Glossier’s buzz was at all times larger than its actual business.

Now, with latest chief executive officer Kyle Leahy and an all-female, diverse C-suite at its helm, the onetime direct-to-consumer darling appears to be closer than ever to aligning those two aspects.

Providing exclusive figures to Beauty Inc, Glossier revealed that it’s on target to clock in $100 million in sales in its first 12 months at Sephora, after entering the retailer in February, marking an about-turn from its prior strategy and adopting a more traditional retail playbook. Overall retail sales for the brand, including DTC, its own stores and Sephora, are up 73 percent year-over-year, the second consecutive 12 months of growth.

Industry sources estimate that overall sales are around $275 million.

Leahy, who joined Glossier as its first chief industrial officer in 2021 before taking the reins from founder Emily Weiss in May 2022, declined to reveal a monetary number, and it’s also not known how much Sephora accounts for as a percentage of the general business. A spokeswoman said: “A major majority of Glossier’s business is in owned channels.”

“What we’re most pleased with is Glossier is larger now than ever, and we’ve shown that this brand has incredible resilience,” said Leahy, a Harvard Business School graduate, who previously held senior positions as Cole Haan, in an interview over Zoom last week. “I believe it’s unrealistic for brands to be a straight line as much as the suitable….If anything, we’re just getting began on an exciting multiple years of runway of growth and it just shows the ability of this brand.”

Leahy believes the incontrovertible fact that Glossier has 51 percent brand awareness and lower than 1 percent market share means the opportunities are “limitless.” 

“We’re still driving significant volume through our own channels and so they’re a very essential customer experience. But our partnership with Sephora allows us to succeed in more people and connect them with the world of Glossier,” she said.

She credited much of the turnaround to its latest all-female C-suite, lots of whom have big tech and extensive beauty experience: chief creative officer Marie Suter, chief marketing officer Kleo Mack, chief industrial officer Chitra Balireddi who joined in March from Chanel, chief financial officer Seun Sodipo, and chief people officer Sarah Stuart. In May 2022, Weiss, who founded Glossier off of the success of her beauty blog Into the Gloss in 2014, stepped into the role of chairwoman of the board.

“Take a look at that leadership team. It’s an incredible mosaic of girls,” said Leahy. “They’re incredibly talented and smart and diverse in every sense of the word background of experience.”

Looking forward, Glossier is laser focused on international expansion and product innovation, in keeping with Leahy.

To that end, just last week it launched international shipping to Europe, Latest Zealand, Australia, Mexico, India and Brazil, with Leahy hinting at more international expansion that’s planned for 2024 and beyond. Its partnership with Sephora is currently just within the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

“The remaining of the worldwide opportunity stays ahead of us and we’re actively and rapidly taking a look at how will we bring the brand and more people all over the world in a very differentiated and unique way,” said Leahy.

Glossier’s vision of its audience can be evolving. During a recent quick stop in London en path to a friend’s wedding, Weiss stood in line at Glossier’s Covent Garden store, studying the gang on the brand’s best-performing location.

“I don’t often [stand in line] to be honest, but I did. I desired to have the road experience in London,” she said over Zoom from Europe, where she has been for the past few weeks together with her family. “I remember the purchasers who were in the primary pop-up when it was down in Latest York’s Canal Street almost 10 years ago being my age, being around 30. Now, I walk into our Covent Garden flagship and I’m waiting in line behind a gaggle of 9- and 10-year-old girls. For me that’s very much like should you take a look at something like Clinique. My mom used Clinique, after which I used Clinique.”

Leahy pointed to social media to exhibit how Glossier is resonating across generations. “As an illustration on TikTok, we’ve just passed 2.2 billion views of hashtag Glossier. We’re seeing growth on Instagram, a platform that many brands are seeing contract, but we’re seeing 2,000 percent growth in our average monthly followers. So each our core consumer demographic, our Millennial consumer in addition to Gen Z, is engaging with Glossier.” 

In keeping with CreatorIQ, Glossier’s earned media value grew 52 percent year-over-year between January and September. EMV assigns a singular value to a bit of content based on engagement that this content receives from users (likes, comments, shares, views), in addition to the platform that this content was published on (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.), and attributes that value to brands mentioned on this content.

“While Instagram was answerable for 60 percent of Glossier’s EMV, and TikTok drove 24 percent, TikTok’s haul represented 138 percent year-over-year growth, indicating that TikTok was key to the brand’s growth,” said Conor Begley of CreatorIQ.

On latest products, of which it plans to debut every 4 to 6 weeks, Glossier’s biggest launch this 12 months has been Stretch Fluid Foundation, $34, constructing off of the recognition of its Stretch Balm Concealer, released in 2016. The inspiration is out there in 32 shades across seven shade categories and five undertone groups. The brand has previously faced criticism for its very limited shade offering for some products. At the identical time, Stretch Balm Concealer, $22, expanded its range to 32 foundation-matching shades. 

