Don't Call Them Sephora: Beautycon Expands Its Empire With Beautycon POP

One is a beauty industry behemoth. The other is Beautycon, the little engine that could. For one, beauty is in its DNA. Beautycon, a gloriously colorful community of fans, creators, thought-leaders and beauty enthusiasts, is looking to UN-define beauty altogether. Beautycon prides itself on being an innovator, but not for innovation’s sake -- innovation because that’s what Beautycon’s vocal consumer and diverse community has demanded -- because their needs are not met elsewhere.

Moj Mahdara, founder and CEO of Beautycon, is often asked if she feels like an unlikely leader of a beauty company because she doesn’t wear makeup or dresses or heels, to which she points out that the vast majority of her counterparts also don’t wear makeup or dresses or heels. Mahdara is a dynamic, well-connected, incredibly smart and business-savvy gay, brown woman born in Lexington, KY and raised in Orange County, CA. She attributes her thick skin to an unconventional upbringing in a conservative household and rejection-filled jobs like being a telemarketer for the OC Philharmonic.

Mahdara pours her heart and soul into Beautycon and works tirelessly to make it the leading experiential beauty retailer for Gen-Z consumers. What sets Beautycon apart from competitors is its unwavering commitment to education and discovery, plus a unique ability to be welcoming to all, but not created for all. In Mahdara’s words, “It’s all about niche audiences. It’s about creating and curating great content for niche audiences and not trying to be everything for everyone.”

Since 2015, before Candytopia, Museum of Ice Cream or 29 Rooms, Beautycon brilliantly brought Mahdara’s philosophy to life in the form of its mega-successful festivals. At these festivals, fans of all ethnicities, nationalities, genders, ages, abilities and faiths gather to see live beauty tutorials from the likes of Tokyo Stylez (Kylie Jenner’s wig guru), listen to digital influencers and traditional talent get real during fireside chats (at Beautycon New York in 2018, Zendaya called out the lack of representation within the entertainment industry: “I am Hollywood's, I guess you could say, acceptable version of a black girl and that needs to change. We're vastly too beautiful and too interesting for me to be the only representation of that.”), buy exclusive products, discover new brands, and safely just be.

Beautycon FESTIVALS have grown significantly since starting out as a B2B convention in 2013, selling out both the New York and Los Angeles markets this past year, welcoming approximately 20,000 and 30,000 attendees, respectfully, and adding their health and wellness initiative, B-Well and foray into Korean beauty, K-Town, to the program. Never ones to rest on their laurels, Mahdara and her team got right back to work after Beautycon LA in July, preparing feverishly for their next cultural and experiential juggernaut, Beautycon Pop. Beautycon Pop launches this Friday, November 16 in Los Angeles and is Beautycon’s first-ever experiential retail Pop-up.

Created in response to overwhelming demand from its community to bring the Beautycon experience to life beyond its festivals, Pop is a museum-esque journey through eight themed galleries including “Dream State,"in partnership with LANEIGE, “Big Mood," a nod to Drake and the “Confidence Runway” in partnership with Macy’s, where attendees are invited to unleash their inner Beyoncé. A curated retail shop of 20 unique female-founded indie brands, and onsite salon that will provide select beauty and primping services, demonstrations and tutorials to those lucky enough to snag a ticket to this limited 30-day run, round out what Pop has to offer.

For Mahdara, the beauty of Pop lies not in the highly Instagrammable and shareable photo moments that the transformed 20,000 square foot space offers, but in the thoughtfulness behind all of the moments of discovery and education that the experience will provide. The Pop Shop features the Beautycon team’s top picks of brands across the lip, color and skin care categories. Each carefully selected brand, almost all of which are female-founded and have never appeared in physical retail before, focuses on diversity, celebrates inclusivity and champions entrepreneurship. These pillars also create the through line between special programming events that will be incorporated and featured throughout Pop’s month long stint.

The Beautycon team at the Beautycon headquarters in Los Angeles. Left to Right: Elise Etem, Kaetlin Andrews, Armando Tapia, Moj Mahdara, Grace Miguel, Trish Paik, Rachel HueyHART TURNER

Mahdara is careful to not reveal too much about the specifics of these ancillary events, but promises that aspiring (girl)bosses, influencers, content creators, makeup and hair artists and philanthropists will not be disappointed. She says that everything about Pop was made because of and for Beautycon’s community and fans: “I see them. I hear them. I love their sass. I respect who they are, and they respect who I am. They really do treat me like I work for them, which I also love.” In this day and age, where gun violence, mental health issues and political corruption fill the daily headlines, Mahdara sees it as Beautycon’s obligation to step forward and create as many safe and open spaces as possible, which it continues to do with Pop.

Mahdara has also taken the opportunity to help incubate entrepreneurs in the beauty space. Pop will offer aspiring entrepreneurs in the beauty industry to meet with Beautycon staff, experts and investors to help accelerate their ideas and products. Mahdara was inspired to integrate entrepreneurship into Pop by her audience. “Even though beauty is a booming billion dollar, recession-proof industry, most traditional investors do not see the potential, so often times entrepreneurs in the space are overlooked. It hit me when I was interviewing Kim Kardashian West during Beautycon LA this past year that most of our audience were or wanted to be beauty entrepreneurs. When I asked the audience how many of them wanted to start their own company - 99% of them raised their hands.”

In addition to Pop, which will travel to more US cities next year and internationally after that, Beautycon is launching a pop-up e-commerce marketplace which will reflect the brands and products that have been curated at the physical shop, allowing Beautycon to reach the many thousands of fans who will not be able to attend the Los Angeles experience. A more robust expansion as an e-commerce brand and marketplace is inevitable for Beautycon, but not without careful consideration to what is right for its consumer and itself as a brand first.

Authenticity is key for Beautycon, whose BS-averse audience can smell disingenuousness from a mile away. This type of realness is refreshing for Mahdara and is what encouraged her to speak up about the beauty behemoth to which Beautycon is so frequently compared: “I respect what they’ve built, it’s why we spent 15 months meeting and working with them, ideating and sharing our ideas -- trying to be their partner. I do find it really disheartening to see three women at such a high executive level...going out of their way to antagonize and be so hostile to a young startup that they know is run by a woman. Those large corporations really have to ask themselves what they stand for at the end of the day if they can’t nurture and support the ecosystem that is the next generation of innovation.”

Reflecting on herself, her team and the industry she believes has a long way to go to be truly representative, Mahdara is equally critical: “To be honest, we could and should be doing so much more. What you can count on in terms of Beautycon is that it is run by a bunch of passionate people who are going to continue to challenge themselves every day on what else they can do to become more inclusive. And I don’t know if anyone else has that in their DNA.”