I'm ready to talk about Glossier
Australians can finally shop the cult beauty brand at MECCA. But after 10 years, has Glossier missed its moment with us?
Is it unhinged to admit that I’ve experienced a raft of complicated feelings about the recent Glossier launch? My thoughts on the brand, its products and its prolonged absence in Australia has been quite well-documented on TikTok – but it’s my feelings about the millennial beauty company that often catch me off-guard.
It’s not really normal to care about a company in that way, but making people feel something was always Glossier’s preternatural power and its modus operandi – even from afar. Like many long-suffering Australian beauty obsessives, my relationship to Glossier during its peak period (let’s say 2015-2018) felt kind of like being utterly infatuated with someone who just… doesn’t know you exist.
Since the birth of the brand on social media, however, founder Emily Weiss was actually very aware of the curiously passionate community of Glossier devotees that existed Down Under. At the intimate Glossier launch event in Sydney a few weeks back, Weiss distinctly recalled the moment she set Glossier’s first Instagram post live in 2014. She had immediately been inundated with comments asking if and when the brand would launch in Australia.
That was 10 years ago.
For the better part of a decade, we watched with abject FOMO from the other side of the world as the brand created products, spaces and experiences that would ultimately shape the beauty industry globally – but weren’t readily available across said globe. Exxy mail-forwarding services or no, feeling ignored by Glossier only made us want it even more (because ‘Boy Brow’, or literal ‘boy’ – doesn’t it always?).
Glossier’s flagship stores in SoHo, Los Angeles and London were an essential stop for outbound Aussies, who willingly parted with at least an hour to line up for a ‘trophy’ mirror selfie in one of Glossier’s monochrome spaces. You’d take the opportunity to collect the brand’s most coveted releases and more often than not, you’d also be burdened by a lengthy list of products to buy and schlep on behalf of friends back home.
Even those I knew that hadn’t considered themselves fans of the brand would somehow find themselves elbow-deep in Cloud Paint swatches, or posting a picture to social media from inside ‘Glossier Canyon’, for no conceivable reason. Such was the cult of Glossier, it was premeditated catnip for Instagram back then, and its scarcity in the Southern Hemisphere only served to escalate hype.
And then it just… kinda tapered off. The fanfare around Glossier – particularly in places like Australia, where it had never even been to begin with – was fading.
We won’t rehash the whole thing (this NYT piece is an excellent summary) but by 2020, Glossier was having something of an identity crisis. The pandemic fastened the faucet on international visitors to Glossier stores, which remained closed for months on end. There were said to be ongoing culture issues, formulation fails and dissent within the company about its direction.
At the same time, both Glossier’s contemporaries and new beauty start-ups began to challenge its position with competing products that served the same #nomakeup purpose. Inspired by the brand, some rivals opted to innovate in the same category that Glossier had once defined, while others blatantly ripped off its products and packaging (and in relation to the latter, more than a few Australian examples spring to mind).
Then in 2022, it was announced that Glossier would diversify its distribution strategy with its first retail partnership, stocking at Sephora in the USA. Speculation immediately mounted that the brand would roll this partnership out in Australia, where we still couldn’t buy Glossier online or IRL. At the time, I remember the prospect was met with some ambivalence on TikTok – myself, admittedly, included.
To revive my original metaphor of unrequited love, I felt something that could only be described as crossed-arm contempt – ‘oh, now we’re suddenly attractive enough to warrant your attention? Figures’. And look, we could obviously therapise the attachment of my own feelings of rejection to the international expansion of a corporation (lol), but there was a similar sentiment at the core of the comments I saw on TikTok.
Now that the brand had seemingly lost its chokehold on beauty culture, perhaps the Australian market could be finally be considered ‘good enough’ for Glossier. Ooft, I know – a moment for the earnest dramaticism of that statement. However such an inflammatory response should indicate just how much this cosmetics brand truly has meant to many – and what Glossier has been able to build beyond a few invisible skin tints and occlusive lip balms.
Like, since when has a makeup and skincare brand ever been able to prompt such polarisation of opinion? Australians didn’t just feel cheated out of a Milky Jelly Cleanser, they felt denied of a moment in time. Glossier had created something both tangible and intangible that we wanted to be part of, but it couldn’t be captured without a local presence from the brand – and until recently, Glossier had never paid Australia much attention.
While the Sephora partnership didn’t actually eventuate on our shores, last year Glossier finally announced that it would begin shipping to Australia – but after some initial excitement, enthusiasm seemed to die down. We had a lot of other options at our disposal now, and for Australians – or indeed any country devoid of Glossier’s product offering – most of our encounters with the brand had been saturated with the wondrous novelty of its concept stores.
