Introducing gloss etc - a weekly edited newsletter of personal recommendations, and the latest venture in the Australian beauty industry, brought to you by two ex-marie claire staffers.
Curated by Sarah Tarca and Sherine Youssef, gloss etc aims to be a "fun, fresh complement to the already stellar beauty offerings that Australia puts out like podcasts, influencers, websites, and magazines, both online and print."
BD spoke with the ladies all about the exciting new launch, how they came up with the idea and what they love most about working in beauty.
Congratulations on the announcement of gloss etc! Can you tell us about the new offering?
Thank you so much! It’s essentially a digital beauty news page, where each week we will send you our personal edit of the best beauty products (both newbies and old faves), tips and advice we’ve gathered from experts in the field. We will also be answering our community’s questions - we’ll be their go-to beauty girls.
We promise to only recommend or give advice on things we’ve personally tried, tested and loved, and/or use or do ourselves.
It’s the WhatsApp group you have with your friends, and the advice we dish to our mums. It’s beauty minus the BS. It’s also free, and there’s no associated website. You get the newsletter, read it, click to buy (if anything catches your eye), and delete. Fast and fabulous.
How did you come up with the idea?
Like most other beauty journalists, we’re constantly getting text messages and phone calls from family and friends, asking us for product recommendations and SOS beauty help - “I’m at Priceline and I need a moisturiser!” - so gloss etc is kind of like an extension of our WhatsApp groups.
That, and we were looking for any excuse to work together again. We had so much fun in the marie claire beauty department, and we missed that.
We both approach beauty with a similar philosophy, yet have different things we love and hate so you’ll always get a balanced view between the two of us. We have different backgrounds, skin types, colouring, hair and eyes, so we need our beauty to deliver different things, and we will be covering all of that.
Can you tell us about your past media experience?
We met in the halls of ACP (may it RIP) as editorial coordinators. Sarah started her career at Cosmopolitan, before she moved to Girlfriend, first as beauty editor and then as editor of the whole brand. Sherine was at Harper’s Bazaar and madison, before they crossed paths again at marie claire in 2016, both working in the beauty department.
What do you love most about beauty?
Where to start? There’s always some cool innovation happening in ingredients and technology, which keeps things interesting, it’s democratic, so everyone can participate as little or as much as they want, and of course there’s the instant gratification of something as simple as putting on mascara.
How will gloss etc be working with brands? How can brands and PRs get in touch?
We’ve worked for many years with a lot of the brands and PRs, so you all have our numbers, and you can reach us at hello@glossetc.co. We want to hear about everything – new launches, reformulations, ambassadors and experts. All the things!
Where can people find you?
You can follow us on Instagram @gloss.etc and sign up for the free newsletter at glossetc.co. The first issue is coming very soon! You can also follow our personal Instagram accounts @tarca and @sherineyoussef.
Image sources: gloss.etc.
