Lipstick plus gloss is nice. Lipstick plus gloss plus the right lip liner? Now we’re talking. Because pro tip: It’s the liner that helps your lip combo last longer and instantly elevates your look.

I usually reach for the Morphe Signature Lip Pencil in Wifey (a cool-toned pink) or Junior Suite (a warm rosy pink) for that exact reason. It’s soft enough that I can glide it around my lips without tugging, but not so pliable that the line gets messy. I can trace it over my natural lip line for more definition, cheat slightly outside the lines when I want a fuller look, or dab it all over and then blot with my finger for a more diffused base.

Add a clear gloss, tinted balm, or my favorite lipstick, and easy as that, I’m done. Which is why I keep these Morphe pencils handy for whatever look I’m going for.

Morphe Signature Lip Pencil is in the September Allure Beauty Box.

But no need to be jealous because that was not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This year we’re celebrating 30 years of Best of Beauty, so we’re going even bigger, like huge. On October 17, we’re taking over a larger space, Halo in New York City, giving us even more room for a jam-packed day of beauty.

Across the daytime and evening sessions, expect skin assessments, mini-manis, opportunities to spruce up your hairstyle with our favorites in the industry. Not to mention guests’ favorites: giveaways and product sampling over conversations with the beauty experts, celebrities, and Allure editors. Among them, Amazon Beauty is offering one-on-one makeup artist consultations; Wella Professionals is offering dry hair styling and touch-ups; and Anastasia Soare will give a brow artistry masterclass. And if you needed another reason to make a day of it, select tickets come with hundreds of dollars’ worth of full-size products and samples. The Best of Beauty Live bags are treasured for a reason.

Photo: Sean Sime

So, if spending an October Saturday getting expert advice, discovering award-winning products, and hanging out with fellow beauty obsessives sounds 1000 times better than any pumpkin patch, consider this your invitation. Mark your calendar, grab your tickets before they’re sold out (they go fast!), and join us as we celebrate 30 years of Best of Beauty.

Allure’s Best of Beauty LIVE 2026 is presented by Amazon Beauty and Allē with support from Beauty of Joseon, BOTOX® Cosmetic, DiamondGlow®, EltaMD Skin Care, JUVÉDERM®, SkinMedica®, and Wella Professionals.

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For more on current beauty happenings:

• Taraji P. Henson Makes a Flawless Case for Matching Your Manicure to Your Jewelry
• Dua Lipa’s Multicolored French Manicure Says Summer Isn’t Over Yet
• Florence Pugh Elevated the Messiest Bun With the Fanciest Scarf

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Primer is supposed to be a behind-the-scenes player. It preps, smooths, helps your makeup look better—and then disappears underneath everything else. Rodial Soft Focus Glow Drops apparently did not get that memo.

Yes, this lightweight liquid—made with glycerin, squalane, and mica—does all the things I want from a primer (hydrate, grip, and give a little bit of glow), but what really got my attention was how it made my skin look before I even started on foundation.

A few drops tagged on at the end of my skin-care routine create this soft-focus, illuminated finish that reminds me of walking around as if very flattering lighting were following me everywhere. My skin also looks noticeably glowier, without obvious sparkle or shimmer.

And sure, foundation looks gorgeous layered over it. But lately, I’m just as likely to add a little concealer where I need it and leave the rest alone. Why cover up the main event?

Rodial Soft Focus Glow Drops are in the September Allure Beauty Box.

I used to wear matte red lipstick every. single. day. of my life. I was never without a tube of MAC Ruby Woo, but in recent years, I’ve ditched the crimson lip in favor of something more subtle, like—gasp!—a gloss. But the latest pics of Anne Hathaway have me revisiting my favorite reds once more, especially when paired with a matchy-matchy red manicure and pedicure.

Maybe Hathaway knew I was craving a return to old-school glamour after a laid-back, low-key summer, because the Oscar winner showed up to the Bvlgari Serpenti Infinto Exhibit Event in New York City wearing the ultimate fancy-lady combo on her lips and tips: bright, bold bombshell red.

Let’s start with her lipstick. Hathaway chose a classic vivid red hue with a slight cool undertone, pairing it with a delicate flush of pale pinky-peach blush and a subtly defined eye. We don’t know the exact lipstick she wore (though Anne, please share if you read this!), but given that she frequently works with makeup artists Hung Vanngo and Gucci Westman, both of whom have their own makeup lines, it could be Vanngo’s New York Red or Westman Atelier’s matte Pip. (She’s previously shared that she carries one of Westman’s in her bag.) Hathaway is a longtime red lipstick fan; she’s been wearing the shade for red carpets for decades now and it’s definitely a signature for the star.

