Emily Weiss

Beauty blogger and budding beauty mogul Emily Weiss has transformed “Into the Gloss” into a fully-fledged business, raising $10.4 million in funding and launching her own beauty range, Glossier, in late 2014.

A long-time beauty enthusiast and former fashion assistant and contributor for Teen Vogue and W magazine, Weiss started her beauty blog, “Into the Gloss,” in 2010 after spotting a gap in the fashion media market for beauty product coverage.

Weiss’s direct-to-consumer beauty start-up, Glossier, launched in October 2014 with four products. It is now valued at $1.2 billion and crossed $100 million in sales last year with just 29 products. The most recent addition is Glossier Play, the brand’s own makeup line, which has sparked discussion about Weiss’s goal to turn Glossier into an Estée Lauder-like “builder of brands.” Glossier has been recognised as a top beauty brand by titles such as Allure, Teen Vogue, Glamour, Nylon and Cosmopolitan.

Raised in Connecticut, Weiss still vividly recalls the first day she showed up for school at her “conservative” public middle school at age 10. “I showed up in thigh-high stockings, a plaid miniskirt from Contempo Casuals and loafers, and I had a feather-topped pen. The entire “Clueless” look,” she said. Her growing interest in fashion led her to New York, where she attended New York University as a studio art major but spent the majority of her time interning at Teen Vogue from her sophomore to senior years.

After graduation, Weiss worked as a fashion assistant at W magazine but quickly decided that she preferred a more hands-on role in styling photoshoots. She assisted Elissa Santisi, a style director at American Vogue who subsequently became a freelance stylist, for two and a half years.