This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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Kyle Leahy, Glossier’s first CEO after its founder Emily Weiss vacated the role in May 2022, has had a busy first year-and-a-half in the job. She brought the brand into wholesale for the first time, brokering its partnership with Sephora, which has been a great success. She’s also continued the brand’s WNBA partnership, launched its first college tour and increased the cadence of its launches. But perhaps most importantly, she can be credited with the revival of the brand, which, as she said in her 2023 Glossy 50 profile, is a long-haul job: “We genuinely believe we’re on year 10 of building a 100-year brand.”
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Leahy spoke about all of the above, in addition to what the brand did when Reddit leaked its eye cream launch and what Glossier has in common with Taylor Swift. She also addressed social media rumors regarding whether or not the brand had reformulated its bestselling fragrance, Glossier You.
The excerpts below have been slightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Launching its eye cream early, following a Reddit community leak
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“Our community is extremely excited when we launch new products, and this was no exception. And so our Reddit community grabbed it to the extent that we even accelerated our launch by 11 days and brought it to market early. … [We were] really feeling like we wanted to get it out into the world quickly, seeing that response. So I think it’s a real testament to how much our community is engaged with us and excited about what Glossier is bringing to market, but also to [how] nimble [we are] and [the] agility we have. We’re a very big, important brand in culture. But we also stay super nimble and entrepreneurial, and we really try to be responsive when we have those opportunities.”
What Glossier and Taylor Swift have in common
“What makes Glossier particularly unique and ties to that resilience I was speaking about … is that Glossier is such an iconic but multi-generational brand. We were born [in the] millennial era and generation. But we’ve shown that the brand has the ability to do what I think the most iconic brands across categories can do, which is when you can shift from one generation and … make the leap to the next generation without losing your core demographic. And we see that in millennials, we see it in Gen Z, we see it in Gen Alpha. … I think what’s so powerful about what Taylor [Swift] has done is that, obviously, she makes great music and people really resonate with that, but why my mom wanted to see her [is because] people like what she stands for — they want to be a part of what she represents. … And that is a values-based brand. Taylor’s created that. … We also resonate [with ages] 8-80. … It’s because people want to be a part of what this brand represents — what this brand represented 10 years ago, what this brand represents today and what this brand has meant to beauty, and even outside of beauty. It doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from, or where you are in your beauty journey. You look good, and you’re welcome.”
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Addressing the Glossier You reformulation rumors
“Regulations are constantly dynamic in the beauty industry. And we take those really seriously and we always do the right thing and stay connected with that. So we did make some tweaks to Glossier You several years ago, given regulatory requirements. But, we’ve worked very closely with our perfumer. We feel really confident that the perfume that’s in market is very much the iconic Glossier You. And obviously, the consumer is voting, so we look at that. That perfume that has been launched at Sephora is that original scent profile, and we’re really excited about the consumer really connecting to that.”
