Is Glossier rebranding?

Is it not about "you" anymore?

Ten years ago, Emily Weiss launched Glossier. “Who are we?” she wrote. “We are you, listening to everyone, absorbing all of this information over the years, and trying to get at the core of what beauty is—and needs—in 2014. Glossier begins with YOU, which is why our first products are all about letting your personality shine through…glowy, dewy skin.”

In a decade since that Into the Gloss post, the brand positioning hasn’t changed.

“You look good,” is still the primary message across web, social, and in-store activations. It’s why the brand is a million-dollar company: consistent storytelling. The story guides everything, from their minimalist brand identity to their product expansion.

my sister + me very happy in the Glossier soho store in 2018

The Futuredew Serum replaces foundation. Boy Brow means less waxing and tweezing. The Glossier doesn’t mask your aroma, but enhances it. “Glossier You is formulated to be a skin-scent enhancer—meaning it smells a little different on everyone,” the product copy reads. Even their makeup mirrors are adorned with their central brand position.

The messaging is so impactful that every other beauty brand has been forced to play copycat. Jessica DeFino wrote about the industry’s seismic you shift in her amazing substack The Review of Beauty.

You is now the overt product offering of nearly every brand in the business, from Xeomin (“feel like yourself again”) to Scarlett Johansson’s The Outset (“The Start of You”) to skincare companies with names like Self-Made and Ourself and U Beauty.

—DeFino

Even up-and-coming brands are launching around the idea. Influencer Ella Rose’s new skincare brand has the tag: “Let your inner glow shine.” And if there’s one thing a creator knows, it’s trend.

A decade ago, this message was completely original and it gave Glossier a big competitive advantage. In 2014, the beauty industry primarily branded around glamour and aspirational unattainability. It was less about enhancing what “you” had and more about transforming into someone else entirely. At the time, it wasn’t about minimal accentuation. Makeup was primary, skincare was secondary.

Weiss, with her message of self-love, (before the popularization of self-care) expertly positioned her brand. No one else could own what she was owning—they didn’t have the products or the vibe. She created a totally new atmosphere for beauty. Fast forward to now and the "clean girl aesthetic" is everywhere and speaking to self-love is a given.
Glossier's message, once revolutionary, feels a little more familiar and this might be why the brand seems to be undergoing a major identity crisis.

It all started five years ago, with Glossier Play in March of 2019.

With play, the brand swerved into bolder looks—more sparkle, more color—and departed from its closely-linked brand and product story. It was too unfamiliar to the customer base. “Glossier play [is] a new approach to makeup that’s inspired by sound, motion, and fun,” Weiss said on Instagram, accompanied by a photo of highly-saturated gold glitter. Talk about a brand swerve. “There will be more—more colors, more textures, more ways to dial up your look,” the caption continued.

According to data from Bloomberg Second Measure, Glossier's US sales were down 26 percent after launching the sisterbrand. It officially died in 2021 (this was sad. I thought it was fun!)

Play didn’t play (sorry) successfully within the brand story. Suddenly, “You” (or you, but slightly enhanced, a bit more beautiful) were not the star. This makeup was not for a softly-lit selfie or for wearing while buying Marguerite daisies, but for glaming up. Suddenly, Glossier wanted us to reach for their products before we went out, before the bar, club, scene.

“Glossier, to me, is that ‘girl next door’ look that’s wholesome,” one user pointed out on the brand’s subreddit. “Glossier isn’t really ‘going out clubbing’ makeup.”

Glossier’s Play Logo

The vibey IG post that launched Glossier Play

But even though the sisterbrand is dead, the “play” story seems to remain appealing for Glossier. This summer especially, they’re leaning into a story about sport. For four years, the brand has partnered with the WNBA, but now they’re making this partnership more central to their communications platform.

In June Glossier redid a basketball court with the WNBA (very sweet/cool) and on July 2, Glossier becamee the official partner of USA Basketball.

In many ways, this makes sense. Wearing the ‘og’ Glossier while moving and sweating on a court is more in line with the original brand position and persona then say, looking shiny during a night out dancing. But still, Glossier’s messaging around play and sport could use clarity. Whatever story, exactly, the brand is telling, feels muddled.

Glossier chief executive Kyle Leahy said that the renovated NYC court, “shows that you can continue to build a world full of beauty in everyday life.”

An interesting message, and one that taps into the everyday quality of the girlish brand, but one that doesn’t completely explain the now-focus on basketball. “For a long time there’s been a false narrative that sports and beauty shouldn’t mix,” Leahy has also said about Glossier’s basketball involvement.

Adding to the storytelling confusion is the new logo on the brand’s summer collection. Launched this month, many are speculating that the chunky retro identity is being stress-tested.

Copy about the French Riviera accompanies the new identity—nothing about “play” or about “you.” And interestingly, when you click on the collection the first three products are merch—a towel, a bottle-opener-key-chain, and a bandana. The limited edition lipstick, which prominently features the new logo, is the fourth image.

Unlike Glossier Play, the summer products, and the accompanying creative, are more everyday bliss and less aspirational. Take the comb for untangling your chlorinated hair and the claw clip, for lazily twisting up your wet locks after a swim. These items are very effortless Glossier. That said, the high-level messaging is disjointed when compared to say, the copy attached to the fragrance Glossier You.

And much like Glossier Play, the atmosphere created by the new identity isn’t fully resonating.

“They’re testing the water with their summer rollout, and are using a bright orange with a thick chunky, almost Bauhaus font. It’s…odd?” wrote someone on the brand’s subreddit. “When they rebrand - try and stick their foot into different ‘vibes’ that don’t completely resonate with their core persona, it throws off their consumers. And ESPECIALLY their recurring consumers,” someone else added.

Again, Glossier’s success has been largely due to its consistency. The paired-down millennial pink of the logo and the quiet packaging places emphasis on “you”— the beauty buyer. “You look good,” their signage says. Everything about the brand is muted, so that we might be the stars. Can the “you” shine through (sorry) if we’re competing with a bigger, bolder personality?

Owning a big idea that other brands can’t is a powerful thing. Understandably, Glossier wants to find a new way to own beauty, beyond dew and you. But you don’t inspire copycats without a big, original, central idea. A funkier typeface is not enough. Weiss’s thinking in 2014 was grand, conceptual, and exciting enough to apply from product to packaging to partnership. Glossier needs its 2024 equivalent.