Getty Images

It was the matching red nails (and even red toes!) that really brought the look home, serving as a gorgeous contrast against her pale blue-gray strapless Alexander McQueen gown. Celebs have been devoted to French manicures and milky nails for so long now that when we see a bright red nail on the red carpet, it feels like a pleasant surprise. Hathaway’s nails were filed short and painted a gorgeous, creamy crimson red similar to her lipstick. Essie’s Not Red-y for Bed would give you a similar look. And if you’d rather match your nails to your jewelry, follow Taraji P. Henson’s lead! The actor just went for a gilded vibe that we can’t stop thinking about.

Fall often signals a return to bolder beauty looks, and we spotlighted bright lips as one of our favorite trends of the season. There’s never been a better time to bring your red lipstick out of retirement and take it out on the town!

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The latest celebrity beauty news:

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Some of Thompson’s personal nostalgia made its way into Practical Magic 2, incorporating hair accessories from the original movie into the second one. “In the sequel, [Bullock] wears one in the cemetery scene,” she explains. “I brought a huge box of them and gave them to the [hair department head] for the sequel, and she snuck them in, in different places.”

It’s a film about sisterhood and, of course, magic. And there was plenty of the latter to take in. We spoke to Thompson and Whitney James, Bullock’s personal makeup artist, as well as Nicole Kidman’s team, Kim Santantonio and Angela Levin, about how they reimagined the beauty of the Owens sisters nearly three decades later, from de-aging special effects to the sorcery of a good wig.

Nicole Kidman’s Wig Is Not the Same Color—Intentionally

Kidman’s wig in Practical Magic (1998) versus Practical Magic 2 (2026), which features more volume, texture, and highlights.

Everett Collection / Warner Bros. Pictures

Kidman’s love of wigs is well-known in the industry. But when the original film debuted, viewers were shocked to learn she wore an auburn-and-copper-colored wig to play Gilly Owens. People largely thought it was her own hair at the time.

To bring Gilly into the 2020s, Kidman’s longtime on-set hairstylist, Kim Santantonio, updated both the cut and color, bringing wigmaker Rob Pickens onboard to help. “He does all of her wigs, and luckily he was able to come to the trailer and show her samples,” says Santantonio.

Despite having the original wig in their possession, Kidman’s new wigs—she had two, one for backup—didn’t match the OG because the team intentionally added layers and texture to give her hair more movement. “The first wig was very straight, like we flatironed it,” says Santantonio. “It felt heavy [and looked] all one length. This time around, [Kidman] was moving her head a lot, wanting a lot of movement, flickering and flying, so when I put [the new wig] on her the first time, we razor-cut into it around her face, creating a lot of layers.” To style the wig, Santantonio first went in with a curling iron to add volume, then used a flatiron to straighten parts of it, creating a “rock and roll” effect. “In the first film, she had that edge to her,” Santantonio explains.

When it came to the color of the original wig, the shade was very flat, according to Santantonio. “There was no color variation. So when Rob made [the wig for the second film], we had highlights and beautiful color through it because natural hair has a highlight in it.”

I wanted to try an unregulated peptide. Over the past six months, I’ve scrolled countless videos, binged podcasts, and interrogated more peptide-curious people than I can count. I’ve researched all the different versions, from semaglutide to BPC-157, hoping I’d work up the nerve to try one myself—to have the transformation story everyone else claims to be having.

But the caveats kept stacking up: Most of these peptides aren’t approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and the human safety data, where it exists at all, is extremely thin. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been pushing for broader access to compounded, injectable peptides, and this summer an FDA advisory committee recommended allowing compounding pharmacies to manufacture six wellness peptides, despite FDA staff—as well as parts of the medical community at large—raising concerns about insufficient evidence around safety and efficacy.

As a beauty editor, I’ve been most tempted by GHK-Cu, a copper peptide that’s become widely known on the internet as the “beauty” peptide. Originally studied for wound healing, research suggests it can support collagen production, improve firmness and elasticity, reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, and aid in skin repair. Hailey Bieber says it’s amazing.

People are already injecting GHK-Cu, even though the FDA has not approved it for injection and has flagged multiple safety concerns with compounded injectable GHK-Cu, including immune reactions related to impurities and peptide aggregation, while noting limited human safety data.

Topical GHK-Cu, however, is another, less risky-sounding story. Non-injectable GHK-Cu is being evaluated by the FDA for use in traditional pharmacy compounding and, for now, falls under the agency’s Category 1 interim policy. That means the FDA hasn’t approved the ingredient for use, but also hasn’t (yet!) identified any significant safety risks with non-injectable GHK-Cu and won’t take any legal action against a pharmacy that sells it.

