Dive Brief:

• Vertical online beauty retailer Glossier last week announced that it’s expanding to Canada later this month, to the U.K. “after that” and to France next year, according to a company blog post from founder/CEO Emily Weiss.

• The company has plans to continue its international expansion, although Weiss also said that as a cruelty-free brand, it “won’t be able to ship anywhere that requires product testing on animals. That’s just part of our philosophy.”

• Glossier launched in 2014 after Weiss had built up a following via her “Into the Gloss” blog that she continues to produce at Vogue magazine.

Dive Insight:

Glossier is no doubt benefiting from the current strength in beauty sales but the brand also boasts its own assets. In particular, the company developes its own products and specializes in a few categories — it launched with skin care products, added makeup and is now branching into peripheral items like sunscreen. The range remains minimalist, with a basic set of colors and products that each work for diverse skin tones, rather than a large assortment.

The company is different in other ways, too. Vogue magazine continues to email the “Into the Gloss” blog, which features interviews with beauty insiders of all types (including makeup artists, models and others) who often drop names of beauty products that aren’t Glossier — and Into the Gloss provides the links to order those products.

It’s a free-wheeling approach to content that assumes Glossier products fit into a wider beauty routine, with room for many makers. The company has built a loyal following that is now spilling overseas, and appears to be following the increasing demand. So far the brand is online only, though Nasty Gal, before its sale to U.K. apparel company Boohoo, sponsored a few Glossier pop-ups in years past. 

“We were able to introduce ourselves locally, start a community, and build something special together. Our message has always transcended borders and cultures and is central to who we are as a brand,” Weiss wrote. “[E]very time we launch in a new place, we want to get to know every new market just as well as we’ve gotten to know our U.S. crowd over the past few years. … That’s why we’ll be taking this country by country, making sure we nurture each new community like we did with our U.S. crowd.”