Call us beauty geeks, but there’s little more exciting than seeing what’s to come at a trade show—before the innovations have been branded by a major firm and brought to market. Beauty Insider visited Makeup New York in September, where we chatted with many of the show’s 35 cosmetics exhibitors to see the latest concepts being presented to some of the leading beauty companies in the world. These five new products stood out from the rest. How many of these new items will you recognize in stores next year?

Samples for Sale: French beauty firm Livcer is coming out with a sampling kit that can also be sold at retail. “You can use it like a sample but you can retail it at the same time,” said Aude de Livonniere-Fourgous, Managing Director of Livcer. The innovation makes it easy for a manufacturer “to test a small amount of something, say a foundation, that can be used 10 times, rather than a whole bottle. And, it’s easy to travel with.”

Customizable Mascara Wand: ShyaHsin has developed a controllable mascara brush, which can be set for up to 50 different combinations that expand and contract the distance between bristles but also sculpt according to a user’s lashes. “It gives the customer control. You’ll see it in both mass and prestige. And it will be marketed with a video clip for the iphone. There will be a QR code on packaging,” said Marc-Andre Houx, President of ShyaHsin.

Sugar Coated Nails: Expect to see a mass-market version of three dimensional nail art, a la Ciate’s Caviar Manicure, said Sandra Hutson, Sales & Marketing Director at Topline. They’ve devised nail polish bottles with shimmer in the cap that the user shakes on top of their polish coat. The shimmer settles into the polish, without the need for a sealant or top coat.

Oval Sponge: We’re all familiar with the tear-drop shaped blending sponge by Beauty Blender, but Qosmedix is launching an oblong-shaped version that executives said is easier to grip and has a pointed tip to get to hard to reach areas. It’ll be available in red, pink and black.

Sharpener Shifters: Having the right pencil sharpener can mean creating the ultimate thin black line under the eye—or not. But it’s always hard to tell how sharp the tip is without removing the pencil because of the pesky design. Until now. Eisen Gmbh has designed a sharpener that flips the blade to the outside of the sharpener, so that the user can actually see how sharp the pencil tip is without removing the pencil. It’s called the UpsideDownSharpener.