that works for their skin type and stick to it.
Sarah: Exactly. There weren’t any upsets in skin care this year.
Kara: Well, good for those brands! I like that. It’s like, maybe we already have a bunch of good stuff for sale, so we don’t need any more new products.
Sarah: Right. Vaseline Original Jelly has won three years in a row for Favorite Steal. But we see a lot of new winners every year in the Hair categories. Living Proof Texture Spray wins a lot, but shampoo and conditioner almost always change.
Kara: What about luxury versus drugstore? Are there categories where people seem like they like to splurge?
Sarah: Makeup is almost always luxury, with the exception of Favorite Mascara.
Everybody loves a cheap mascara.
Maybelline New York Lash Sensational Mascara is a consistent winner, and it often gets brought up in BOB meetings, too. People just love it.
Kara: Has there ever been a tie? And if so, what happens?
Sarah: Well, we go down to the decimal. We recently had a product win because it got 18.1% versus 18%. If there is a true tie, which is very rare, then it becomes a conversation among the Allure team. We look at which brands are already winning—like, if one of the brands in the tie is already winning two awards, maybe we give it to the other one—and which product we’re seeing the most excitement about.
How RCA Differs From BoB
Kara: What do you think the main difference is between how readers vote for RCA and editors vote for BoB?
Sarah: For one thing, the readers only have the amount of time it takes them to fill out the poll to pick their favorites. As editors, we are testing products 24/7 and then testing products specifically for BoB for 24 weeks out of the year. We also have at least four testers in each subcategory for BoB, so when we’re deciding, it’s almost like a battle. We have meetings that can get very heated. So for BoB, it’s more of a conversation than single people voting on their favorites.
Kara: Well, plus, as editors, we get all these products for free.
RCAs are about the people who are spending their hard-earned cash on these products.
Sarah: Right, it’s really valuable to see what people are actually buying.
Kara: Besides Vaseline, Charlotte Tilbury, and Urban Decay, are there any other Hall of Famer products?
Sarah: Essie Ballet Slippers. Jergens Daily Glow Moisturizer. Touchland Hand Sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is a category that we added in 2020 because of COVID-19, and Touchland has won repeatedly. Also: Cetaphil cleanser, Hero pimple patches, Paula’s Choice 2% toner. Beautyblender. Oh, and you’ll like this: Batiste, your favorite dry shampoo, is never not winning.
Kara: Good, it better never stop! It’s the best. How does the Breakthroughs category work for RCA?
Sarah: It's a little different than how we do it for BoB. We don’t ask any brands to nominate themselves. Instead, we look at our breakthrough winners from the previous year’s Best of Beauty, plus any products that seem super innovative that have launched within the year. We ask: Was it nominated for Breakthrough in the last Best of Beauty Awards? Are people talking about it? Does it feel super different from other products on the market?
For RCA, a lot of these are products that don't quite fit into our traditional categories. For example, this year’s Breakthroughs winner for makeup was the Makeup by Mario SoftSculpt Bronzing & Shaping Serum. You wouldn’t want to compare that formula to other bronzers or contour products. Same with our skin care winner, Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Hue Drops—it just doesn’t quite fit in the traditional categories.
Our Breakthroughs are also where we talk about the Favorite New Brand of the year. This year was Fenty Hair, which was very exciting. Until now, Rihanna has done everything but hair. All of us on the team are obsessed with it, too.
What the People Want
Kara: The winners list is fun to read, but my favorite part of RCAs is the survey where the readers tell us a little more about themselves. What were some fun, surprising, interesting, or perhaps scathing takeaways from the survey this year?
Sarah: One thing I thought was interesting was that people sent in questions for Skin Check, the weekly newsletter that I write. It really showed that our readers are tapped into all of our platforms. They also apparently love quizzes.
Kara: Oh! What kind of quiz? Like, a trivia quiz? Or a quiz to find product recommendations?
Sarah: Both! And they love surveys because it makes them feel heard. They also want a podcast, which we used to have so maybe we’ll bring it back. They want print magazines back too. Oh, and they want pet beauty content!
Kara: Oh, we could totally do that.
Sarah: Right? We’ve awarded Pet Shampoos in Best of Beauty.
Kara: Did they talk about their favorite places to shop? Are they shopping in person or online?
Sarah: It’s a split. Nobody is 100% shopping online, but most are doing a mix of both.
Kara: When will you start planning for 2026’s poll?
Sarah: In October, two weeks after Best of Beauty is wrapped up. And then two weeks after that, we start Best of Beauty testing again. So both are basically year-long projects.
Kara: What’s the most frequently asked question you get about RCA?
Sarah: If a brand can nominate themselves. Every year we get people asking who just want the chance to be a part of it, and I have to gently remind them that the readers are in charge here. We’re listening to what they want.
Kara: But once a brand is in the poll, we’ve seen that it makes a huge difference if they ask their customers to vote for them, right?
Sarah: Oh yes, for sure. We get a lot of excitement within the first week of the poll going live, obviously, because brands, especially new brands who are on the list, are very excited about being included. And that momentum really does last the entire six weeks that the poll is up. The first year that Rhode was nominated, Hailey posted something a week or two before the poll closed and I think it was close to 100,000 votes that came in right after.
Kara: And then what is launch day like?
Sarah: The winners get so excited, especially in the Breakthroughs category. I get up at 6 a.m. and I push everything live…but then that’s really it on my part. My work happens before launch day. But our social team is really in the weeds the entire day because they’re engaging with the brands that are so excited. We do send them promotional assets that they can use, but most of them create their own. It’s nice to see people get so hyped.
Kara: Is there anything you can tease about your 2026 plans?
Sarah: Well, this year we did a really fun project with the Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD). It was the first time we ever tapped into a live audience to vote. Our editor in chief, Jessica Cruel, and a few team members went down there and we had tables set up for live testing, and we had iPads for live voting.
We definitely want to do more of that next year. I think it's super important for us to visibly show that our readers are involved. I want to include them as much as possible.
This was such a great behind the scenes look! I love how the Readers Choice Awards really give power back to the people who actually use the products. It’s inspiring to see how much thought goes into these selections. Definitely motivates me to keep sharing honest beauty content too. 💛