For the first time EVER, I took a small weekend getaway trip by myself, for myself and it was LIBERATING! I planned everything by myself, saved up my money, arranged my hotel and travels by myself, and it honestly felt great. To be able to look at myself in a mirror and say”I did this, I made this happen, I worked hard to be here, I deserve to be here!” is another type of power that no one could take away from me. So, attending BeautyCon this year alone meant that I’d be getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I learned about BeautyCon about a year or two ago when Kim Kardashian attended. I thought it was just an LA pop up event until I learned that it’s an annual beauty, health and wellness festival. Tickets went on sale on valentines day, and it was labeled as the “biggest event in makeup” at the Javits Center. I watched at least 50 different vlogs from women all around the world who traveled to attend this event previously and gathered as much information as I could about what to expect.
The day tickets went live, I couldn’t find any friends who could attend the event with me and I was so terrified to go alone to the point where I actually decided that I wasn’t going to go. It took me three weeks to actually get my anxiety together and persuade myself to go alone. Two years ago, I studied abroad in Morocco, alone, for four months and had an experience I’ll forever cherish; so why was I so scared to go to New York for two days? Why should I miss the chance to see so many influential women like Supa Cent,Issa Rae, Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, and Noor Tagouri just because no one wanted to come with me? Why should I limit myself to these experiences just because I don’t want to be alone? There is nothing wrong with being alone and it’s not something I should be scared of, so I picked up my damn credit card, bought a 2 day pass, hotel room, flight and car service for that weekend! You’re tickets is a wrist band that stays on your wrist and ships to you during the first week of March.
The 2 day general admissions pass was $80, my flight was $161 from Vermont to New York round trip, my hotel was $399 for two nights and my rental car service was $52 for getting to and from the airport. I spent a total of $692 on this weekend getaway, not including food and everything I bought at the festival. Now, I did not randomly drop $692 for this event in one sitting, I starting doing my research and planning out this trip in early January. I did my research on every hotel, flight and shuttle service. By the end of, February my tickets, flight and car rentals were paid for via credit card and paid off two weeks before I left for New York, so currently I am paying back the $399 hotel charge. Financial planning is KEY to traveling!
There were a few different passes available for various prices. First were the one day passes for either Saturday or Sunday priced at about $45 each. Next were the 2 days general admissions pass which gave you access for both Saturday and Sunday, priced at $80 after taxes and shipping. Any general admissions pass allowed you to enter the venue at 12pm. The next upgrades were the Hauler packages, an All Access pass, an All Access VIP pass and I believe an Insider pass. The hauler pass started at $200 and the All Access was about $500. The Insider pass is an add on to a general admissions pass, and it gives you access to the social lounge where other influencers were. With the Hauler package you received a gift bag filled with “more than $200 worth of beauty products.” The All Access pass gave you the same perks as the hauler pass, but whenever there was a panel happening, you had access to reserved seating and you could jump the line for photo booths. Now, the VIP All Access pass was the most expensive at $800, I believe, and it came with VIP seating at the front of the main stage for panels. So, if you’re someone who prefers not to stand in line or search for general seating during panels, these two passes may work for you. The Hauler, Insider, All Access and VIP All Access passes gave you access to the venue at 10am.
I arrived to JFK on a Friday around 9pm and got to my hotel around 11pm. I booked a shared shuttle service with Go Airlink NY shuttle via Expedia for $23. It was all a quick and easy process and the driver was nice but it took TWO HOURS for me to get to my hotel because of traffic and the number of people I shared the shuttle with. I stayed at the Ameritania at Times Square between 8th ave and Broadway on 54th street, which seemed really nice when I first walked in, and the pictures online were cute, but my room honestly looked like a Motel room. The air conditioner vent was filled with dust (I have terrible allergies so that was a red flag), the mirrors in the hallways were dirty, and pieces of the carpet were sticking up and unraveling. I didn’t even get a free breakfast in the mornings, so I’d grade this hotel a 7/10 stars.
The morning of BeautyCon started around 9:30am. I showered, ironed my blouse, played some music and beat my face which was a 45-60 minute process. I had foux locs in my hair, so I didn’t need to manipulate it in any way. My hotel was a 30 minute walk away from the festival and it was the only hotel that didn’t charge me over $400 for two nights. So, I wore comfortable shoes for this journey. The weather in New York was a little confusing because it was 64 degrees and I didn’t know how to interpret that, so I bought a heavy jacket with me and wore long sleeves in case it got too hot but was too cold to not cover myself. Turns out I have good judgement on weather because it was cold in the mornings, cold at night, but perfect temperature from 12pm – 4pm.
I arrived to the Javits Center around 11am and waited in line for an hour before we were able to go inside. The line wrapped around the entire downstairs area but once doors opened, it took 5 minutes for everyone to get inside. The first booths I saw were for Lime Crime and Too Faced. Too Faced is the only brand of Makeup that has my perfect shade of foundation (until FENTY released 10 new shades), so I was excited to see them. Aveda had a wonderful booth going on with a giant pink tree in the middle of the ballroom. Sally Beauty was also in the center of the ball room with a huge pink booth. Palmers was there and introducing their hair care line. There were rows of women getting their hair straightened and braided. Paper magazine were taking boomerang photos. To the back of the ballroom, there was a beautiful DJ booth with a stand shaped like giant speakers and a dance floor that was lit with multicolored pink lights. It felt like a cute little beauty fairy tale to be honest.
