Glossy by Marisa Meltzer
Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier
In July 2021, Glossier was valued at $1.8 billion dollars, and as journalist and author Marisa Meltzer writes, “like the labor of applying makeup to make you look naturally beautiful,” nothing about the brand’s climb to success was effortless.
Glossier has been hailed as one of the top beauty brands by Teen Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, Allure, and other publications, and is adored by fans around the globe with products selling out immediately, and waitlists in the thousands, while store openings see lines taking up entire city blocks.
Glossier’s chosen shade of pink for branding, a variation of Pantone’s 705C, named #glossierpink has amassed more than 20,000 tags on Instagram and has taken on a life of its own beyond beauty, branching into home décor and fashion.
Once I caught wind of Glossier a few years ago, I surfed the website and social media, and felt it wasn’t just a product. I wanted in on the product, sure, but I also wanted an all-access pass to the Glossier lifestyle.
In an expertly investigated, and much anticipated book, Meltzer takes readers back to the early days of Glossier, where we meet founder, Emily Weiss. Some may be familiar with Weiss from reality show The Hills where she featured as the “superintern” from Teen Vogue.
Readers learn a lot about Weiss in Glossy, and as Meltzer reports, reality television may have given her the public exposure from which she could have taken to even greater heights. After all, this was 2007, and reality television was all the rage. Weiss, however, with no shortage of ambition, had her sights set on other things.
In 2010, Weiss launched her blog, Into the Gloss, featuring the beauty routines of celebrities and fashion icons. She would prove to be ahead of the curve with this, after which many others tried, and failed, to do the same thing. Weiss, who is well connected, has a great skill in asking for what she wants, and managed to secure many high profile interviews for her Top Shelf column.
By 2012, Into the Gloss readership had swelled to over 200,000, and a couple of years later, Weiss was considering how to expand the business, including launching her own products.
She went on to do exactly that, and Meltzer's Glossy follows the brand through the years, and features exclusive interviews with Emily Weiss, and former employees responsible for naming hero products like Boy Brow and Haloscope. There's plenty of insider scoop, too.
Meltzer’s must-read also contains thought-provoking narrative about the Girlboss movement, the challenges female founders face while funding, a new era of social media friendly retail, DTC brands and distribution channels, and the mass output of white labelled celebrity brands of late. It’s an incisive page-turner for Glossier fans, beauty enthusiasts, business owners, and branding agencies.
 |
| Marisa Meltzer |
Marisa Meltzer is a journalist based in New York who for over a decade has covered beauty, fashion, wellness, and celebrity industries for top national publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. The author of three previous books, This Is Big, How Sassy Changed My Life, and Girl Power, she lives in Manhattan.
Glossy is releasing September 12th, and is available for pre-order now. Check Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, or Simon & Schuster Canada for a distributor near you.
Avocado Diaries is part of the Bookshop.org affiliate program and may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.