“That is an extended term opportunity for the brand,” said Leahy. “It shows how we are able to construct upon existing franchises like our concealer after which add newness to it in a way that keeps the brand growing and relevant in a very meaningful way.”

The inspiration is reportedly performing well at Sephora, where Glossier is alleged to be a top 10 color brand. A banking source told Beauty Inc that color cosmetics, Glossier’s mainstay and a category hit hard through the pandemic as consumers were stuck at home, is performing well across the board on the retailer, with Rare Beauty, Charlotte Tilbury and Makeup by Mario continuing to draw customers as they head out to events once more.

Moreover, Glossier You, $68, has turn into the top-selling fragrance at Sephora each in stores and online. “We’ve got top products in makeup, skincare and fragrance,” noted Leahy.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with Glossier’s record breaking debut at Sephora within the U.S., Canada and U.K.,” said Artemis Patrick, Sephora North America’s newly minted president.

“We exceeded our launch forecast by greater than one hundred pc and consequently have been taking a look at a latest level of inventory to satisfy each in-store and online client demand,” added Carolyn Bojanowski, executive vp of merchandising. “At just a number of months in, this is barely the beginning with Glossier and we’re so excited in regards to the future growth potential together.”

Elsewhere, there’s an 18,000-strong wait list for its deodorant by itself website, said Weiss.

Such figures mark a revival of sorts for the brand. Prior to the partnership with Sephora, sources had told WWD and Beauty Inc that sales — and buzz — had slowed. Glossier laid off nearly 200 retail employees through the pandemic and eliminated one other two dozen roles last 12 months. Around the identical time, savvy shoppers took to social media to report they found among the brand’s sought-after products like  Generation G matte lip colours and Cloud Paint liquid blush discounted at TJ Maxx and Marshalls. Then there’s the tell-all book authored by journalist Marisa Meltzer.

Culture at the corporate, including in corporate and retail, was also repeatedly brought into query. In the course of the racial reckoning of 2020 within the aftermath of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, an anonymous Instagram account of former Glossier employees detailed “an ongoing insidious culture of anti-Blackness, transphobia, ableism and retaliation” at Glossier’s retail locations. Weiss issued a public apology and vowed to do higher.

In a bid to enhance culture, Stuart has overseen a latest worker and customer code of conduct, while in 2020 Glossier launched a grant program for Black-owned beauty businesses by which it has invested greater than $1.4 million to date.

As for Weiss’ role in the corporate, Leahy stated she is firstly the founder and can proceed to play a crucial role through that lens. Then, as chairwoman, she works with Leahy to drive long-term strategic direction. 

“She still has her thumb prints on things like long-term product innovation, and our retail customer experience and the way the brand involves life from a creative standpoint,” said Leahy. “But at the identical time, we’re showing that Glossier is beyond anybody individual, and this incredible team is showing that we are able to really drive the success of Glossier a long time into the long run.”

When asked how big of an adjustment the role change has been, Weiss responded that it was the smart thing to do, pointing to brands she admired. “It doesn’t even need to be in the sweetness space. It might be a brand like Nike. The founder was not the CEO for 50 years. The founder might need been exactly the suitable CEO for the primary three years or five years or 10 years.”

The transition has been much talked about within the media, but no more so than in Meltzer’s “Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier” (Atria/One Signal, $28.99). The book follows the brand pre-conception, when Weiss was often known as a brilliant intern on the MTV scripted reality show “The Hills,” to its onetime unicorn status when it scored a $1.8 billion valuation (Glossier raised an estimated $265 million in funding with key investors including Forerunner Ventures and Sequoia Capital) to the current day. As a part of the research, Meltzer stated within the book that she interviewed Weiss 4 times.

“It’s surreal to think that Glossier and I are your complete subject of a book — the brand is lower than 10 years old and there are brands which can be much larger and have been around longer than ours, who haven’t received this sort of attention,” said Weiss in an announcement, noting that she did the interviews on the understanding that the book was going to be a glance into the sweetness industry as an entire. “I actually have mixed feelings about it nevertheless it’s clear that what we’ve built is special and enduring, if it’s the main focus of a complete book.”

Asked whether her vision for Glossier has modified in any respect since its conception, Weiss answered that it has not.

“The brand is so resilient. I believe it’s very clear. You’ll be able to recognize a Glossier product, a Glossier store, a Glossier gondola, a Glossier-created image or visual, and all of those things are why we consider a lot that we’re in 12 months nine of a 100-year brand.” 

Leahy was in agreement: “We’re oriented to this being your sort of 100-year brand. The ability of it by way of the momentum the brand has today, the incontrovertible fact that it’s connecting across generations, the multicategory and multiple channels and markets for growth signifies that the potential is actually significant.”