This Is How The World Gets Bigger

Last year, I sat down with my team to plan 2026. One thing I knew I wanted: for Allure Philippines to take its place on the global stage—not merely to observe the global conversation on beauty, but to contribute to shaping it. I had one specific vision: a year of international collaboration. One print issue with Allure US. Another with Allure Korea. And Katseye—a group born from exactly the kind of multicultural ambition I wanted this publication to embody—was already on my list for one of those covers.

When both EICs Jessica Cruel of Allure US and Hyesoo Park of Allure Korea said yes to my email, I thought: why do this in two separate moments when we could do something that had genuinely never been done before? So I proposed bringing all three editions together. What followed became the first-ever three-way global collaboration in Allure history. 

The cover shoot was produced by Allure US and photographed in Los Angeles, with their team curating the group cover imagery across all three participating markets. Allure Philippines then selected the five solo covers for its own edition—images that reflect the values at the heart of this issue.

Katseye—Sophia Laforteza, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, and Yoonchae Jeung—embodies the reality of beauty today: multicultural, borderless, and impossible to define through a single lens. Their members come from different countries, cultures, and lived experiences, yet together they represent a generation increasingly comfortable existing between identities rather than choosing one over another. In many ways, they are the perfect cover stars for this issue—not because they fit a standard, but because they challenge the idea that one standard should exist at all.

Beyond the cover, this issue explores what beauty becomes when it travels. In What It Means to Be Filipina Everywhere, we examine how Filipina beauty gains visibility on the global stage—and what happens when visibility requires translation. In The Tropical Glow Goes Global, we look at how beauty shaped by Philippine tropical living is influencing what comes next for the industry. We also spotlight the Filipinos who made the world feel closer—the pioneering generation of lifestyle and travel bloggers who helped build the blueprint for today’s creator economy long before “content creator” became a profession.

Across these pages, one question keeps resurfacing: What do we carry with us when we move through the world? What changes? What stays?

The answer, perhaps, is that people are no longer interested in fitting into a single definition of beauty—or looking for one. They are looking for themselves.

That’s why a group like Katseye resonates. That’s why Filipina beauty is finding greater visibility across industries and borders. The most exciting conversations in beauty today aren’t about fitting a mold—they’re about what happens when you walk in without one.

Because being global shouldn’t require becoming less yourself.

This is Allure Philippines on the world stage.

Art and beauty direction by Nicole Almero. Photography by Excel Panlaque. Makeup by Lala Flores. Hair by Patty Inojales.