on a Connecticut beach with her family
when she dreamed up a beauty blog called
Into the Gloss. Back at the oce, in search
of a sounding board, she asked Chen if she
could have a word. “She closed the door,
and I was like, ‘Oh, this is serious,’ ” Chen
recalls. Weiss wanted to start a website
that would show the real-world beauty
routines of fashion insiders and celebri-
ties—stu that she learned on shoots, like
Karlie Kloss’s devotion to Bag Balm oint-
ment on her lips. Weiss bought a $750 used
camera and the domain for intothegloss
.com, and by September the rst post went
live, with publicist Nicky Deam sharing
her Fashion Week survival items.
The site’s Top Shelf column gained an
immediate following. In it, a famous or at
least cool person chronicles their groom-
ing routine in sprawling detail, striking
a tone that feels voyeuristic, useful, and
democratic. Jenna Lyons may have had a
makeup-artist friend bring her back Can-
make Cream Cheek from Japan, but she
also praised Blistex Medicated Lip Balm.
(This summer, before her best-selling
essay collection debuted, Jia Tolentino
mock-cursed Tatcha’s cleansing oil in her
Top Shelf: “It’s so nice, and it’s so expen-
sive. Kill me.”) By early 2012, the site had
more than 200,000 unique visitors per
month. By May 2016, that number had
swelled to 1.3 million.
“I got a master’s in the state of beauty
through Into the Gloss,” Weiss says,
describing “all the weird hang-ups people
have about beauty, and the double stan-
dards.” She has spent a lot of time reect-
ing on its broader role: “how beauty can
start conversations, how beauty can break
down walls, and how beauty is something
that every single person everywhere in the
world deals with. It’s really foundational
to who you are and how you relate.” In
2012, she tapped former Elle
staer Nick Axelrod to be the
site’s editorial director, anchor-
ing its place in the crowded
new-media landscape. (Axelrod
split with the company shortly
before Glossier launched. He
demurred when asked to com-
ment—but, then again, he’s
busy with his own Insta-bait
body-care line, Nécessaire.)
Weiss had plenty of fashion
types on board, but she soon
learned that Into the Gloss was an all-
access pass to powerful people. “I could
not only meet Arianna Hungton, but
go into her bathroom, spend two hours
with her, and, in turn, make her feel
really seen and heard—because she reads
the article that I painstakingly edited
from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.”
More than that, as Into the Gloss
drew an avid readership, it also amassed
potential customers: beauty obsessives
who were all too willing to discuss what
kind of products they longed for. In other
words: prime market research. Weiss
noticed that the beauty conglomerates
had a top-down way of communicat-
ing—via celebrity ads or department
store placements. She knew, from the
flood of comments on social media,
that her largely millennial fans pre-
ferred a more conversational approach.
Before the phrase “direct-to-consumer”
rolled o the tongue, that’s exactly what
Weiss had in mind.
It was far from easy to secure funding.
After nearly a dozen rejections, Weiss
raised $2 million for her new project in
2013, led by Kirsten Green at ForerunnerVentures in San Francisco. Nine months
later—after 125 teaser posts on Instagram—
she launched Glossier with four univer-
sal products: moisturizer, facial spray,
sheer foundation, and a lip and skin salve
called Balm Dotcom. “The way I was
thinking about it is, How do you make an
entire beauty company based on acknowl-
edging that everyone is their own expert?
You have an opinion about beauty that
actually someone else will probably ben-
et from,” Weiss says. “The fact of the
matter is, the majority of women today
make a beauty purchasing decision based
on a stranger on the internet’s content.”
She stops short of taking any credit, but I
catch a hint of a knowing smile.In July, Weiss invites me
to her SoHo apartment to
make a frittata. The message
is relayed via one of her pub-
licists, an omnipresent retinue that
always seems to hover within reach,
guarding the company narrative. It’s theREFLECTING
WELL
Weiss in the
Instagram-ready
showroom.
Sweater by
Max Mara; skirt
by Hermès.
Throughout: hair
products by UNITE
and R Session
Pro Tools; makeup
and grooming
products by Glossier.140 VANITY FAIR