Glossier changed its beloved lip balm, igniting fury among its most loyal fans

Glossier built its brand on customer feedback, and now its hearing from angry fans after reformulating its famous lip balm

• Glossier reformulated Balm Dotcom, a star product and fans are voicing their frustration.
• Some fans say the lip balm no longer works as well and are accusing the company of ignoring its customers. 
• Glossier has gone through several changes over the past year, including a new CEO and a deal with Sephora.

Millennial beauty brand Glossier is changing the ingredients of one of its oldest and most-loved products and discontinuing a popular flavor, rankling customers who say Glossier "ruined" a star product. 

The company announced earlier this month that it's launching a "well-deserved upgrade" to Balm Dotcom, a $12 lip balm that was one of the brand's four original products when it debuted back in 2014. The reformulated balm, or BDC as fans call it, will have a redesigned applicator tip and a "new clinically-tested hydrating, vegan formula," Glossier wrote in an Instagram post. 

In addition, Glossier is discontinuing the cherry-flavored balm, a popular flavor that had a sheer, red tint. 

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier)

While many fans of the brand are looking forward to the new applicator — it allows the balm to be applied without using your fingers — others are already disappointed by the formulation change and the removal of the cherry flavor. Glossier said the new formula wouldn't officially launch until February, but customers have already started receiving the new balm, and many of them have taken to Reddit and Instagram to complain that the changes have made the product less moisturizing and less effective. 

"Kind of frustrating to me that Glossier is advertising the new balm as improved and more hydrating when it is quite literally the opposite and dried my lips," a customer wrote on the Glossier subreddit. "A tube of the old formula used to last me forever, but my tube of the new lasted less than a month due to having to constantly reapply." 

Representatives for Glossier did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. But Emily Trillaud, Glossier's director of packaging and product development, told Retail Dive via email that the company has swapped out petrolatum for castor jelly, a vegetable-based ingredient. 

"Petrolatum is a really commonly used cosmetic-conditioning ingredient, and while there is nothing unsafe about this raw material, it is a by-product of the petroleum industry and is non-renewable," Trillaud wrote. "This important change helps our new formula deliver clinical hydration to lips in a buttery, never greasy texture."

The brand has also removed lanolin, a wax that comes from sheep's wool, and replaced beeswax with a lab-made, synthetic version, changes that make the product vegan. 

But fans argue that the new product doesn't live up to Glossier's standards and that the brand isn't listening to its customers. 

"Why would you alienate all the BDC fans?" one customer wrote on Instagram. "I can't believe another holy grail product bites the dust. ????????‍♀️. Just make a vegan lip balm and call it something else but leave the OG alone!!!!" 

Many of Glossier's products were created based on customer feedback. The company dubbed its brand strategy "born from content; fueled by community,' and, in the past, the Glossier research and design team invited loyal fans to its offices to solicit feedback, according to the New York Times.  

But the 8-year-old beauty brand has experienced a challenging few years that included a round of layoffs and slowing sales. Founder Emily Weiss stepped down as CEO last May and was replaced by retail veteran Kyle Leahy, who had served as the brand's chief commercial officer. Soon after, the company announced that it would start selling its products at Sephora in early 2023, the direct-to-consumer brand's first retail partnership.