Emily Weiss
Don't ask her to make up with the beauty industry
She’s all dolled up.
But don't get it twisted. She'll take brains over beauty any day.
The year is 2007, and Emily Weiss (EW) is an “It” girl. She’s part-time intern at Teen Vogue, part-time star on MTV. But EW isn't interested in fame. So she does something unusual.
She walks away, thus launching a series of jobs at Conde Naste and Vogue. It's while lacing shoes for a then 15-year-old Karlie Kloss that EW realizes something.
These vaunted women are everyday women. They use Aquaphor too.
Makeup isn't made for consumers.
It's made for retailers, seasons, shelf space, and margins. And EW is out to change that.
Enter "Into The Gloss." It's EW’s new blog, and it deconstructs the daily routines of the celebrities she meets on set.
The year is 2014, and EW turns her 200,000 readership into an experimental group. She creates a statistical profile by asking readers what they want, instead of deciding what they need. Just call it a coup against the beauty industry.
The result: Glossier, her D2C cash cow, with a $1.2 billion valuation and beauty products built from blog posts and Instagram.
It feels authentic because it is. Customers feel heard because they are. Glossier Girls are reps armed with Instagram profiles to organically promote new products (both on and off the shelves of Glossier).
Consumers aren’t traditionally loyal to one beauty brand, and EW isn’t afraid to talk beauty routines. She likes CVS products too.
So take one from Emily Weiss. Give a makeover to the industry you best see fit.
And that's the skinny.