Beauty brand’s racism, tantrums, tears

Before Emily Weiss was the CEO of Glossier, a cosmetics company valued at over a billion dollars at its height, she was “superintern” at Teen Vogue.

This was the name given to her in 2007, during Season 2 of “The Hills.” In one episode, she flew in from New York City to serve as a foil to the reality show’s bubbly, Los Angeles girls, Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port.

“It’s crazy that there’s so much detail in this stuff … it’s just, like, a dinner,” fellow intern Conrad said to Weiss at one point, as they looked over vases for an upcoming event for the magazine.

“Well, it’s important,” Weiss responded in clipped consonants that revealed her well-off Connecticut upbringing. “It has to be just right.” 

A new book, “Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier” (Simon & Schuster) by Marisa Meltzer, delves into Weiss’s origin story, Glossier’s meteoric rise and the company’s recent struggles.

“She made good decisions and bad decisions,” Meltzer told The Post.

Weiss was born and raised in Wilton, Connecticut, a suburb in tony Fairfield County. The rangy brunette had an interest in fashion from a young age, modeling as a teen and interning for Ralph Laure while still in high school. After attending New York University, she got a job as a fashion assistant at Vogue.

While working there, she launched her own beauty blog, “Into the Gloss,” in 2010 at age 24. By 2011, the website had over 200,000 new users — insiders and A-listers among them — a month.

In 2014, Weiss launched her own cosmetics company — Glossier (pronounced like “dossier”) — with the same obsession with detail she’d displayed as an intern. Its first capsule collection was just four skincare products — a priming moisturizer, a soothing face mist, a skin tint and a skin salve. By 2016, the line had grown to 20 products, which regularly sold out and had wait lists with thousands of eager customers.

That same year, Glossier opened its first brick-and-mortar showroom in a two-story, highly Instagrammable, 3,000-square foot space on Lafayette Street that would eventually become a full-fledged store. Lines to get in regularly stretched around the block.

A clubby vibe was integral to Glossier’s success. Early products came in bright pink bubble wrap that signaled you were part of the tribe.

“On some yoga retreats it seemed half the women kept their travel essentials in them, and other fans have exchanged nods in security lines at airports,” Meltzer writes.

The exclusiveness extended to the company’s hiring process. Instead of submitting a resume, wannabe retail workers had to send in a self-recorded video, as if for an audition.

“A lot of them consisted of Weiss superfans who said she was their idol,” Meltzer writes. 

But there were rumblings of trouble. In 2018 Annie Kreighbaum, the Editorial Director who had been integral to Glossier since coming aboard in 2014, left on seemingly bad terms. Today, Kreighbaum does not speak about her time at the company or her relationship with Weiss.

“On her beauty podcast she said that she ignores such requests, invoking Mariah Carey’s casual insult about J.Lo., ‘I don’t know her,’” writes Meltzer.

Still, Glossier continued to grow at a breakneck pace, reaching a valuation of $1 billion in 2019.

But, an ugly side soon surfaced. Various employees complained of a hostile workplace, and it wasn’t uncommon to enter the office and see people lying prone on the floor, sobbing as the clock inched toward midnight, stressed out but wanting to do a good job. 

“My low point was being cornered in a room and yelled at for forty-five minutes and crying and everyone watching me through the glass,” one employee confessed to Meltzer.

Cliquishness was also an issue. “An inner circle … who were closest to Weiss and had been there the longest, for many as their first jobs, were seen by the rest as favored,” Meltzer writes.

As the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction, there were also numerous allegations of racism, often by those who worked in Glossier’s stores. The young company lacked a substantial HR team or diversity training, though it had several hundred employees.

A social media account — @outathegloss — dedicated to the alleged horror stories of former Glossier employees popped up and gained over 10,000 followers. Grievances included alleged racism and hygiene issues, such as a lack of toilets and rats.

One employee, who was asked to work at a company event, claimed “A woman who worked at headquarters pulled me to the side, over articulated her words and asked me to clean up any food plates that were left on the table. I instantly knew that she thought I didn’t speak English. I was the only Latina in the room.”

Weiss responded to the allegations on Instagram, apologizing and publicly acknowledging “the pain and discomfort these former colleagues experienced while working to build a brand they believed so deeply in upon arrival” and offering a plan of action, including dialogue with executives, company-wide training, and a no-tolerance policy. 

But, some dismissed her reaction as mere lip service.

(Glossier did not respond to a request for comment.)

There were also issues on the business side. Glossier Play, a spinoff of the main brand featuring bright shades and glittery eyeshadows designed for a night out, was launched in 2019 but failed to hit. A year later, it was discontinued.

Amidst all the issues, Weiss seemed adrift, at one point investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into building a Glossier app.

Public sentiment shifted. The founder was no longer the cool girl everyone wanted to be. Rather, some saw her as disingenuous and turned away from the brand.

According to data from Bloomberg Second Measure, Glossier’s US sales in 2021 declined 26% from the previous year. 

In 2022, a third of employees were laid off as part of a larger restructuring and Weiss stepped down from her role as CEO while remaining the executive chairwoman of the brand.

Today, Glossier is still a success, with around 450 employees, 12 stores and numerous popular products. The Williamsburg store had some 600 people in line when it opened in 2022. A reformulated vegan Balm Dotcom launched in February 2023 and had $1 million in sales in its first week.

But, the untouchable, exclusive mystique that Weiss initially cultivated so successfully is gone.` Now, you can grab its products at your local Sephora.

Despite Weiss’s issues, Meltzer remains a fan of her — and the brand. The book aims to offer a nuanced take that paints her as neither hero nor villain.

“Their products are really solid, and the pricing is really reasonable,” Meltzer said. “Glossier was founded and run by a woman who, like anyone, is complicated.”