Rare Beauty, Starface, Ulta, Olaplex and MAC Cosmetics are 2023 Glossy Beauty Awards winners

The 2023 Glossy Beauty Awards celebrate the industry’s commitment to inclusivity, personalization and wellness. Gen Z continues to influence brands with their preference for authenticity and transparency, as reflected in the growth of diverse product ranges and clean beauty lines being celebrated this year.

Inclusivity is at the heart of Rare Beauty, one of two winners of Beauty Brand of the Year. Founded by Selena Gomez, Rare Beauty is about celebrating who people are and what makes them different. Rare Beauty aims to shape positive conversations around beauty, self-acceptance and mental health through its brand content, communication and community. In addition to campaigns and activations around L.A. Pride and Hispanic Heritage Month, the brand continues prioritizing mental health with the Rare Impact Fund, which has provided $8 million in funding to 25 organizations worldwide. Rare Beauty also expanded its global presence to 36 countries, including Brazil, India and Indonesia. Its community spans more than 10 million followers across social media.

In the Most Engaged Brand Community, acne-care brand Starface is creating genuine customer connections with the help of its relatable and friendly mascot, Big Yellow. To further underline Starface’s unconventional personality and style, the brand has expanded Big Yellow’s world through creators, playful storylines and funny vignettes. Starface also collaborated with singer PinkPantheress for its Hydro-Star + Tea Tree campaign, emphasizing its partnerships that focus on community interests. These strategies continue to resonate with the Starface community, which has surpassed 2.3 million TikTok followers and 305,000 Instagram followers.

Beauty retailer Ulta Beauty claimed the award for Best Omnichannel Experience. Its omnichannel strategy revolves around real-time data and insights and is catered to over 41 million Ultamate Rewards loyalty members. The retailer focuses on the joy of guests’ experiences, values and preferences by leveraging its insights database to anticipate shifts in consumer behavior and track “of the moment” trends for personalized experiences. The company’s innovations, like GLAMlab, and in-store events, including those tied to rising beauty themes, answer evolving consumer needs and help the brand reach new generations of beauty enthusiasts, specifically Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Olaplex, a pioneer in bond-building technology, is recognized in the Best Brand or Sub-Brand Launch Campaign category for its Oladupe campaign addressing dupe culture. The campaign highlighted the brand’s patented technology and unique position as an “un-dupable” brand. To amplify the campaign’s reach and engagement, Olaplex partnered with influencers and professionals. The playful campaign also combated imitation attempts prevalent in the beauty industry while enhancing brand awareness, ultimately driving meaningful results.

MAC Cosmetics scored wins in multiple categories, including Best Use of TikTok and Best Use of YouTube. In its bid to reach young millennials and Gen Z, MAC has partnered with diverse creators on these popular platforms. To engage this core audience during its MACStack Waterproof Mascara launch, MAC partnered with “Hot Ones,” the popular YouTube show in which celebrities answer hot questions over even hotter wings. The fact that the tear-proof, waterproof, smudge-proof formula didn’t run while eating the hottest wing proved product efficacy, boosting MAC’s positioning in the mascara category to match its strong reputation in the lip and foundation categories.

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Explore all the 2023 Glossy Beauty Awards winners below — including a quick rundown of the campaigns and insights into why they won and what marketing teams can learn from them. Download the complete guide here.