Regardless of the approval status of non-injectable GHK-Cu, copper-infused skin-care creams are (at least for now) considered a cosmetic, not a drug. As long as any company selling them doesn’t make medical claims (for instance, they could say that the cream “smooths skin” but not that it “reduces cellulite”) the products wouldn’t be subjected to pre-market safety approval by the FDA. “Any cosmetic product can make claims for their proprietary blends or ingredients with trademarked names without necessarily disclosing the potency of the ingredient or proof of claims,” Nancy Samolitis, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Los Angeles, says.

I knew I could buy a copper-peptide serum without a prescription, but I was convinced that getting GHK-Cu compounded at a pharmacy meant I would be getting the good stuff: purer, stronger, more potent. I worked with Feelin Good Wellness, a peptide therapy provider that works with physicians and pharmacies to create customized routines based on their health history and bloodwork. The service offers physician oversight, though the doctors I encountered were not dermatologists and appeared to focus primarily on hormone and sexual health. The founder of Feelin Good is Carlyn Mungle, who is not a medical professional but found a path into wellness during the pandemic, when she started a business to help provide COVID testing. A huge fan of peptides herself, Mungle swears by GHK-Cu.“It’s a great tool to have in your toolbox,” she tells me. “It’s good for maintaining healthy skin like you have and supporting healthy aging.”

There is something so classic about a gold manicure. Not gold chrome, not a golden cat-eye polish that you have to tilt your hand toward a window to truly appreciate. Just gold. Taraji P. Henson gets it. Even without any nail-art bells and whistles, she delivered a particular brand of maximalism at the premiere of Why Did I Get Married Again?, where her nails could be seen gleaming from clear across the red carpet.

A rich, almost antique yellow-gold, Henson’s polish is opaque and metallic, glistening without any help from glitter. The shade perfectly ties in the earrings and rings she wore, making her nails seem more like another piece of jewelry than a standard manicure.

Photo: Getty Images

Henson has been known to do her own nails with serious skill, but she has also regularly turned to nail artist Temeka Jackson, who filed this set into a sharp stiletto tip. Painted any other color, they would still be beautifully executed, but there’s something about the shape combined with this simple-yet-sumptuous shade that gives it a sense of sagacity. The woman wearing this manicure knows things.

Also contributing to Henson’s dynamic glam was hairstylist Tym Wallace, who gave her pixie cut a sleek finish with a sculpted, retro swoop up front. Makeup artist Saisha Beecham kept her complexion warm with peachy-brown hues, winged liner, and feathery lashes that complement the texture of her Rick Owens dress. Styled by Kollin Carter, the floor-length black-and-white off-the-shoulder design would have worked with any polish color, of course, but there’s something especially sophisticated about the combo with golden nails.

Photo: Getty Images

Pink’s neutral manicure was designed to look like an exaggerated version of the natural nail. Luckily, the director was pleased. “He got so excited and he told me, Jeff, one day you should win an Oscar because you saved the industry so much money,” he says. “I’m still waiting for that.”

In 1976, after his on-screen invention, Pink’s company immediately started producing the style as a kit called the “Natural Nail Look,” et voilà, the French manicure. Although, it would be a few years until it was called the French manicure, and until the look really caught on with the common nail lover.

The turning point came in 1978, when Pink had the opportunity to demonstrate how to achieve his “Natural Nail Look” at Paris Fashion Week, and was suddenly struck with inspiration in the City of Love. “On the way back from Paris to L.A., I said to myself, Jeff, you know what? Natural Nail Look is really kind of cheesy. Maybe you should come up with some other name,” he says. “And then the idea came to me. I just came from Paris. Let’s call it French manicure.” And then the French manicure was born.

Orly’s “original” French manicure kit.

Courtesy of Orly

“[Orly] was really pushing the versatility component, which was important to women of the 1970s,” says Suzanne E. Shapiro, nail historian and author of Nails: The Story of the Modern Manicure. “It was a look that you could wear from the office to your social life that matched any number of changes of clothing would’ve been hugely appealing at that era.” The style also gained resonance at the time because “it had that look of Hollywood glamour and the almost aggressive femininity was really appealing,” adds Shapiro. She likens the style to dental veneers for the hands—an artificial, exaggerated version of flawlessness that was trendy at the time.

While Pink may have not gotten an Oscar, he did create one of the most enduring nail styles of all time, so much so that it’s transcended language: Enter any nail salon in the world and you’ll be able to sit down and walk away with the style, communication barrier be damned. (That wasn’t always the case—the manicure style was initially dubbed as an “American thing,” in Europe, but Allure reported in the November 1995 issue that the trend had crossed the pond and become popular among women in France. C’est la vie!) Pink tried to trademark the phrase “French manicure” in 1980, but was blocked—apparently, it was too “well known” for him to be granted ownership of it. Instead, he opted to trademark the phrase “Original French Manicure,” which is still what Orly uses to this day.

