by Dr Rahim Said
If you’ve ever wondered where the world’s most beautiful people gather when they’re not clogging up your Instagram feed, I found them.
They’re all here — under one gloriously air-conditioned roof at Beauty Istanbul 2025, held at the cavernous TUYAP Fair Centre in Türkiye.
This year’s spectacle boasts 1,167 exhibitors from 167 countries, showcasing a dizzying 15,000 products and expecting to draw in around 16,000 trade visitors. It’s the kind of event where even the security guards look like they could land a L’Oréal ad.
For those unfamiliar, TUYAP Fair Center is Türkiye’s largest exhibition venue, strategically located in Büyükçekmece, a district of Western Istanbul known for its proximity to the airport, shopping malls, and kebab joints that stay open indecently late.
It’s tailor-made for business travellers and anyone who thinks sleep is optional when there’s eyeliner to be tested and anti-aging serums to sample.
I’m here on a noble mission — representing Kunak Lipids, producers of tocotrienols, a wonder ingredient scientifically proven to make you look fabulous and maybe even reverse your bad life choices.
I told people it keeps you young forever. Some laughed. Some bought samples from the stall next door that uses an extensive amount of tocotrienols in their wonder products.
Everywhere you turn at Beauty Istanbul, there’s a perfectly contoured face smiling back at you, each one more flawless than the last. At one point, I was convinced the mirrors here were enchanted.
Highlight of the day? A pair of charming ladies loitering outside Bandido (a hair products booth, not a Mexican cantina — though that would’ve been equally welcome).
I roped them into a quick photo op for Weekly Echo, promising them fleeting fame in our publication, or at the very least, a mention they could casually drop into their group chats.
They’ll be at Bandido’s entrance until 10th May, after which — like the contents of my hotel mini bar — they mysteriously disappear.
So, if you’re in Istanbul and feel like being surrounded by glamazons, air kisses, and enough hair serum to lube an oil rig, Beauty Istanbul is your kind of place.
And if you can’t find me, I’m probably by the Kunak Lipids booth convincing someone that tocotrienols are the reason I look this good at my age.
Viva Türkiye. Viva tocotrienols. Viva beauty products I can’t pronounce.
WE