This Fearless Leader Uncovered a $500 Billion Beauty Industry Blunder, Sparking a Sensational Brand Victory
And it all started with a blog that morphed into a trail blazing new line of beauty products
Back in the medieval times (the 11th to 13th centuries), if you were a craftsman such as carpenter, blacksmith, mason, hat maker or weaver, you mostly like were part of the guild system.
It was a way of learning your craft … one master craftsman teaching an up and coming craftsman. The guild itself started out a s grassroots movement, organized by craftsmen and merchants to protect their trades and also sell products and services.
In the guild system of learning, you started out as an apprentice … usually without getting paid or perhaps a small fee. But once you gained enough skills and experience, which took a few years, you then became a paid journeyman.
When you reached the level of demonstrating exceptional skill and craftsmanship, you could then become a master craftsman. But to do so, you have to create a "masterpiece" that was judged by the guild and other master craftsmen.
Guilds were so popular that some had a guild house, which was used as a place for their members to discuss issues, and also to sell and exhibit their goods.
Besides having their own exhibits, most village charters required that guilds contributed to the city in a meaningful way. These contributions could have been, for example, the construction or furnishing of public buildings, public works, the maintenance of almshouses or the organization of public events.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a lot of opposition toward guilds. That because most guilds opposed free trade. In other words, if you were an artisan who practiced your craft on your own, you were hurting the guilds business structure.
Two of the most outspoken critics of the medieval guild system were Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith, who favored more of a laissez-faire free market system.
And so overtime, guilds lost their influence and members. Historian Charles Gross estimated that by 1800, fewer than 10% of English towns had active trade guilds, down from over 100 in the 13th century.
Start at the Beginning
While guilds became fewer and far in between, the idea of being an apprentice never fully faded away.
In fact it was the medical field that favored apprenticeships. It’s how young physicians gained practical experience under the supervision of more experienced doctors.
In truth there was a competitive market for internships with hospitals vying for top candidates. For instance, the University of Michigan (U-M) hired its first interns in 1899, paying them $125 a year, including room and board.
Then the idea of apprenticeship crossed over into businesses in the form of internships. That was mostly because of the number of people graduating from college. By the 1970s, there were more students graduating college than ever before, and that trend continued for several years.
But those new college graduates were entering a tough labor market. So colleges began offering internships as a way to help students find jobs. The number of universities offering programs that let students split their time between interning and classwork increased from 200 in 1970 to 1,000 in 1983.
And those internships were a mix of paid and unpaid work. But either way, it gave students a chance to learn ‘hands on” in their desired field or industry.
Emily Weiss who was born on March 22, 1985, landed an internship with the fashion company Ralph Lauren for two summers while in high school. Then when attending New York University, she interned for Teen Vogue from her sophomore to senior years.
That also happened to be the time she landed a role on the television show, The Hills as you guess … an intern. She appeared in three episodes.
She didn’t know it then, but these experiences would help her create a line of beauty products that was valued at $1.8 billion.
Yet it’s the way she disrupted the beauty industry that makes her story one worth telling.
Let’s Write About It
After graduating in 2007 with a degree in studio art, Weiss worked as a fashion assistant at W magazine. Her time there was brief, maybe one or two years before taking a job as an assistant to Elissa Santisi, a style director at American Vogue.
Sometime during the summer of 2010, Emily went back home to Connecticut to spend time with her family on vacation. Wilton Connecticut is actually where she grew up.
It’s home to the Weir Farm, a national historic site that spans 60 acres. The farm includes hiking trails and serves to commemorate the life and work of American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site or lived there including Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent, and John Twachtman.
Some people say the town gives off a “Gilmore Girls” type of vibe because of the manicured lawns, lacrosse players and understated affluence.
Wilton is considered a more affluent town because most of the people living here have above average incomes. In fact most are business executives and professionals who work in Stamford, Greenwich, Westchester County and New York City.
