How to win Allure’s best of beauty awards with editor-in-chief Jessica Cruel

In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Allure editor-in-chief Jessica Cruel sits down with host Lexy Lebsack to unpack the ins and outs of its prestigious beauty awards program, including how beauty and wellness brands can better appeal to her team of editors. 

Launched in 1996, five years after the first issue of Allure hit newsstands, the annual Best of Beauty awards anoints the best products across dozens of categories with its coveted Best of Beauty seal. 

“The seal can be licensed, so you can put it on your packaging, you can put it on your social media, you can put it in ads, and that’s because we know from [our] research that the seal helps that product move,” Cruel told Glossy. “We know that when people see that seal, [the winning product] is more likely to be purchased than the thing that’s sitting right next to it, so that seal has power.” 

The awards are a hallmark franchise for the Condé Nast publication and a powerful tool for the brands that win. The seal is a recognizable differentiator in the market, which is why Allure’s team tests products all year in anticipation of the big reveal. 

The 2026 award winners will be announced today, September 17. To celebrate, Glossy tapped Cruel to talk through the nuances of making it through the first rounds, how the process works and how winners are selected. Cruel also shares candid advice for brands that want to stand out to her editors year-round, including insights around timelines, the categories and topics performing well today, what’s interesting to her, and what she wishes more brands and publicists understood about working with Allure. 

Press play now to listen to the full conversation. 

On getting through the first elimination rounds of Best of Beauty testing

“[The initial rounds of testing is] not so much about standing out; it’s about not getting eliminated early. … I know a lot of indie brands submit, and we love it when an indie brand wins randomly, but if you have a janky website, or your Instagram’s kind of icky, … these are things that we look at as that first line, and the second line is the packaging. … One thing that’s really important is ease of use. I think so many things now are way too complicated. … We’ve had many a bathroom shower ruined by things that were not well thought out, right? Even more important is how it works for many different people. If a foundation only has 10 shades, that can’t win Best of Beauty, and that’s something that might have been OK when we first launched the list 30 years ago, but now that’s something we really consider. Shade range is a really important part of what we award. There is a really important responsibility we have to the reader to make sure that if I’m giving you tips, or a blush or a foundation, that you feel that you can go find one that’s right for you.”

On brands better understanding how Allure’s team works 

“It’s really important to let people know that the soonest you can get me the product, the better. And even though I might not have a print magazine with print lead times [any longer], the reason why I still need the product in my hands as soon as possible is because what I provide to the reader is actual proof of testing. So if you launch a skin-care product, then you want to get it to me at least two months in advance, so that I can try it as a part of my routine for at least 28 days, and I can see the effects of that product. And then when I write about it, I can give the reader that real-life feedback. … That’s something that people really confuse about what we do here. You know, and honestly, I think some people think that my job is PR. My job is not PR, and I want everyone to know that. … What I do is help the reader determine what brands, what products are the most important to them right now. … If you want to do something that’s more business-forward, more launch-forward, there are a lot of B2B publications that do that. I don’t serve the consumer in that way.”

On the future of beauty

“The thing that is exciting to me right now is the fact that everyone is very educated. We always say this about the beauty reader, but when I scroll through my social media feeds, I see more about facelifts, trips to Korea to get work done, exosomes and peptides, and all of this, and that excites me because I see a huge opportunity. There is so much misinformation out there. As our industry leans more and more into wellness, full-body, holistic beauty, there is such a need for a brand like Allure because there’s a lot of bullshit out there. … As someone who runs this brand, it excites me to see the opportunity we have to really serve the reader in a new way, because obviously, people know us for pointing them to the right products via our seal and things like that, but really, we can help people cut through all the marketing nonsense.”