If Glossier wanted to win us back, it needed to reclaim our attention with the same experiential allure that we once longed for. Enter: MECCA, the closest possible extension of Glossier that the brand could ever hope for, right down to its unwavering commitment to millennial pink. Both are female-founded disruptors that champion bricks and mortar stores as cosmetic playgrounds, positioning skincare, fragrance and makeup as fun tools for self-expression.
When the announcement came in May that the pair would partner for Glossier’s launch into Australia, I posted it to TikTok within minutes of receiving the press release and eagerly awaited the reaction. The hundreds and hundreds of comments that rolled in mirrored my own feelings of excitement, and was that…? Yes, something about Glossier now felt weirdly nostalgic. Huh.
Of course there were those that said it was ‘too late’, but I was intrigued to see that feverish anticipation now outweighed doubt – perhaps merely being acknowledged by the brand as a market was enough for all to be forgiven. In examining my own reaction to the news, it seemed the alignment with our homegrown MECCA had somehow bolstered my belief that Glossier’s signature tactility would indeed translate to us in 2024.
It’s still early days – it’s been only two weeks since Glossier first became available at MECCA’s George Street store in Sydney – but it’s looking positive. According to MECCA, one of Glossier’s iconic Balm Dot Com lip balms sold every 60 seconds on the first day, with the most popular iterations being Strawberry, Birthday Cake and Rose.
Customers came and snapped pics in the selfie booth (naturally), spritzed the TikTok-viral You perfume and a lucky few even got to meet Weiss. No, there weren’t all-day lines around the block, but there was a contagious hum of giddy anticipation in the air, which I honestly couldn’t reconcile with any other brand launch of late.
It got me thinking about Weiss (who now serves as the brand’s Executive Chairwoman) and her aspiration to make Glossier a “100-year” brand. In the age of social media, can any brand – let alone a cosmetics company that’s led by a woman – actually survive the kind of cultural ascension that Glossier reached, or is it a fundamental fallacy?
There’s no denying that Glossier isn’t where it once was, and that an earlier launch in Australia would’ve done much bigger numbers. But even if its arrival had been better timed, would it have been a sustainable level of success? With any legacy brand, there are always missteps and growing pains, but our emotional investment in Glossier has meant its awkward teenage phase is subject to disproportionate scrutiny.
Maybe it isn’t just about a clever product strategy or a compelling founder narrative. Maybe, for brands of lasting significance, it’s about those moments and feelings – capturing, creating and cultivating them. I for one am really glad Glossier is finally here; that its iconic edit of fuss-free and (comparatively) affordable products now sit alongside the many makeup and skincare brands it inspired.
Glossier’s Australian launch into MECCA was an important, long-awaited step, and if the response is any indication (even after a entire decade of delay) I wouldn’t count it out just yet.
Good Gets: Glossier
This bronzing iteration of the brand’s Cloud Paint formula is new to me, and I’m now obsessed. I adore how seamlessly the liquid formula buffs into the skin; it feels much lighter than other cream formulas I’ve tried of late.
Is it the most sophisticated cleanser? No. Is it a really beautiful, gentle and enjoyable experience every time I use it? Yes. While I wouldn’t say this is one for removing heavy-duty makeup, it’s my favourite to use in the morning when my skin is in need of a simple clean (and I will always be a sucker for that rose scent).
As I’m looking back at this list, I can’t help but feel it’s all a bit obvious – but we’re only about authenticity here, and this is the list I’d give my friends. Sure, loving the You fragrance is the farthest thing from an original thought, but I can’t wear it anywhere without getting a heap of compliments. The only downside is that it doesn’t last as long as a lot of my other EDPs, which I’ll forgive because the second-skin scent is just that good.
Another inspired choice, but the water-like formula still hits, is so pigmented and I just had to mention this particular shade – it’s a deep, warm rose that I would normally consider way too dark for my fair skin, but it builds and blends for the perfect effortless blush.
This is also a newbie for me! I’d tried the brand’s infamous skin tint many years ago, but was curious about the Stretch foundation. It’s true to Glossier’s natural, skin-led beauty aesthetic with light-to-medium coverage, but I found it offered just enough glow (where the skin tint did far too little for my oily-combo complexion) and brought a bit balance, for a more even tone.
It's been very interesting to watch this launch. I photographed the party (that's my flash in your video!) and initially I thought it would be a massive event. But when I was told it would be "intimate" I wondered if it was because of your sentiments here - too little too late; maybe there's not enough hype anymore? But a lot of the girls who approached Emily in store were young, and the brand speaks to a young customer because it's uncomplicated, so maybe she will hit that 100 year brand mark with all the future generations as they learn about makeup...
Loved this, and my sentiments so far also. Too little too late? I will probably fill a cart anyway and let it expire like I did the first time 😆