The second ballroom is where the main stage was located. I walked in while there was a panel going on about Toxic Masculinity with Siya. Dove was the only vendor that had a booth in the room, and there were about 4 different brands selling cute bags, makeup and clothes. There were also two vending machines where you could buy Beauty Con merch from, but I suggest you buy something early before most sizes and color selections sell out. There were also charging docs for you to lock your phone inside of so it can charge for a while, similar to the ones you may see in Urban Outfitters.
The last ballroom within the venue was by far, the most crowded. As soon as I walked in, I saw a booth for colored contacts lenses to my right, Target had a big booth in front of me that was zodiac themed and they handed out cute little clear bags that was honestly a must have. Further into the room, Fashion Nova had a cute runway where they handed out fanny packs and bodysuits! While standing in the Fashion Nova line to take a few pictures, I saw two Crayon Cuties that work with Supa Cent’s The Crayon Case and Lala Milan stopped by and took a few pictures with fans who were piling up around her. I also saw the founder of Shae Moisture! There was so much going on, and so many people I wanted to see, that I almost didn’t know what to do! I couldn’t get to every booth like I thought I would, because the average wait time was 15-30 minutes. I wanted to spend my time moving around, not standing around.
Moving on to the panels, I sat down to listen to “Black Girl Magic on the Big Screen” with Regina Hall, Marsai Martin and Issa Rae which was phenomenal! I watched Aliya Janell dance and then give a motivational speech on loving yourself and doing what you want to do. lastly, I listened to Yara Shahidi and Noor Tagouri talk about being yourself unapologetically. Rick Ross had a meet and greet at the Sally Beauty booth and Priscilla Ono had a quick meet and greet for her fashion collab. Becky G was also had a panel towards the end of the night. The festival ends at 6pm but I left round 5:30 to avoid chaos.
The second day of the festival is where things got hectic. The lines to get inside the ballroom were’t as long as yesterday and the building wasn’t as crowded UNTIL it closer and closer to the time Cardi B was supposed to have her interview. At 12:25 i sat in for the interview between Charlemagne Tha God and Angie Nwandu. Then I listened to Kheris Rogers, Noor Tagouri again and Mama Cax. NOW THIS IS WHERE SHIT GOT CRAZY. They bumped up a panel that was supposed to happen after Cardi B, which meant that something went wrong with Cardi getting to the festival on time. She had a performance in Vegas Saturday night and was supposed to fly into New York Sunday morning and have her panel at 2:05pm. By 3pm, the scheduled changed and another panel was bumped up before Cardi. At 3:40, my girl Supa Cent, Tokyo Styles, Courtney Adeleye and Liah Yoo spoke about being self-made and finished around 4:10. An hour passed and there was still no Cardi. By this time, ballroom was crowded and at capacity. They ended up closing all the doors to get into the ballroom and we couldn’t leave our seats because there was a large crowd of people who didn’t have seats, surrounding us to where it became a fire safety hazard. After hours of sitting, waiting and complaining, Cardi B and her sister Hennessy finally showed up at 5:30pm. Let me remind you that the festival ends at 6pm…. Many of us who were sitting or standing, didn’t go to the bathroom and didn’t leave to eat lunch because we didn’t want our seats to be taken and we didn’t want to be locked out of the ballroom. So we all sat still for over THREE HOURS waiting for Cardi. Was it worth it though? For $80, yes! But if I bought the Hauler Package or anything higher than $100, my answer would be “no.”
My overall experience with Beauty Con was more influential than adventurous. I didn’t receive many samples, I bought the Chocolate Gold palette from Too faced and new brushes from Moda. Most products were discounted from their original retail price, so I basically purchased everything I loved! I spoke to a few women who had the Hauler package who were pissed off by how much money they spent on their tickets versus how many products they received in their Hauler bag. On youtube videos from 2018, I saw multiple girls who took home numerous full sized beauty products that were worth more than the price they paid for the Hauler pass. But, this year, participants received less beauty products and more cleaning supplies and samples from stands. They also ran out of Hauler bags on Sunday because they oversold tickets. Some took to twitter about the issue and the CEO, Moj Mahdara, responded, “You asked for larger bags to carry stuff so we gave you extra room. enjoy!” Clearly, that’s not a good enough excuse to give your customers dish liquid and samples over a beauty products. On Instagram, Lala Milan shared a video of a huge box of full sized products she received as a gift from BeautyCon, so it’s weird that your loyal customers didn’t receive something similar for the price they paid. Now, I only paid $80 total for my pass so it was worth it for me! But if I paid $200 or $400 for a pass, I would have equally been pissed.
Granted that this was my first time attending Beauty Con, I’d rate it a 7.45/10 stars. I felt more influenced from attending the event versus excited to try, learn and buy new makeup and other beauty products. I think that I left the festival feeling motivated to be myself and to strive to be better and do better. I learned life lessons from successful women and saw black women that I look up to, but I truly have no takeaways when it comes to makeup and hair. It would have been great if there was a station dedicated to matching you with your correct shade of foundation, or if there was a station that was dedicated to shaving, razor bumps, razor burns and how to treat scars, or even a booth dedicated healthy eating habits on a budget. Brands like Mielle organics, NaturALL Club, Pat McGrath Labs, The Crayon Case (although Supa was there), Beauty Bakerie, Melanin and Huda Beauty were not there and would have been GREAT if they were there. I just felt like a lot was missing that could have been added and probably will be added in the future. Again, I expected to go and get beauty tips for putting on lashes and getting matched with foundation, but those expectations were shot down quickly. I really want to attend the festival in LA this August, and I think I’ll attend this event again next year. I love what the CEO is trying to do with this festival and she has my overall support! I also think the festival has a lot of growing to do, and it can only get better from here!
Traveling While Black 