Rhode Is One of Glossier’s Many Sons
Glossier walked so Rhode could run
Happy Friday! It’s been a week. The leading story this week is certainly Rhode. So, let’s dive right into it.
Rhode scaled with the precision Glossier never quite mastered. In three years: ten products, $212M in sales, entirely DTC. No retail, no bloat, no failed tech experiments: just focused ops and a founder who functions as both media channel and brand avatar. But let’s be clear: Rhode is Glossier’s descendant. It inherited the blueprint (content + community + founder myth) and trimmed the fat.* Gen Z gets the same shorthand we did with Glossier: cool girl minimalism, pink-beige sheen, moodboard and flatlay ready branding — but with the machinery of a company built to sell in the algorithmic age.
The $1B e.l.f acquisition is getting the usual reactions: praise for Hailey's strategic instincts, eye rolls at e.l.f being a "dupes brand," thinkpieces and greenscreen toks incoming. But the take here is simpler: this deal helps e.l.f further diversify their portfolio. Beauty has bifurcated — you're either democratizing access through price (dupes) or selling innovation through in-house formulation/R+D. Rhode gives e.l.f. cultural capital, a founder-led halo, and a brand with proven hype-to-sales conversion. e.l.f gives Rhode scale. Everyone wins. Is Rhode a brand for me? Probably not.
Still, the enthusiasm around Rhode’s exit raises a familiar tension. We celebrate speed to exit and star power, but what about the brands reshaping the industry in quieter, deeper ways? Brands like Ami Colé, Experiment, and even Bread (who was eventually acquired by Topicals) all lead with inclusion, formulation, and a new definition of beauty authority. The market says it rewards novelty and strategy, but it still heavily favors visibility. With Naturium and Rhode in the portfolio, I hope this move signals an appetite for both.
*To that point, I consider brands like MERIT, Saie, Tower28 as brands forged in the fires of Glossier’s learnings and lineage.
Some other housekeeping!
If you want to attend VISIONS and haven’t snagged a ticket yet, HMU. I’ll be speaking with my Creative Director partner Elliot about cartography as a meaningful metaphor when thinking about branding.
Finally, ICYMI, we got a new look around here. In brief: A Bauhaus-inspired icon, built from the letterforms of TOL, its O acting as a window for introspection. A complementary wordmark in Forma keeps the clean, minimal look intact. We also developed a set of dividers drawn from the counters of the TOL forms. And now, each section of the newsletter finally has a mini-identity that works (and isn’t just a screenshot of a Keynote slide in a font I can tolerate).
Thank you to Alex Hancock and Elliot Vredenburg for the facelift!
This week's picks include fro-yo nostalgia, the Lohanaissance and lifetime chronic illness discounts.
Christina’s weekly scroll –
Everyone wants to get into the Criterion closet — it’s part of the new media circuit.
OnlyFans might be up for grabs? They’re exploring a sale at a $8B valuation…
Fro-yo brings me (and sooo many others) back to the 2010s. And that’s exactly why we can’t let it go!!! <3 <3 <3
Jacquemus Beach Club is coming to Monte-Carlo and Valentino turned its Madison Avenue flagship into a concert venue. Seems like the perfect time to revisit
’s brand as patron piece for Print Magazine.Need Patti LuPone to squash her beef with Audra McDonald expeditiously.
Lindsay Lohan is soooo back. This week she’s starring in Old Navy’s latest campaign AND covering ELLE.
Good read from
on the return to skeuomorphism.Late to this, but F1: The Album? Interesting.
Wow, the CIA secretly ran a Star Wars fan site. OK!
Big Ole Freak in Simlish when?
Is this the end of physical game cartridges?
Wish I wrote this piece on Nintendo slop myself.
Fortnite has a new Dance With Sabrina (Carpenter) experience. Will definitely check this out later today.
The U.S. is phasing out pennies. Meanwhile, DeSantis just approved silver and gold as legal tender, lmao.
Why many digital natives won’t give their kids smartphones.
“A poll this week suggested that almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet does not exist, and a similar number would support a digital curfew, while more than three-quarters felt worse about themselves after using social media.”
If a mass shooter is radicalized by algorithms, are tech companies responsible?
Nikita’s weekly scroll –
REFY did some hotel activation. In 2025, the popup might be more important than even the product.
- chronicles the many Instagram eras, a project I would love to undertake at some point in my life.
Insignificant clout-based internet beef dispatch: random TikToker upset that the legendary Mary Phillips doesn’t want to do her makeup for a pittance.
