A compulsively readable narrative of beauty, business, privilege and mogul-dom. This is a well-reported inside-baseball analysis of a cosmetics company and the culture that surrounded it ... Meltzer is sympathetic to and sometimes friendly with her subject, but more than once the book works itself into knots trying to decide whether Weiss is too self-effacing or if Glossier’s success really was the right idea at exactly the right moment ... Sometimes Meltzer’s fascination with the founder feels a bit overblown ... Glossy is fair, and smart ... Dishy.
[An] astute dissection ... Glossy has been billed as an exposé, but it turns out there is not much about Glossier to expose ... Well worth reading not because it contains any especially juicy revelations, but because Meltzer is such a smart skeptic of Glossier’s myth and such a sharp analyst of the ways in which the brand is a barometer of broader trends.
Glossy is not a takedown of Weiss, and as I read the book, I began to feel uncomfortable about why I wanted it to be ... Meltzer never implicates Weiss for her role in upholding the beauty industry’s values.
The tone of the book is energetic but overly gushing ... Meltzer’s subject is certainly intriguing, but many readers may wish for a more evenhanded approach. Occasionally entertaining but bloated business success story written from the cheering section.
