Xiao Wen Ju by Brayden Olson for Glossier
Into the Gloss has long been an essential read for anyone interested in beauty, but with the launch of brand Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss pushes into exciting new territory. With an innovative take on the business of beauty and an accessible aesthetic guaranteed to appeal to the internet generation, Glossier emerges as a refreshing new force in beauty. With this week’s launch of the Phase 1 Set – a skincare meets color cosmetics combo of facial balm, tint, mist and priming moisturizer – Glossier is set to shake things up.
JO: What made you want to start Glossier?
EW: I think it was sort of a natural evolution. I wanted to go deeper. Into the Gloss is about exploration and learning. Hopefully it is me acting as sort of, a lightning rod for information ranging from our readers to people who I interview. I think Glossier was really born out of that. It’s sort of a response to women’s needs today both from a conceptual point of view in terms of the products we’re making and also in a distribution point of view because we’re selling online. So, it’s hopefully a really modern brand and it’s a brand that’s really born of the internet.
JO: When you first decided to create product did you base things reader feedback or did you set out to craft the products you were looking for personally?
EW: I think it was really more about what I was looking for and I don’t think that I’m that unusual! I’m a fan and I’ve always categorized myself as that. I’m a fan of makeup artists and a fan of models. I’m a fan of photographers and I’m a fan of women in general. I think I’ve always just sort of listened to my gut. Even just how do I feel in terms of being someone four years ago in my mid twenties, how am I feeling as someone who is nearing thirty, and someone who has now lived in New York for a decade. I kind of just try to be present and I think that’s what Glossier is hopefully all about. It’s operating in the present and being okay with wherever you’re at.
Glossier’s Phase 1 Set / Photo by Raymond Meier
JO: Tell me a bit about the products themselves, I know it all starts with a set.
EW: Yes! Well, I really was trying to think of Glossier as starting from the beginning. It’s all about rebirth and really putting thought behind what you’re using and why and when and how. Into the Gloss is really great about asking those questions, so how we came up with our product development strategy for Glossier is very much about starting from the ground up and rethinking beauty and rethinking what you need/how you use products in tandem with each other and alone.
I think rather than deciding that we were going to launch a complete line of… 50 colors of that and 30 colors of this… 5 different mascaras… all of these different offerings that traditionally beauty brands will roll out, we wanted to do it a lot smaller. Both on a conceptual point of view because I think it’s important to start with a great canvas. That’s something I’ve definitely learned over the years from all of the women I interviewed. With makeup artists, witnessing how their process works, models off duty and products they usually reach for.
Also because we’re a brand new company, right? It started in a really similar way to Into the Gloss with mood boarding and then the big difference is that product development is very complicated. It’s really a serious endeavor, so that’s something we invested a lot of time and energy into. Especially in hiring the product developer from MAC who has been there for a decade and working with a world class chemist. All of our partners came together to make this happen, it’s been pretty wild.
Adesuwa Aighewi by Brayden Olson for Glossier
The Priming Moisturizer / Photo by Raymond Meier
Speaking of which, tell us a bit more about the incredible team that you put together!
EW: Of course! Well, there’s Alexis who is really world-class, again product developer for Mac for a decade and worked on collaborations at MAC ranging from Heatherette back in the day to Rihanna.
JO: Oh god, you’re taking me back with the Heatherette thing.
EW: Haha, yeah! You’ll see evidence of that and in terms of in house we have a fantastic graphic designer from Bumble and Bumble. We worked with a wonderful COO from Index Ventures and Stanford Business school who is really the business brain behind this and brings with him incredible savvy and insight with regards to e-commerce.
Also, our fantastic editorial team who continue to evolve Into the Gloss and also are creating content for gIRL Blog which is the blog associated with Glossier.
JO: What would you say is your favorite product from the line, I know it’s hard to choose, but if there’s something?
EW: It’s actually impossible to choose! The whole idea behind it, going back to this idea that it’s not about proliferation, it’s more about a pre-curated approach to product development which is pretty unique. For me, everything we’re putting out is a hero product in every sense of the word. We’ve spent a lot of time deciding and thinking about every element, from the packaging to the formulas and the colors… everything! They’re all meant to work together and you’re really building into your Glossier.
Coco Baudelle by Brayden Olson for Glossier
Photo by Raymond Meier
JO: The campaign looks phenomenal – how did you make the selection for that?
EW: All four of the Glossier girls who are Adesuwa, Xiao Wen, Coco, and and Annie who is our editorial director here, were chosen because of the free spirit they show on Instagram. In fact, when I met Adesuwa, it was because I found her on Instagram and I told her that. She was dying laughing saying, “Really? My Instagram is so ratchet!” I thought, “That’s exactly why I love it! You’re hired!”
In this day and age we’re so hung up with, and myself included, our internet personas. Each platform is sort of, who you want to be and what you want to show, what you want to reveal, how you want to sound. There’s a lot of editing that goes on and I think that all four of these girls really embrace the off moments and aren’t so much about posing or posturing, at least it doesn’t seem like it, that they’re not taking 30 pictures and picking the best one. It seems really just one picture and I think that’s really fresh.
Going back to girls right now and casting, I’ve always really loved models and I don’t even look at the portfolio these days, I just ask them for their Instagram handles! That’s who you’re really getting. More than ever you want to get to know their personality, you want to see what is their editorial voice, for lack of a better word, who are these girls? So, I’m super inspired by the realness or perceived realness of Instagram and getting more and more real. I think these four girls are pretty badass.
JO: What has been the most exciting part of this journey?
EW: I love building things and I always have. Yesterday was the launch and it’s really the beginning of a new chapter for us. What is unique to this company and this situation is that we’re building something that has never existed before. This is a beauty brand that is built online and inspired by digital. I think in that way, that’s been really exciting to think about how people want to be communicated with and how you communicate now, what is real?
Also what’s been really interesting to me is just collaborating with a team of people and with having a blog you can see immediate results. You can take pictures and write the copy and put up a post all by yourself if need be. With launching Glossier it’s a whole different ball game and it’s been a labor of love from not only our in house team but also our vendors and collaborators around the world from illustrators in Paris to chemists in California to warehouse in Connecticut, there are so many people that go into building it so that to me is really exciting.
Annie Kreighbaum by Brayden Olson for Glossier
Perfecting Skin Tint / Photo by Raymond Meier
