Glossier Does Cubicle Couture Starring Quen

How Glossier’s Espresso Balm Dotcom Re-Drop Blends Office Sirens, Internet Icons & a Marketing Moment That Clocked In

What do cubicles, coffee, and Quenlin Blackwell have in common? Apparently, Glossier’s latest marketing campaign. The (re)launch of Espresso Balm Dotcom marks a calculated return to form for the darling of millennial beauty, a high-gloss play at TikTok virality, cultural relevance, and brand nostalgia.

But beneath the brown-tinted balm lies a campaign as rich as the espresso it’s scented with. It's layered with intent, aesthetic cues, and an eyebrow-raising amount of consumer feedback.

Let’s unpack what made this campaign buzz, and why Glossier is doubling down on storytelling to stay in the feed, besties.

A Glossy Legacy, Now with Notes of Controversy

Before we get into the espresso, let’s address the elephant in the balm: the reformulation. Glossier’s original Balm Dotcom was cult-level beloved. It was thick, sticky, and hydrating in a way that made lips (and brand equity) shine. When they reformulated in 2023 to make it vegan and remove lanolin, the formula lost more than just an ingredient. It lost fans. The new version was met with a wave of disapproval.

“It separates,” “It’s too thin,” “It doesn’t hit the same.”

Sound familiar?

This re-launch of the Espresso flavor didn’t escape that criticism. Scroll the comments under any of the recent posts and you’ll see a recurring theme: love for the campaign, skepticism about the product. This dissonance, between aesthetic excellence and functional frustration, is exactly what makes the marketing play so fascinating.

The Espresso Effect: Food Meets Feelings

The flavor itself is part of a larger movement — one we’ve been tracking here at Beauty Brief HQ for a while now. Call it “gastropersonal beauty,” “sensory nostalgia,” or simply: food-flavored fun. From latte makeup to matcha body scrubs, the beauty industry is continuing to ride another wave of comfort-core cravings. Espresso taps into this perfectly: cozy, caffeinated, slightly bitter, and deeply adult.

But the visual identity is what seals the deal. Think: 2010s office girl aesthetics reimagined through a TikTok filter. There’s a sense of self-aware chic here. Beige cubicles, brown gloss, post-it notes as set design. It’s the office siren trend brought to life, with better lighting and a strong editorial eye.

Enter Quen: The Anti-Influencer Influencer

Casting Quenlin Blackwell wasn’t just smart. It was strategic. Known for her original humor, chaotic-good vibes, and distinct refusal to fit the usual influencer mold, Quen brings cultural cachet that few creators can match. She’s not selling you the balm; she’s existing in it. Her presence signals a shift in how Glossier sees itself. Less literal “girlboss,” more “self-aware" potentially.

Quen makes the campaign watchable. She adds a layer of narrative, of personality, of entertainment. And that’s the whole point. Glossier isn’t just promoting a product. They’re building a moment, a mood, a micro-world. This is storytelling, not straight-up selling.

Let’s Talk GTM: The Espresso Rollout

Now, let’s zoom in on the strategy. Glossier’s go-to-market for their Espresso Balm Dotcom has meticulously memeable.

Key plays included:

• Teaser content that leaned visual-first. Before the product even dropped, Glossier seeded aesthetic posts, generating intrigue through tone and color cues (brown, glossy, cubicle-coded).

• A campaign rollout designed for screenshot culture. The Quen post? Instantly shareable. The set design? Insta-bait. This was intentionally designed to be saved and circulated.

• Creator seeding without over-saturation. Select beauty insiders received the balm in espresso-toned mailers. Tasteful, not pushy.

• Minimal, but meaningful press outreach. The campaign was newsy without being over-hyped, letting the internet do the amplification.

All of this signaled a shift back to what Glossier once did best: make people want to talk about them.

Marketing as Media: The Real Strategy

The most notable thing about this campaign isn’t the balm, it’s the medium. Glossier is experimenting with entertainment. This isn’t just a product drop; it’s a micro-film. A trend capsule. A commentary on RTO (return to office) fatigue dressed up in espresso lip gloss.

We’re entering an era where beauty brands can’t just make great products. They need to make culture. And in that sense, Glossier’s Espresso Balm Dotcom campaign is less about fixing the balm and more about flexing the brand.

Even with the product controversy, even with the criticism, people are watching. They’re engaging. They’re screenshotting. And in 2025, that’s half the win.

Final Swipe

Glossier’s Espresso Balm Dotcom launch might not satisfy every balm loyalist, but from a marketing lens? It’s a case study in how to blend trend fluency, creator chemistry, and cultural commentary into one glossy little tube.

It’s not just Cubicle Couture. It’s content. It’s context. It’s caffeinated strategy.