Dua Lipa isn’t quite ready to let go of summer just yet. (And to be honest, neither am I!) She’s keeping the colorful vibes of the sunny season going post-Labor Day—which many of us see as the end of summer despite the fact that it technically doesn’t end until September 21st—with a bright, multicolored French manicure that says, “There’s still time to (safely) soak up the sun!”

Lipa’s mani made plenty of appearances in her most recent photo dump, which took place during a quick end-of-summer vacation. (Swipe through to see lots of pics of the set.) Her medium-long nails were shaped into classic almonds and painted a variety of cheery colors, with a different French-tip motif on each finger: aqua blue with a pastel yellow tip on her pinky, orange and red on her ring finger, baby pink and yellow on her middle finger, maroon and baby blue on her pointer, and olive and blue on her thumb, for example.

The colors were distinctly different from nail to nail, but the repetition of certain shades on the base and the tip made them feel cohesive, like a tropical palette that hints at fall to come via to the darker, warmer shades of maroon, olive, and orange. Consider this the newest summer-to-fall transition manicure for anyone who doesn’t want to say goodbye to bikinis and SPF until absolutely necessary.

If there was ever a time to get creative and have fun with your French manicure, it’s now. At the top of 2026, we spotlighted some of our favorite French trends, and Lipa’s colorful combo would fit right in with the expressive, unique looks that made our moodboards. Because there are so many shades in her specific set, it manages to go with nothing and everything at the same time. There’s basically no limit to what you can do with a French manicure, including stretching out the season just a liiiiiiitle bit longer; you could easily DIY Lipa’s mani with a mix of your favorite summer and fall nail colors and create your own bespoke combo. Honestly, as someone who wishes it could be summer forever, there’s a high chance I may just copy this exact manicure at my next nail appointment.

Follower count: 5.38M YouTube subscribers, 8.2M Instagram followers, 1.2M TikTok followers
First year on YouTube: 2011
First video: A Kim Kardashian New Year’s Eve look that I had recreated from her cover of Glamour.

On pursuing content creation full-time: I had been on YouTube for over a year when I quit working at MAC. My mom was the only person that said, “I believe in you. If you think that you can do this, you can do this.” At that point I was making between $2,000 to $3,000 a month off of AdSense, which was big money to me. I thought, if I quit MAC, I know that I can throw myself into this community more and I can make more money. Everyone was like, $2,000 or $3,000 a month is not enough to support yourself. The month after I quit, I made $12,000 on YouTube.

On her first viral video: It was a smoky cat-eye tutorial and didn’t go viral for three or four months. I think it got 15,000 views, and a few months later I thought, oh my gosh, how did this video get to 70,000 views? Then it was 100,000 and it just kept going. I learned that Kylie Jenner posted a picture of my video on her Tumblr page with a link. This is when she was just known as the Kardashians’ little sister, she hadn’t popped off yet, but I thought that she was just so fun and young and cool. I think that video got 20 million views in the first year.

On the 2016 makeup tutorials she still follows: I still do my eyeliner the same exact way. Also, I used to always tell my audience, “do not make the fishy face” when you contour. I’ve always said you have to follow from the very top of your ear to your mouth. That’s where you want the shadow to be.

On how the industry has changed the most: It’s become very strategic. Back in the day when a product came out and it wasn’t good, all of us OGs would just be like, “This new lip gloss is not good. Don’t waste your money. Moving on.” Point-blank period. Now, if a really huge brand launches something, no one wants to give their honest, negative feedback because they’re like, “well, I want to work with that brand and I don’t want that brand to stop sending me PR.” I do wish that’s something we could really get back to, is people giving honest reviews

On what she misses the most about the early days of beauty YouTube: The love for makeup. I miss going to my subscription page on YouTube and being like, oh my gosh, four of my favorites all uploaded in the last 24 hours. It was like a TV show, because each video was 20 or 30 minutes long. I would be excited all day and I would know that it’s going to be absolutely no drama, no negativity, just makeup. I would be going through a lot of hard stuff in my personal life, but when I was watching beauty YouTube, none of that existed.

On what she doesn’t miss about the early days of YouTube: The pressure to post. There was such a small group of us and our audience loved us and it was such a privilege, but if you did not post… people were coming with pitchforks on Twitter. The demand was so intense, which was amazing, but also [high] pressure. I remember being so sick one time with the flu in my apartment and [thinking], I have to film, I have to post, because my audience was so upset with me.