Fresh from going viral for “twinning” with Hong Kong content creator Steph Hui during a fashion presentation by French fashion house Schiaparelli at the recent Paris Fashion Week, Heart Evangelista graced the opening of the Philippines’ biggest beauty convention, BeautyCon 2026, in SMX Convention in Pasay City last Wednesday, together with SM bigwigs such as SM Investments Corporation vice chairwoman Teresita Sy-Coson.

During the short welcoming program, Heart marveled at how BeautyCon has grown through the years. As a Watsons customer for decades, she congratulated AS Watson, which organizes the BeautyCon together with SM and partners, for celebrating its 185th anniversary by featuring 185 brands at the BeautyCon. According to the Filipina actress and fashion icon, she has been supporting the BeautyCon since it began three years ago and saw it grow from occupying two halls at the SMX Convention Center, to this year’s four halls.

“It’s very mind-blowing for me because this is really a club. This is really a place where you can be yourself… Talagang welcome ka dito (You’re really welcomed here at the BeautyCon)… because I used to be really bashed when I was young, I was very kikay. But now, all the kikays are alive and thriving in this place, and we are all for that celebration. This is where all kikays unite!” Heart declared.

Being at the BeautyCon, she said, is “so convenient for everyone to just really simply enjoy” because “it feels like one big party.”

As a beauty maven with her own beauty brand that debuted at the BeautyCon last year (Luxelle), Heart has tried many beauty trends through the years and alongside “beauty tech,” which Luxelle promotes through its own line of beauty gadgets, Heart has tried “blue eyes” and “glass skin.”

“But I feel like the best trend I like would be beauty from within because it means really treating your skin and giving your skin the best care. I mean, you’ve got your youth, and you got to make sure that you use it by putting the best products. I remember my mom telling me that youth is wasted on the young because I get it, you know, sometimes we’re so insecure that we try to cover it up, but really, your skin, the glass skin, is the one you want to really have and you can have forever,” she explained.

She admitted that there were times she wanted to give up due to challenges like bashing, but she stays afloat by picking herself up every time she falls.

“Sometimes, there’s just so many things that overwhelm you, that you always have to go back to your core and your heart will kind of always tell you what to do. So I feel like that always keeps me grounded. I know how fleeting our industry is and I know how we can just be in here and then all of a sudden you’re gone, but after 28 years, you go back to the core and your passion and your love for it.”