When it came cosmetics, you often went to your local drugstore to get your lipstick and eye shadow. Or, if you were feeling fancy and flush with cash, you went to an upscale department store to get your Estee Lauder or Lancome fix. Cosmetics like Maybelline’s Great Lash mascara and Mac’s Ruby Woo lipstick remain iconic. Stores like Ulta and Sephora are an overwhelming mix of cosmetics, hair and skin care lines, and various fragrances (and now can be found within Target and Kohl’s.) And it seems like every other week, and celebrity or influencer comes out with a beauty and fragrance line.
It seems like in the past 10 to 15 years, cosmetics and other beauty products have become more than something we use to adorn our faces or pamper our bodies. They have become brands many women (and maybe some men) have made a part of their identity. Glossier, founded by Emily Weiss back in 2014. And Marissa Meltzer discusses Glossier and its founder in her book Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier. Meltzer does a deep into Glossier’s rise, fall, and rebirth. She also takes a look at its elusive founder, Emily Weiss.
Before there was Glossier, there was one singular Emily Weiss. Born in 1985 and raised in Connecticut, Weiss showed a passion for beauty and fashion from a very young age. She also showed an incredible amount of drive and ambition. She even asked on of the parents she babysat for for an internship at the company he worked for. They company? Ralph Lauren.
Stylish, tall, attractive, and privileged, Weiss was able to make important connections and allies, and thusly, was able to parlay herself into early success. Probably most people became familiar with Weiss when she appeared in a handful of episodes of the reality show “The Hills.” Dubbed the “super intern,” Weiss proved to be smart and capable, and pretty much left cast members of “The Hills,” Lauran Conrad and Whitney Port, in the dust.
In 2011, Weiss launched her website, Into the Gloss. Into the Gloss featured many notable people in the world of fashion and culture in which they shared their beauty routines with the readers of the website. Into the Gloss became a huge hit and ended up quite the profitable media venture for Weiss. Yet, Weiss wanted more.
Weiss was able to parlay the success of Into Gloss (along with two million dollars in seed money) into developing Glossier. Glossier started out with only four products, but that didn’t stop this new beauty brand from taking off and grabbing the dollars of Millennials and older Gen Z-ers. The Millennial Pink packaging may have helped. Within a year, Glossier was selling nearly a year’s worth of product within a three month period.
Glossier added more products and its success was stratospheric. Glossier wasn’t just a cosmetics company and a beauty brand. It became a part of its followers identity. The vibe of Glossier was femininity, inclusiveness, and making it what the consumer wanted. You could use as much product you wanted or as little. Glossier was a fun club and worshipped by its users.
And Weiss became a rock star of CEOs. Sure, it helped she was young and attractive, but she was also hard working, driven, and had her finger on the pulse of what young women wanted when it came to beauty and cosmetics. The media took notice of Weiss, and she was named Forbes magazine “Forbes 30 Under 30” list and Time magazines “Next 100.” What was I doing when I was around that age? Not getting featured in Forbes and Time, that’s for sure.
But soon Glossier started to falter. There was some gossip that things weren’t so rosy amongst the staff of Glossier and Weiss’s leadership, Weiss confused people by claiming Glossier was more of a tech company than a beauty company, and the pandemic didn’t help things either. However, Glossier is having a resurgence and young women remain fans of its products. I even saw Glossier at my local Sephora.
Meltzer has definitely done her research when it comes to Glossier, and she was able to interview Weiss on several occasions. Weiss doesn’t reveal much; she’s probably a very private person. And though I respect Meltzer for her hard work, I did have some problems with Glossy. At some times, Meltzer acts like she worships Weiss, and at other times, it comes across like she’s trying to villainize her. Weiss isn’t perfect, but she isn’t the female, Millennial Bernie Madoff or a brunette version of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.
Also, Meltzer gets quite repetitive in Glossy. I kept reading the same information over and over again. I think Glossy might have worked better as a long article in Vogue or Vanity Fair.
But I think my biggest problem with Glossy was, well, me. I’m a Gen X-er. Glossier was never my beauty brand of choice. And I’ve never treated any beauty brand as part of my identity or something worthy of my worship. Though I did have a thing for Bonne Bell Lipsmackers. Its Dr. Pepper Flavor was the bomb!
Still, Glossy does have some interesting aspects, and I recommend it for anyone who is a fan of Glossy, a fan of Emily Weiss, or anyone interested in the world of beauty brands in the 21st century.
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