The Price of Aesthetics: Glossier
This will be an ongoing series by writers Kellie Chou and Ashley Phan discussing why consumers will buy products for reasons such as “it’s TOO cute” or “ *blank* made me do it.”
The secret? Purposeful product design.
Follow us as we see products through the eyes of the company as well as their customers.
Product: Glossier
“We’re not out to make you into someone else or complicate your routine. We just want to bring you the best makeup products — the ones you’ll reach for every day.” — Glossier Website
Introducing Glossier: “no makeup” makeup essentials for everyday, as well as a skincare extension. This trending brand first surfaced in 2014 and has slowly made its way into everyone’s makeup bags.
So what has everyone fangirling over this brand?
Based on the buyer’s reviews it seems like the products come in small sizes and barely show up on the skin — not exactly the best qualities to go with the hefty price tag attached.
The answer: product design.
The iconic pink bubble wrap packaging, the simplistic curved Glossier “G”, the black and white labeling. Every product screams “GLOSSIER.” To further the connection, Glossier lovingly refers to their customers as “Glossier Girls.” All that, plus a free sheet of stickers with every purchase — who could resist buying these Instagram worthy products?
Every detail of Glossier’s products reflect their simple and iconic brand. Their products all come in travel friendly sizes as well as a pink bubble wrap inspired bag for safekeeping. Additionally, a specially curated shade of pink enwraps most of their products. The labeling is all done in sans serif: a readable, modern font that’s been circulated among the social media trends. The design behind Glossier’s products have purposely created your ideal countertop set-up; every product is another puzzle piece to building the ideal “Glossier Girl.”
Reading between the lines of packaging and advertising, it’s clear that what Glossier is really selling is a lifestyle. Effortless beauty queens are spread throughout their website. Women of various color and size are displayed sharing one common quality: confidence. Their promise seems to be that as you grow your collection, you’ll grow in your identity as a “Glossier Girl.”
Ready to risk your wallet? Here’s some information on a couple of Glossier’s most popular products:
Boy Brow
The “all-in-one brow fluffer, filler, and shape” Boy Brow is one of Glossier’s bestsellers. In 3 pigmented shades and 1 Clear to hold your little hairs in place, the product is meant to cover all your eyebrow needs.
Those with light eyebrows, like reviewer g99, have been able to decide what eyebrow look they’ll be wearing that day with this product. Several self-proclaimed eyebrow-less customers are rejoicing the natural brows they can achieve in just seconds.
On the other hand, others felt the tube was simply too tiny for the price. There seems to be a common issue of receiving dried-out products as well, “kinda like dried out mascara” as reviewer firsttimecustomer put it.
Cloud Paint
Glossier’s Cloud Paint boasts a sheer, buildable gel-cream blush that works for people of all and any color. Their product pictures include women of color wearing a variety of the shades to emphasize these claims.
Many have expressed their happiness with the product’s ability to color even dark skin and blur their pores. EG claims “I am a person of colour (I reference this because I’ve seen reviews say it’s not fit for POC) & this shows up amazingly on my skin. It is subtle when you want it to be & able to be built on when you need it to be. I tend to stick to more subtle use but either way my pores are not on display when I use this & it’s super easy to use & I’ve gotten compliments to how ‘healthy’ my skin looks.”
Others have brought some common issues to light, including the product fading too fast and the tube design causing over-dispensing. Over half of the reviewers giving 2 stars and under, particularly ones who aren’t so happy with the pigment, have medium to rich skin shades. Reviewer shynyshyny shares their frustration, saying that “it just rubbed away into nothing.”
Skin Tint
The Perfecting Skin Tint upholds Glossier’s “skin first. makeup second.” promotion of self-love. This light-coverage product is meant to even out your skin tone and give it that trademark glow while still leaving all the distinguishing aspects of your face on display.
Most customers are embracing their little and big imperfections with the sheer tint, noting the dewy finish it gives. Reviewer ev773 got on board with that notion, saying that, “the imaginary angel on my shoulder encouraged me to accept those flaws and embrace sheer coverage foundations.”
However, some disagree with this campaign of “More Skin, Less Makeup”, finding little reason to pay $26 to keep your pimples. A lot of these 1 star reviewers admit that the product would look pretty good on a model with nice skin.
Now that you have all this knowledge, is it worth it?
