The 2026 IBI Awards Categories

Makeup Artistry

Full Face

This category is focused on a complete, full-face makeup look, where all key elements of makeup artistry are present and thoughtfully executed. Looks may be bold and dramatic or soft and natural. Full Face entries should demonstrate the artist’s skill across multiple areas of makeup application (eyes, complexion, brows, and lips) rather than focusing on a single feature alone.

NEW Unedited Makeup Artistry

This category honors the true essence of makeup artistry—raw, authentic, and unfiltered. The Unedited Makeup category is dedicated to showcasing makeup looks exactly as they appear in real life, with no photo editing, filters, retouching, or digital enhancements of any kind.

Entrants must submit natural, unaltered images that capture the genuine details of their work, from skin texture to color precision and technique. This category celebrates the artistry, skill, and creativity that stand strong without the influence of post-production edits, highlighting the real impact of makeup in its purest form.

Natural Makeup

This category is focused on a makeup look that enhances the subject’s natural features while maintaining a soft, understated appearance. The makeup should appear light, fresh, and effortless, with the emphasis on skin, subtle definition, and balanced tones.
Natural Makeup looks typically feature minimal visible product, gentle contouring or shaping, and neutral or softly blended colors. The overall effect is polished and refined without appearing heavy, dramatic, or highly stylized.

Glam

This category is focused on bold, high-impact makeup designed to create a polished, dramatic, and striking appearance. Glam looks feature strong definition, rich color, and visible artistry across the eyes, complexion, lips, and overall face.

Glam makeup is typically elevated, expressive, and intentionally glamorous rather than subtle or minimal.

Before & After Makeup

This category is focused on visible makeup transformation, shown through a paired before and after presentation. Both before and after images are required and should clearly show the model before makeup application and the finished makeup look.

The transformation may be subtle or dramatic and may include beauty looks created for bridal, editorial, pageant, photoshoot, or everyday makeup. The defining feature of this category is the contrast between the two images, highlighting the change achieved.

Creative Makeup

This category is focused on makeup looks driven by artistic expression, imagination, and visual experimentation. Creative makeup may include fantasy-inspired designs, bold or unconventional color use, graphic lines, texture, or nontraditional application techniques.

These looks move beyond traditional beauty standards and explore makeup as a form of visual art, whether abstract, conceptual, surreal, or highly stylized. If you miss the Best Glitter category, your glitter work is welcomed in this category or the Unconventional Category.

Unconventional Makeup 

This category is focused on makeup looks that fall outside traditional or expected beauty styles. Unconventional makeup may challenge standard aesthetics through unusual concepts, unexpected design choices, or nontraditional approaches to color, form, or placement.

These looks do not need to follow established beauty trends or structures and are defined by their departure from familiar makeup conventions. If you miss the Best Glitter category, your glitter work is welcomed in this category or the Creative Category.

Avant-garde Makeup

This category is focused on experimental and innovative makeup artistry. Avant garde looks explore new ideas, techniques, and visual directions, often pushing beyond traditional or even creative makeup boundaries.
These looks may feature extreme styling, abstract elements, or highly original concepts, with an emphasis on originality, innovation, and visual impact.

Makeup Art

This category is focused on makeup used as a visual art medium. The face or body serves as the canvas, with makeup applied in a way that emphasizes design, composition, and artistic expression rather than conventional beauty styling.

Makeup Art may include illustrative, painterly, symbolic, or conceptual work that treats the skin as a surface for artistic creation.

Editorial Makeup

This category is focused on makeup created for editorial or magazine-style imagery. Editorial looks are designed to support a visual concept, mood, or theme, working in harmony with photography, fashion, and styling.

These looks often reflect a specific aesthetic or narrative direction commonly seen in fashion editorials, lookbooks, or magazine features.

High Fashion Makeup

This category is focused on makeup inspired by luxury fashion, runway aesthetics, and couture design. High fashion looks often feature bold styling, strong visual structure, and refined, trend-forward artistry.

These looks are designed to complement high-end fashion imagery and may reflect current or forward-looking runway influences.

Bridal Makeup

This category is focused on makeup created for a bride. The style may be soft and natural or more polished and glamorous, as long as the makeup is designed to complement a bridal look and setting.

Men’s Makeup

This category is focused on makeup applied on a male model. The style may range from natural or male grooming to understated, bold, creative, or highly stylized, with the defining factor being that the makeup is designed for and worn by a male-presenting subject.

Special Effects Makeup (SFX)

This category is focused on makeup created using special effects techniques. SFX makeup may include prosthetics, sculpting, texture building, and surface effects designed to simulate or create injuries, altered features, creatures, or dramatic physical transformations.

This category covers both realistic and fantastical effects, including wounds, bruises, burns, scars, aging, character transformations, and other illusion-based makeup created through physical application rather than digital alteration.

Character & Cosplay Makeup

This category is focused on makeup created to represent a specific character. The character may be based on an existing figure from film, television, gaming, comics, or mythology, or an original character created by the artist.