When A24 made Iraq war slop, it should have been abundantly clear that the rightward turn is going to touch every facet of our lives. Relatedly, here’s how DJT shifted America right.
I’ve put this McLuhan quote (maybe of dubious origin re: we shape our tools, thereafter they shape us etc etc) in every deck the last six months. And for good reason. AI and humans have developed a symbiotic relationship of sorts and we’ve begun to be influenced by the ‘language’ of AI itself.
In cuter news, love the progression to analog with this group of teens making their own local newspaper.
If you suffer from a chronic illness, or know someone who does — you know that electrolytes can become a necessary but expensive part of your management arsenal. I got an IG ad from Buoy this week offering a lifetime chronic illness discount.
The amount of content from this one influencer wedding is making me spiral out. I can barely handle my self-imposed newsletter schedule.
”The influencer revealed that she created a spreadsheet with upward of 40 video ideas and directions for filming them before the wedding. She then tasked her assistant with managing the list as she made her way through the getting-ready process, the ceremony, the reception, and the after-party. “Her job throughout the day was making sure these videos get done,” Jaz said. “It took me maybe 60 seconds for each video.”
Kiehl’s launched in Life Time gyms by partnering with meme accounts. Another L for Equinox.
I have this talk from
bookmarked to finally, finally watch.New fragrances! Golf Jazz is cracking me up.
In a headline that seems like it’s from 2021, Kesha has invested in a LinkedIn alternative for musicians with some blockchain involvement (idk whatever).
We’re all gonna be chardonnay moms this summer. Gotta say I got sanc’d up (aka drank a sancerre outside recently) and it kinda beat drinking a glass of orange that smells like a man’s foot in that moment.
If you don’t follow Emily on Instagram you should. I always learn something from her surgical analysis of visual culture. This piece on DJT as our rococo president is no different.
This feels like a PR’d response to the accusations #onhere that Alex Cooper interviews are anti-intellectual in form.
Not a huge BBSP reader, but their take on snobbery in light of that comment about Substack being uncool was a good one!
This made me laugh all the way through bc I love being a hater and because in society the vibes… have never been more loser-ish!
This quote. Thank you to BOF.
“Where brands work best is where there is that impeccable alignment between the creative leadership and the business leadership. Many creative directors feel like a lot of decision-making and creativity is being dictated to them rather than being in conversation with them. And I think that’s what we need to see now.”
˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚Little Treat Corner ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
Christina’s weekly report:
READING: Digital apocalypse: living through the death of virtual worlds.
EATING: Sourdough honey mustard and onion pretzels.
PLAYING:
OBSESSING: Over this Makeup like a Painter series on the clock app.
RECOMMENDING: Put your phone in another room and walk away.
TREATING: Myself to a giant Diet Coke, extra ice.
Nikita’s weekly report:
READING: About demand letters, lol.
EATING: The best turkey sandwich I’ve ever had. I’m gatekeeping!
PLAYING: Lots of NTS radio and working my way through Forever on Netflix.
OBSESSING: Over Summer Fridays.
RECOMMENDING: Telling your dog he’s stinky but you love him.
TREATING: Myself to a leg day.
If you want to share a link, a tip, or just chat, leave a comment or email us at hello@blankprojects.co.
Quite a spot on take on the Rhode-Glossier connection. I do think Emily Weiss wanted this type of exit for Glossier, but too many steps got in the way. The launch in Sephora and expansion into fragrance has definitely given them a shot in the arm.
You're right also about people writing e.l.f. off too quickly, Tarang and his team are really savvy. They haven't gotten QUITE the negative connotation of duping as Revolution, though some shots fired from Charlotte Tilbury (which actually I wonder if it just helped both brands), but it's all been intentional for them to keep staying afloat. Realistically them operating as they had been with the white package $1 line and black package Studio line originally kind of duping NARS wasn't going to have longevity and they've been smart and fast at meeting a demand for trends while still also releasing some good core products and really upping their marketing game. Then, they acquired Naturium surprisingly and I'm sure this is Phase 3 of e.l.f. really gunning towards being an even more competitive player soon. Getting Rhode and Hailey in the deal is them getting their money's worth.
THAT BEING SAID - yes. There are other brands who are doing more innovation-wise that I wish got similar valuation like the ones you mentioned, another big example I can also think of is Danessa Myricks. What she's been doing in makeup is cool, innovative, and easily caters to average makeup wearers and also makeup artistry.