How a former Vogue fashion assistant built Glossier from a small blog to a $1.2 billion beauty business

Glossier announced Tuesday that it had raised an additional $100 million in funding in a round that valued the company at $1.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
CEO Emily Weiss launched the company in 2014, off the back of a successful blog that she launched in 2010.
Glossier has found success in selling makeup directly to customers through Instagram, where the brand has more than 1.9 million followers.

Glossier is making big moves to dominate the global beauty industry.

On Tuesday , the company announced it had raised $100 million in a funding round that valued Glossier at $1.2 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Founder and CEO Emily Weiss started the company in 2014 after running a well-known blog, Into The Gloss, for four years. Weiss has turned traditional beauty retail on its head and cracked the code for selling makeup directly to consumers through Instagram, where the brand has more than 1.9 million followers.

See how Weiss built the company up from a beauty blog into a billion-dollar business:

Weiss moved to New York at 18 to study at New York University, majoring in studio art. It was at this point that she made her first foray into the fashion and beauty realm by taking up a three-day-a-week internship at Teen Vogue during her studies.

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AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Source: Fashionista

After graduating in 2007, Weiss worked briefly for W magazine before moving to Vogue, where she worked as a fashion assistant.

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Getty/Patrick McMullan

Source: Fashionista

While working as a fashion assistant, Weiss set up her beauty blog, Into The Gloss, spotting a gap in the market for beauty product coverage.

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Getty/Patrick McMullan

"I was surrounded by so much magic All these models and makeup [artists]," she said in an interview with Fashionista in 2015.

"That was the inspiration for Into the Gloss, wanting to know more about these women who were so cool and interesting for all these different reasons."

Weiss would candidly interview celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Karlie Kloss about their beauty regimens.

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Getty/Patrick McMullan

Source: Business Insider

The blog quickly gained a following among beauty enthusiasts who commented on posts to share their experiences with various products and make suggestions to other readers.

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Instagram/Into The Gloss

Source: Business Insider

Weiss decided to leave her job to focus on the blog full-time. She asked Nick Axelrod, a friend who had also worked in publishing, to become the editorial director.

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Getty/Jennifer Graylock

Source: Business of Fashion

Weiss re-launched the website and upped the number of posts; overnight traffic to the site tripled.

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Getty/Charles Eshelman

Source: Business of Fashion

Product feedback on the blog laid the foundation for what was to come. Weiss was now armed with a wealth of information to create products that were directly tied to what readers wanted.

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Getty/Lars Niki

In 2013, the company raised $2 million in venture capital funding. At the time, Weiss said the funding would be put toward eight to 10 new hires across editorial, tech, and design.

A year later, Glossier was born.

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Glossier

Weiss teased the new brand on Instagram about four weeks before launch. Within the first week of selling the new products, she had more than 18,000 followers.

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Getty/Paul Morigi

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Instagram influencers and celebrities spread the message, posting photos of themselves in Glossier swag. Glossier launched with four products: a facial mist, moisturizer, skin tint, and balm. These products were intended to give off a "no-makeup" look.

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Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Source: Karlie Kloss Instagram

A month after launching, Glossier raised an additional $8.4 million in venture capital funding.

A key part of Glossier's success has been Weiss' commitment to its brand identity.

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Facebook/Glossier

"Brand is really, really important. It's kind of everything," she told Business Insider in 2016 .

Glossier has always been known for its signature pink hue, playful marketing voice, and images of diverse women with minimal makeup.

But the most defining part of its business model is its customer feedback system.

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Glossier

The product team depends on the user community and feedback to innovate and iterate.

Between 2016 and 2018, the company raised $76 million in two rounds of funding and opened two stores: a showroom in New York (which transitioned into a permanent flagship store) and a store in Los Angeles.

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Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

Source: Crunchbase

The company told Business Insider that it surpassed $100 million in annual revenue in 2018, doubling its 2017 numbers. It also acquired a million new customers that year.

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Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

In 2018, the brand sold one Boy Brow every 32 seconds, it said.

In March 2019, Glossier launched a new color makeup brand, Glossier Play, which was two years in the making.

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Glossier

Two weeks later, the company was valued at $1.2 billion after receiving $100 million in funding.

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Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

Source: Markets Insider

It plans to open five pop-up locations in 2019, beginning with Miami in the spring.

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Facebook/Glossier

How a former Vogue fashion assistant built Glossier from a small blog to a $1.2 billion beauty business

Weiss moved to New York at 18 to study at New York University, majoring in studio art. It was at this point that she made her first foray into the fashion and beauty realm by taking up a three-day-a-week internship at Teen Vogue during her studies.

After graduating in 2007, Weiss worked briefly for W magazine before moving to Vogue, where she worked as a fashion assistant.

While working as a fashion assistant, Weiss set up her beauty blog, Into The Gloss, spotting a gap in the market for beauty product coverage.

Weiss would candidly interview celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Karlie Kloss about their beauty regimens.

The blog quickly gained a following among beauty enthusiasts who commented on posts to share their experiences with various products and make suggestions to other readers.

Weiss decided to leave her job to focus on the blog full-time. She asked Nick Axelrod, a friend who had also worked in publishing, to become the editorial director.

Weiss re-launched the website and upped the number of posts; overnight traffic to the site tripled.

Product feedback on the blog laid the foundation for what was to come. Weiss was now armed with a wealth of information to create products that were directly tied to what readers wanted.

A year later, Glossier was born.

Weiss teased the new brand on Instagram about four weeks before launch. Within the first week of selling the new products, she had more than 18,000 followers.

Instagram influencers and celebrities spread the message, posting photos of themselves in Glossier swag. Glossier launched with four products: a facial mist, moisturizer, skin tint, and balm. These products were intended to give off a "no-makeup" look.

A key part of Glossier's success has been Weiss' commitment to its brand identity.

But the most defining part of its business model is its customer feedback system.

Between 2016 and 2018, the company raised $76 million in two rounds of funding and opened two stores: a showroom in New York (which transitioned into a permanent flagship store) and a store in Los Angeles.

The company told Business Insider that it surpassed $100 million in annual revenue in 2018, doubling its 2017 numbers. It also acquired a million new customers that year.

In March 2019, Glossier launched a new color makeup brand, Glossier Play, which was two years in the making.

Two weeks later, the company was valued at $1.2 billion after receiving $100 million in funding.

It plans to open five pop-up locations in 2019, beginning with Miami in the spring.

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