Into The Gloss!
Beauty blog, turned cosmetics brand Glossier Inc just hit the billion mark. It is now valued at $1.2 billion, making it the latest tech start-up to become a unicorn. The cult beauty brand reached this milestone after raising $100 million from investors led by Sequoia Capital.
The company was founded in 2014 by former The Hills star Emily Weiss. The 35-year-old’s journey started all the way back when she an intern at Ralph Lauren at just 15. From there, she worked a string of assistant jobs at Conde Nast and even started on MTV’s reality show The Hills, where she was Lauren Conrad’s professional frenemy. Her venture into the glamours world of fashion led to her love for the beauty industry.
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It was then, in 2010 that she launched her blog that started it all – Into The Gloss gave readers a glimpse into the beauty regimes of fashion’s elite. One of the blog’s most popular series was Top Shelf, where interviewees are sometimes interviewed in their bathrooms. In the beginning, Emily worked on the blog before going to her day job, but after achieving 10 million page views a month, and obtaining several successful corporate partnerships, she quit her job to focus on her business ventures full time.
So how did this blog turn into a billion dollar company? Emily focused a lot of her energy into launching products that catered to the millennial market. The first four Glossier that hit the market were the Soothing Face Mist, Priming Moisturizer, Balm Dotcom salve and Perfecting Skin Tint foundation. Thanks to its direct-to-consumer strategy, pink-and-white minimalist packaging and products that promise to “never cover you up, turn you into someone else, or overcomplicate your routine,” Glossier became a hit with the millennials.
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But there is a catch, Glossier does not deliver to the UAE or the region and you will not find them in Sephora either. However, online retailer Desert Cart does sell products from the brand and it delivers to all GCC countries, Jordan and Lebanon. That’s not all from the cosmetics company, as Glossier recently launched a new sub-brand Glossier Play, which offers consumers a collection of bold colour make-up products designed to promote self-expression, creativity and play.
Emily took to Instagram to reflect on the past five years, and the journey that led to her billion dollar company, writing, “Baby me in 2014 wasn’t sure if we could afford the next hire, didn’t know if anyone would like her idea for a beauty company, was engaged to be married, and hardly knew a venture capitalist from a bank teller.”
“Emily in 2019 has been through hell and high water to build an incredible company with incredible people, endured heartbreak and experienced new love, and been among a very small minority of women raising this kind of money at these kinds of prices, to build the things they believe in. Today Glossier was able to achieve something very special. And all it means, is that we get to keep building things that make people happy. On this day especially, I am so excited to say: go team go,” she continued.
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Get your hands on the Glossier products now!
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