First got here the dishy magnificence routines filed underneath Into the Gloss’s Prime Shelf: excursions, led by founder Emily Weiss, of insiders’ medication cupboards. 4 years later, in 2014, Glossier arrived, with merchandise rooted within the “concept that this-is-what-I-use is deeply linked to this-is-who-I-am,” writes Marisa Meltzer in Shiny (Atria/One Sign), a piquant, deeply reported historical past of the model. (Advance copies proved as coveted as Glossier’s pink bubble pouches and stickers.) Meltzer charts Weiss’s rise from savant teen (“Emily was a Manolo in a college filled with Birkenstocks,” says a peer) to start-up mogul; Glossier’s valuation topped $1 billion in 2019, and it created a grant program for Black-owned companies the following 12 months. Nonetheless, gross sales slumped, and the founder, then on the cusp of maternity depart, introduced Kyle Leahy as CEO in 2022. (Shiny winds down with a cautious Weiss tape-recording the ultimate interview herself.)
Glossier, although, forges on. In February, the model landed in 600 Sephora shops and opened a brand new SoHo flagship. This month’s Stretch Fluid Basis, modeled by WNBA stars, is available in 32 shades—up from 2014’s paltry three for Perfecting Pores and skin Tint. Let the selfies start. —Laura Regensdorf