Emily’s dad was one of those people. He was an executive at Pitney Bowes and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. As a young teenager, Emily stood out from typical teens, wearing Louis Vuitton handbags and pointy-toed shoes for her first day of middle school. She refers to this period of time as her “Clueless” (from the movie, Clueless) inspired look.
While she may have dressed differently, Emily thought differently. For instance, after babysitting for a neighbor who worked at Ralph Lauren company, she talked her way into an internship.
Then her boss at Ralph Lauren put her up for an internship at Teen Vogue; her boss at Teen Vogue then put her up for a role on “The Hills, a reality show.
Speaking of thinking differently, it’s while on vacation that Emily got the idea to start a fashion website and blog. She already knew what to name her it, Into the Gloss. Before writing a single word, when Emily returned back to work, she sought Eva Chen’s (at the time an editor in the beauty department) advice on getting started. Chen encouraged her to work on the blog on her off hours.
The idea behind Into the Gloss was to show the real-world beauty routines of fashion insiders and celebrities—stuff that she learned on shoots, like Victoria Secret super model Karlie Kloss’s love of Bag Balm ointment on her lips.
A few weeks later Emily bought the domain for her blog and set up the website. By September 20120, her first post went live with publicist Nicky Deam sharing her Fashion Week survival items.
One section of her website was dubbed Top Shelf, which showcased in-depth, intimate interviews with notable women about their beauty routines, skincare regimens. The concept stemmed from Emily’s curiosity about what women kept on their literal “top shelf” and how they curated their beauty routines.
Think of it as a voyeuristic glimpse into the bathrooms, vanities, and beauty cabinets of influencers, celebrities, and industry insiders, detailing the products they used and their daily rituals. The series captured everything from high-end luxury items to drugstore staples.
It was an immediate success too. Emily initially posted three times a week while working at Vogue but eventually hired colleagues to help write the content. In fact she hired Nick Axelrod, Elle Magazine’s senior fashion editor as her editorial director. This increased posting frequency from three times a week to three times a day.
Just 18 months after launch, her site attracted over 200,000 unique visitors per month, generating approximately 4.5 million monthly page views. This shift in frequency tripled traffic “almost overnight,” according to Into the Gloss figures.
By 2013, the site had a team of four and was posting four times daily, capitalizing on the beauty blogging wave and Emily’s ability to secure corporate partnerships, like a collaboration with Bumble & Bumble that drove significant traffic to their site.
By this time, Into the Gloss was a leading voice in beauty media, with traffic hovering around 2 million unique readers monthly.
By May 2016, Into the Gloss reached 1.3 million unique visitors in a single month, while reaching 10 million page views per month at its peak.
Tell Me What You Want, What You Really Want
In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon first published the phrase, “knowledge is everything” in in his work, Meditationes Sacrae.
And if there is anything Emily learned while working In the Gloss it’s what woman really wanted from the beauty industry. That’s because readers would comment on her articles, letting Emily and her team know what was missing from products, what needed to be improved, and what they desired most.
Emily noticed that traditional beauty conglomerates such as Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and Revlon had a top-down way of communicating—via celebrity ads or department store placements.
In other words certain executives and members of their marketing departments decided what products to produce. Their main source of feedback was based on how much money they made per product.
However Emily knew from the flood of comments on social media and her website, that her fans preferred a more conversational approach. If she knew what they wanted, then why not give it to them.
And that’s when she got her next idea … create her own line of beauty products and sell directly to her readers. And what better name for her line of beauty products than Glossier. Emily wanted her cosmetic line to focus on enhancing natural features with lightweight, easy-to-use products, resonating with a desire for effortless beauty.
Of course she would need a little help to get things going … that is financial help to start her line. So in 2013 she turned to Kirsten Green at Forerunner Ventures in San Francisco and was award $2 million dollars.
She also developed quite a clever marketing plan for selling her products. While she was developing the product line, she constantly teased readers about it on her website. In fact she put up over 125 teaser posts. Her audience was ready and waiting when she finally launched her products.
