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As Glossier turns the page on a decade in business, it’s doubling down on a key category: fragrance.
The brand is launching Impressions of Glossier You, a duo of extensions on Glossier You called You Doux and You Rêve, in full distribution for $78 each on Oct. 3. The move is a direct response to consumer appetite for both pheromone fragrances and the groundswell of interest in Glossier You, executives said.
“We’re not a brand dabbling in different categories. Our foundation in fragrance is real,” said Kyle Leahy, chief executive officer of Glossier, noting that the original Glossier You “represents an idea that taps into what’s happening, culturally and generationally, in fragrance.”
Executives didn’t comment on sales, though industry sources anticipate You Rêve and You Doux could reach a combined $40 million in retail sales for their first 12 months on the market. Turnover for Glossier overall was projected to hit $275 million overall in 2023, as reported.
Industry-wide, fragrance is the fastest-growing category in prestige beauty. In the first half, Circana reported that fragrance swelled 12 percent.
“You is our top-selling item, and it is our most expensive item,” Leahy said. “This ability to be both accessible and aspirational is a big and important part of our brand.”
In 2022, TikTok user @bitcoin_papi posted a video detailing the compliments You garnered, which now has more than 14 million views. The video set off a sales frenzy, one that Leahy doesn’t see slowing down.
“We did five times more volume in 2023 than we did in 2021,” she said, adding it was the top fragrance sold at Sephora in 2023. This launch also marks Glossier’s move into Sephora’s fragrance area; previously You was localized to the brand’s makeup gondolas. “Our fragrance was built by and for our community, and we saw that come to life in that viral moment. But if a product doesn’t have real resonance, it doesn’t have room for growth.”
“When we create things, we think about a need, and with You, the ultimate personal fragrance was really our goal,” said Emily Weiss, Glossier’s founder and chairman. “For fragrance, it’s something that smells different on everyone, like this ultimate skin enhancer that takes the addictive quality of pheromones and turns it into a personal scent. That was how You became so popular.”
As for finding a way to iterate on You’s success without cannibalizing it, Weiss likened it to riffing off of a classic cocktail.
“Think of a martini. It’s a glass of vodka, and there are many different twists you can do on that,” Weiss said. “You could have a dirty martini with olive juice, a lychee martini or an espresso martini. These are different spins on the same drink, and that was how we thought about Impressions.”
To that end, You Doux has top notes of sweet violet, heart notes of palo santo, frankincense and myrrh, and base notes of ambrette and ambrox. You Rêve opens with buttercream, features heart notes of plum butter, toasted almond, iris and sandalwood, and dries down to ambrette and ambrox bases.
“You Doux is very quiet luxury, and You Rêve is much more for a hedonistic, saccharine night out,” Weiss said. “We’re thinking about these as different wearers entirely, but some might have all three on her countertop and wear different ones for different occasions. For me, Rêve is for date night. For my board meeting, I’m putting on Doux.”
Both were created by Frank Voelkl, the DSM-Firmenich perfumer who architected the original fragrance with Dora Baghriche in 2017.
“When we think about bringing this idea of Impressions of You to market, it’s about how we build out that fragrance wardrobe that lets you bring to life the different aspects of your own personality,” Leahy added.
Voelkl’s mandate was to get lightning to strike twice more. “For sure, You is a tough act to follow,” Voelkl said. “There is no recipe for success, but the success came because people who wore the fragrance experienced something powerful and got addicted.”
By preserving You’s base notes, he aimed to take the brand into new olfactive territories while preserving aspects of You’s scent profile. “There’s certainly commonalities and at the same time, they’re really different. The structure is relatively simplistic: You Doux has more woods, You Rêve has buttercream, plum and toasted almond. It’s a space that You wasn’t previously in — I wouldn’t call it a gourmand, but it’s a bit more edible.”
Leahy and Weiss both posited that Glossier You, and its ensuing offshoots, mirror the brand’s most resonant aspects with consumers. “Glossier continues to grow because it has such an evergreen mission,” Weiss said. “The idea of ‘you look good,’ is about empowering women to use beauty or makeup as tools of expression as opposed to a way of being accepted into the world. It’s just as resonant now as it was 10 years ago, and it’s just as resonant within the younger generation as it is for aging Millennials.”
Added Leahy, “We’re in year 10 of a 100-year-old brand. We have shown that this brand continues to connect in a deep way with our community, and our product pipeline is more exciting than ever.”
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