Glossier is discontinuing one of its biggest launches of last year

Less than a year after it launched, one of the brand's most controversial products is to be axed

It’s no secret that Glossier – the playful, milennial pink beauty brand that has dominated our Instagram feeds for the last few years – is one of the most successful skincare and make-up brands of the moment.

From the launch of their first mascara, Glossier Lash slick, to the more sparkly, colour-led Glossier Play, every time the brand has launched something new we’ve sat up in our seats a little.

But within a year of launching, one of the Glossier Play products is already being discontinued  – although it actually makes a lot of sense to do so.

The looks created using Glitter Gelée were certainly eye-catching and awe-inspiring, but the fact that the actual glitter isn’t biodegradable didn’t sit so well with Glossier fans when it launched. Considering our current environmental crisis, it wasn’t great that the glitter would ultimately end up in our oceans and ecosystems.

So we were pretty impressed when yesterday the brand’s founder and CEO, Emily Weiss, announced Glossier’s new commitment to sustainability, including getting rid of Glitter Gelée.

‘We launched Glitter Gelée last March, and quickly heard from many of you who were disappointed that we’d created a product using glitter, which has become increasingly and deservedly controversial since it gets into the waterways and accumulates in the ocean,’ Weiss wrote on Glossier.com.

‘It was clear to us that we’d made the wrong choice, so we pledged to work on reformulating this product with bio-glitter, a newer and more environmentally-friendly raw material.’

Weiss recently told Business of Fashion that no further Glossier Play products would be launching, and that the subsection of the brand would be absorbed into main Glossier. The Glossier Play Instagram account is now private.

‘Over the past year, our product development team has experimented with multiple formulas using bio-glitter, but ultimately we haven’t been able to make a product that we love,’ Weiss continued.

‘It’s possible that future innovations in bio-glitter materials will enable us to try again, but in the meantime, we’ve decided to discontinue Glitter Gelée as of March 2.’

The brand has also stopped the inclusion of stickers with every order, the famous pink pouches are now optional and you can recycle them at all Glossier stores and pop-ups.

Hats off to Weiss for listening to concerns about Glitter Gelée and the brand’s overall sustainability and, more importantly, doing something about it.

We’re excited to see how the brand evolves on its sustainability journey.

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