Inspiration is the fuel for creative minds that often happens unexpectedly, opening us up to new possibilities that transcend our ordinary experiences. BeautyMatter created the NEXT Awards to recognize and celebrate our community’s thinkers, makers, and doers whose work raises the bar, inspires others, and defines the future. These individuals and brands are unafraid of challenging the status quo, changing the playbook, and making beauty matter in the process.
What is your role in shaping the future of beauty? Share your vision and accomplishments by submitting for one of our BeautyMatter 2024 NEXT Awards for Visionaries.
Changemaker of the Year
More than simply doing good, these people embody change driven by an empathy for others and a desire to make the world a better place. Having the intention of doing something good is a common desire among leaders and entrepreneurs, but change only happens when intentions are translated into action. And a true changemaker identifies a problem or opportunity to tackle, decides to do something about it, and only stops once they make a difference.
2023 – Edwin Neill, President, the Neill Companies
2022 – Nyakio Grieco, founder, Relevant: Your Skin Seen and co-founder, Thirteen Lune
2024 – Who Should Apply: Founders, executives, or investors. We are looking for a person who has profoundly changed the business of beauty by bringing about positive change linked to equity, health, climate, or sustainability.
Entrepreneur of the Year
The beauty industry has never lacked successful entrepreneurs. Many multinational businesses in the beauty ecosystem were built by passionate founders who put in long hours, made sacrifices, and took risks to scale their nascent ideas into scalable businesses. The consumer’s seemingly insatiable desire for newness has created a flywheel for founders with big ambitions. Starting a business is relatively easy, but it is the ambitious, charismatic founders who instill excitement about their ideas, build a culture that attracts talent, and possess business acumen that creates demand, that break through.
2023 – Suveen Sahib, co-founder and CEO, K18 Biomimetic Hairscience
2022 – Akash Mehta, CEO and founder, Fable & Mane
2024 – Who Should Apply: Founders throughout the beauty ecosystem. We are looking for an entrepreneur who has built a business that matters through inspired innovations, demonstrated vision, leadership, and success.
Innovator of the Year
The beauty industry thrives on what’s now, what’s new, and what’s next, and innovation and disruption are concepts that get thrown around a lot. Inspiration is the springboard for creativity that leads to disrupting convention with radically new ideas, and real innovators disrupt by employing long-term thinking and imagining the impossible. They don’t peddle in quick fixes and gimmicks.
2023 – Candace Mitchell Harris, founder and CEO, Myavana
2022 – Dr. Robb Akridge, founder and CEO, Opulus Beauty Labs
2024 – Who Should Apply: Founders, executives, or investors. We are looking for a person who has made meaningful contributions to the business of beauty by pursuing and executing novel thinking, challenging the status quo, and/or using creative problem solving to move the industry forward.
The Process
Entries for the BeautyMatter NEXT Awards may be submitted by agencies on behalf of clients, with the final entry deadline being May 24, 2024. Entries for the visionary categories are judged by the 2023 winner, and this is only group of awards where BeautyMatter takes and active part. Winners will be announced on October 24, 2024, at the BeautyMatter NEXT Summit: The Future of Beauty in Los Angeles, CA. Find out more here.
The NEXT Awards will culminate in Los Angeles, CA, at the BeautyMatter NEXT Summit on October 24, 2024, where we’ll bring our global community together for a day of content experiences and networking, and it’s where we’ll reveal and recognize this year’s NEXT Award winners.
