What kind of blogger am I when I haven’t talked about Glossier EVER on ze blog before? Well, I have to say I actually didn’t want to try Glossier until I read all the reports that they entered the Unicorn club. The term, Unicorn, is given to a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion (some other Unicorn companies include Airbnb and Uber). It wasn’t until I started reading into the company that I realized it wasn’t just another makeup brand. The CEO and co-founder of Glossier, Emily Weiss, is 34. Thirty-four with a billion dollar company. That is the dream y’all. She gives a whole new meaning to being a girl boss. She interned for Ralph Lauren at 15, interned for Teen Vogue (and got to star on The Hills alongside Lauren Conrad), and started her own beauty blog (Into The Gloss) at 25. And then, at 28, she started Glossier. And to set her apart from other beauty brands even more, her products aren’t even available in Sephora or Ulta or any other brick and mortar store besides her flagship location in New York and a rare sprinkling of pop-ups. She was able to market the brand solely online over social media and that is pretty extraordinary just in itself.
So, that led me to question, what is it about Glossier that makes it so damn irresistible to all the millenials (and Generation Z-ers)? Well, Glossier definitely knows it’s target market with a lipstick range called Generation G and a brow gel called Boy Brow. With names like that, how can you resist these products? And yet, I did resist them. For a good two years, I ignored the hype surrounding Glossier. Their minimalistic white and pink packaging, bubble-wrap cosmetic pouches and promised “no-makeup” makeup look didn’t intrigue me as much as it intrigued everyone around me. I thought I had to have that natural, girl-next-door, undercover-model look going on in order to wear Glossier makeup. But boy oh boy, do I wish I listened to the hype earlier.
I am quite the blush fiend so if I was going to pick up anything from Glossier, it was going to be their Cloud Paint ($22CAD/$18USD). Now, Cloud Paint isn’t just a cute name for this cream blush. No, no. This blush is LITERALLY cloud paint. It’s a gel-cream formula with shades inspired by the gradient NYC sunsets (y’all know how much I love New York), hence the shade names like Dusk and Storm. But it’s unlike any cream formula I have felt before. I gently rub together half of a pea-size amount (maybe even less, you need the tiniest amount) between my two index fingers to evenly spread the product and warm it up. I then pat it on my cheeks with these two fingers starting at the apples of my cheeks and working it up my cheekbones. Usually with cream blushes, it’s a little bit of work to blend them in. But this Glossier Cloud Paint? It blends effortlessly onto the cheeks like a pillowy watercolour paint. Hence the name. Cloud. Paint. It’s not sticky or gloopy or thick. It’s just the most beautiful cream blush that gives a tiny bit of glow to the cheeks while still looking like just a natural flush.
This one is in the shade, Dusk, a brownish-nude. It almost doubles as both a bronzer and a blush for me. It warms up my face while adding some dimension to my cheekbones. It’s definitely not a typical Taylor shade but I thought it was a colour missing from my collection and therefore I could justify buying it. But man, I’m going to force myself to justify buying every single shade from the Cloud Paint range. Luckily they have a special deal where it’s $22CAD ($18USD) for one or $36CAD ($30USD) for two. Don’t mind me as I spend $108 on all new blushes for my collection (worth it).