A tell-all book about Glossier is currently in the works

WORDS Jasmine Pirovic PUBLISHED Wed, 12 Oct 2022 - 12:56 pm

Beauty lovers huddle, there's fresh news from the land of Glossier, and no it's not an official date detailing plans to ship to Australia (although at this point, quite frankly I'm done waiting). Marisa Meltzer, a columnist for The New York Times Style section is working on a book about the rise and gradual slump of Glossier entitled, Glossy: Ambition, Beauty and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’ Glossier.

What is the book about?

From what we know so far, Glossy will pull back the curtain on the inner workings of Glossier; detailing how it went from beauty blog Into the Gloss to the billion-dollar company helmed by its celebrity founder Emily Weiss. Meltzer has sought out in-depth interviews with former Glossier employees, investors, and even Weiss herself, to paint a portrait of the company, which ruled the zeitgeist following its 2014 launch date.

Glossier entered the realm of beauty at a time when everything was about matte foundation, baking, contouring and heavy theatrical makeup. It found its power in being the antithesis to this, favouring a dewy, more natural and paired back look echoed in its signature tagline "skin first, makeup second" and products like Boy Brow and Milky Jelly Cleanser. This philosophy bled into its minimal, millennial pink marketing strategy, with chatty Instagram captions and packaging that broke down the barrier between consumer and brand.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say Glossier gave rise to the current obsession with skincare, and it was certainly the precursor to the clean girl aesthetic. Every time the company posted on Instagram, users would beg for their country to be next in line for its deliberately exclusive shipping agenda. Since Australia Post shut down its ShopMate service, still the only way to get it if you live in Australia is to book a flight overseas.

When the pandemic took hold, it was as if someone took a pin to the bubble of hype around the company. The criticism of Glossier has been much the same as the criticism of the so-called clean girl aesthetic: unsustainable and exclusive. In 2020, the company announced a Black-Owned Business Grant scheme in a bid to be actively anti-racist following the murder of George Floyd. However, in response former employees accused Glossier of racism and hostile working environments on the Instagram page Outta the Gloss, and although the company acknowledged the account it reportedly never fulfilled its requests.

From then on the sheen gradually began to wear off. Its sister makeup line Glossier Play was discontinued less than a year after its launch in March 2019, and was dismissed by beauty lovers for its unsustainable packaging. In January this year it was announced that the company had let go of 80 employees and not long after giving birth to her first child in May, Emily Weiss told the world she was stepping down as Glossier's CEO. Reports of the death of the girl boss soon followed.

With three books under her belt already, one of them being a deep dive into Weight Watchers and its founder Jean Nidetch, the story of Glossier is in good hands with Marisa Meltzer. We can't wait to read what she unearths.