Reparative Makeup*
No Fee

This is always a free category. If you are transforming people’s self esteem while they battle a physical illness or injury, we want to celebrate you. Any reparative makeup from dramatic to simple belongs in this category. This could mean makeup application for a woman battling illness or in some cases this could also be microblading missing eyebrows or prosthetics secured with cosmetics like spirit gum. Past entrants have shared artistry around burns, vitiligo, severe acne scarring, areola tattoos, treatment related complications like hair loss, genetic alopecia and more.

Hair Artistry

Overall Cut & Style

This category is focused on the combination of haircutting and hairstyling within a single finished look. The entry should show both the structure of the cut and the final styled result as one complete hair design.

Short Hair Cut/Style

This category is focused on haircutting and styling for short hair lengths. The look may be classic, modern, or fashion-forward, as long as the hair is clearly short in length.

NEW Unedited Hair Artistry

This category is focused on hair artistry presented without any digital alteration. Images must be free from filters, retouching, color correction, or digital enhancements, showing the hair exactly as it appeared when photographed.

The emphasis is on natural texture, color, finish, and styling as captured in real life, without the influence of post-production.

Men’s Cut & Style

This category is focused on haircutting and hairstyling created for a male model. The look may be classic, modern, or creative.

NEW Barbering

This category is focused on hair cutting and grooming created using barbering techniques. This includes fades, tapers, line work, shaping, beard grooming, and short-form haircutting designed for traditionally barbered styles.

The look should center on clean structure, precision, and grooming rather than long hair styling or cosmetic hair design.

Hand-Painted Color Technique

This category is focused on hair color created using hand-painted application techniques. This includes methods such as balayage, ombré, sombre, highlighting, or other freehand color placement.

Multi-tonal Color

This category is focused on hair color that incorporates more than one visible tone or shade. The look may include two or more colors blended, layered, or placed to create dimension, contrast, or depth.

Fantasy & Vivid Color

This category is focused on hair color using vivid, neon, or fantasy shades. This may include bold color placement, painted designs, or multi-color patterns that move beyond natural hair color ranges.

NEW Color Excellence

This category is focused on hair color that demonstrates exceptional precision, balance, and finish. The look may be natural or bold, light or dark, subtle or high impact, as long as the color application appears polished, intentional, and technically refined across the entire head of hair.

NEW Corrective Color

This category is focused on hair color created to correct, repair, or transform a previous color result. The work may involve neutralizing unwanted tones, adjusting uneven color, fixing banding, lifting dark or damaged pigment, or creating a new, wearable result from a compromised starting point.

Entries should clearly show the change achieved through color correction with a before image for reference.

Updo & Upstyle

This category is focused on hair that is styled up, pinned, wrapped, or structured away from the face or neck. The look may be soft, classic, or highly stylized.

Bridal Hair

This category is focused on hair styling created for a bride. The style may range from classic and elegant to modern, romantic, or fashion-forward, with the defining element being that the hair is designed specifically for a bridal look.

Before & After Hair

This category is focused on visible hair transformation shown through a paired before and after presentation. Both before and after images must be submitted and should clearly show the change created through cutting, coloring, styling, or overall hair design.

Braided Style

his category is focused on hairstyles where braiding is a primary element of the look. This includes styles such as box braids, cornrows, fishtail braids, woven designs, feed-in braids, crown braids, pull-through braids, crochet and similar techniques.

Natural Hair/Texture

This category is focused on hairstyles that work with and highlight natural hair texture. The look may include curls, coils, waves, or textured hair styled in a way that emphasizes its natural pattern rather than altering it through straightening or restructuring.

High Fashion Hair

This category is focused on hairstyling inspired by luxury fashion, couture, and runway aesthetics. These looks often feature strong visuals, trend-forward design, or elevated styling intended to complement high-end fashion imagery.

Editorial Hair

This category is focused on hairstyling created for editorial or magazine-style imagery. Editorial hair is designed to support a specific mood, concept, or visual direction within a styled shoot.

Creative Hair

This category is focused on hairstyling driven by artistic expression and visual experimentation. Creative hair may include fantasy-inspired designs, unusual shapes, bold color use, or unconventional styling techniques.

Unconventional Hair

This category is focused on hairstyles that fall outside traditional or expected hair design. Unconventional hair may challenge standard beauty norms through unexpected forms, textures, structures, or conceptual approaches.

Avant-garde Hair 

This category is focused on experimental and innovative hairstyling. Avant garde hair explores new visual ideas and techniques, often pushing beyond conventional or creative styling into highly original or abstract forms.

Hair Art

This category is focused on hair used as a visual art medium. Hair becomes the primary material for creating designs, patterns, structures, or concepts, using the head, body, or alternative surfaces as the canvas.

Wig Styling

This category is focused on wigs that are either custom made or pre-made and then styled. The look should show the wig worn on a model, with the hair design created through cutting, coloring, or styling of the wig.

Reparative Hair* No Fee

This category is focused on hair artistry created to support individuals affected by illness, injury, or hair loss. This may include wigs, hairpieces, camouflage techniques, or styling designed to restore or enhance the appearance of hair.

Student

Student Hair, Student Makeup and Student Nails Categories No Fee

Only current beauty students are eligible for the Student Hair, Student Makeup and Student Nails categories. The student categories are for newcomers and are not intended for professionals taking continuing education courses. Students who are just starting out and still studying compete against one and other for the best student hair or makeup artistry.

Students can apply to enter here