And she did that just nine months later in October of 2014 with four universal products: moisturizer, facial spray, sheer foundation, and a lip and skin salve called Balm Dotcom.
As you might have guessed by now, those products made an immediate impression with her readers and followers. So much so that she ran out of inventory.
Emily issued a public apology for inventory shortages and hired a director of supply chain management to address scaling issues. Despite these hiccups, the brand’s e-commerce site attracted 1.5 million unique monthly visitors, and products received awards from outlets like Allure.
That didn’t stop Emily from expanding the business and adding to her success. She introduced more product lines, which included skincare, makeup, body care, fragrance … even merchandise.
New products introduced such as Cloud Paint and Milky Jelly Cleanser became iconic, with waitlists being creating for items like Boy Brow reaching 10,000 people.
From Website to Store Front
Glossier was making a huge splash in the beauty industry. Her customer base was growing as well as her fan base.
That lead her to open storefronts. The first one was in SoHo New York in November 2018, which generated more sales per square foot than the average Apple Store. She opened another storefront in Los Angeles in 2019, and multiple pop-ups across the U.S., including Nordstrom collaborations.
But it’s the SoHo location that has become a fan favorite. Some 50,000 visitors pour through its doors each month. In the summer, it’s not unusual for the line run halfway down the block.
Editors, as the store employees are called (customer-service reps are online editors), mill about on the sidewalk, dressed in light pink jumpsuits, which resemble the color of the packaging for all products.
Meanwhile as customers are busy buying, Glossier’s valuation soared, reaching $400 million by 2018 and $1.2 billion in 2019 after a $100 million Series D funding round, earning "unicorn" status.
That’s the term used by Wall Street venture capitalist to describe rare, high-value startups. The companies that earn the nickname are typically characterized by rapid growth, innovative business models, and significant investor backing.
And that strong backing continued with Glossier’s valuation reaching another milestone in 2021 of $1.8 billion.
The success of Glossier didn’t come without a few bumps in the road. Emily was eager to build her own social media platform and put a lot of resources toward that endeavor. However, it failed and in 2022 about one-third of its workforce was let go, primarily from the tech side.
A kind of anti-Glossier sentiment emerged on platforms like TikTok and Reddit, with consumers citing disappointing formulas (e.g., Lash Slick mascara falsely marketed as vegan) and a perceived decline in innovation.
In that same year, Emily decided to step down as CEO and hired Kyle Leahy to take over. Kyle had previously worked at companies like Nike, Cole Haan, and American Express, which gave her exceptional experience in strategy and operational execution.
She refocused Glossier on beauty products and experiences, moving away from tech ambitions.
Back on Track
With Kyle’s help, Glossier was back on track … back to its beginnings as a beauty brand. For example, Glossier launched its global e-commerce takeover, shipping to 180 countries. It also opened 11 stores worldwide (including London) and partnered with SpaceNK and Mecca.
Glossier accelerated product launches to every four to six weeks, with hits like Glossier You fragrance (one bottle sold every 40 seconds) and a deodorant with a 20,000-person waitlist.
The company’s 2023 retail sales were estimated at $300 million, with a 73% year-on-year increase, marking its “biggest year in history.” The partnership created with Sephora is on track to generate $100 million.
Emily now serves as the Executive Chairwoman of the company. In this role, she works closely with the CEO, Kyle Leahy, and the board to guide Glossier’s long-term strategy. She focuses most of her time on Glossier’s creative efforts, branding, product development, with an emphasize on customer experience innovation.
Emily Weiss built a billion-dollar brand from a blog, showcasing her vision for community-driven beauty - something unexpected in the beauty industry. Her success is defined by her entrepreneurial vision, transforming Into the Gloss into a beauty empire and guiding Glossier’s evolution, cementing her legacy as a trailblazer in modern beauty.
Amazing Quotes from Amazing People
“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.” - Oprah Winfrey
Again, the podcast drove me to read the story. And I'm really glad I did both.
Great story. Really impressive success story!