Gloss Angeles Beauty Podcast Becomes Part of Refinery29
With podcasts soaring in popularity since the pandemic began, Refinery29 is eyeing a bigger share of the market by teaming up with Gloss Angeles, one of the most popular beauty offerings.
The Vice Media-owned women’s lifestyle site announced that it has inked a long-term licensing partnership with Gloss Angeles podcast hosts Sara Tan, who is also Refinery29’s beauty director, and Kirbie Johnson, a longtime beauty journalist.
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“We complement each other,” Simone Oliver, editor in chief of Refinery29, said of the deal, of which financial terms were not disclosed. “R29 has the scale and both Sara and Kirbie have the expertise. I think they already have this established and engaged audience and the expertise not just in the subject area, but in different formats.”
Tan and Johnson founded the podcast in 2019, with information on all kinds of beauty treatments, from plastic surgery to chemical peels, as well as interviews with big names in beauty, including Mario Dedivanovic, Nyakio Grieco and Jen Atkin. Since its inception, it has amassed more than 1 million downloads and earned a spot on Apple’s top 10 fashion and beauty podcasts.
As part of the licensing partnership, Refinery29 and Gloss Angeles will collaborate to identify and secure brand partners for the podcast, which has two episodes a week. Ulta Beauty will be the official brand partner for the Gloss Angeles podcast for a six-month period, beginning on Feb. 25 through July 2022, which will include custom content creation as well as special Ulta Beauty branded episodes.
“We are so thrilled to join the Refinery29 family through this licensing partnership,” Tan and Johnson said in a statement. “Refinery29’s mission to champion inclusivity and diversity and go one layer deeper in its storytelling, especially under Simone Oliver’s helm, aligns deeply with what we do at Gloss Angeles. We are also excited to continue our relationship with Ulta Beauty as our brand sponsor — we are fans of the retailer and admire the work they’ve done to advance DE&I efforts and uplift BIPOC-owned and founded beauty brands.”
The brand’s other podcast is ‘Go Off, Sis,’ produced by Unbothered, Refinery29’s vertical created for and by Black women, and Oliver is keen to grow its offerings further.
“We’re slowly but very intentionally building our portfolio,” added Oliver. “We want to make sure that we are continuously refining our editorial vision, but for us content and community are truly a marriage so we don’t want to scale too fast, but we want to make sure that we’re working on this holistically.”
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