Saie
Laney Crowell's clean makeup brand. From Estée Lauder executive to $100 million in revenue, one of Sephora's top 10 makeup brands, and the first beauty company to sign The Climate Pledge.
Saie reached $100 million in sales in 2024 with more than 50% year-over-year revenue growth, making it one of Sephora’s top 10 makeup brands and one of the fastest-growing clean beauty companies in the industry. The brand is profitable, has taken only undisclosed seed-stage funding led by Unilever Ventures, and built its position by solving a problem that the clean beauty movement had accidentally created: products marketed as “natural” that still irritated sensitive skin because they were loaded with essential oils and botanicals.
Founder and CEO Laney Crowell spent six years as Estée Lauder’s first Executive Director of Online Global Communications, where she built their social media channels and influencer marketing strategy from scratch. She launched Saie in November 2019 with four products, grew it into a brand that sold 534 vanity cases per minute during a product drop, and signed Saie as the first beauty brand to join The Climate Pledge, committing to net-zero carbon by 2039.
At a glance:
| Founded | November 2019 |
| Founder and CEO | Laney Crowell |
| Ownership | Private; Unilever Ventures led seed round |
| Revenue (2024) | $100M+ (50%+ YoY growth, profitable) |
| Headquarters | SoHo, New York City |
| Retailers | Sephora (US, Canada, Middle East), Sephora at Kohl’s, Credo Beauty, Cult Beauty (UK), Goop, saiehello.com |
| Points of distribution (2025) | 964 offline doors projected |
| Earned media value | $25M (top 20 ranking) |
The Story
Laney Crowell grew up as a diplomat’s daughter, living in China, France, and Washington D.C., and studied math and economics at Pomona College with double minors in French and psychology. Her first editorial job came after she introduced herself to Lucky Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Kim France at a Banana Republic on Fifth Avenue, which led to a position as Fashion News Coordinator. She moved to Elle as American Market Editor, then became Fashion and Beauty Director at StyleCaster when it launched in 2008.
In 2011, Estée Lauder hired her as their first Executive Director of Online Global Communications, where she created their social media channels, developed the Guest Blogger program, and built an influencer marketing strategy that became a template for the company’s digital presence. She has described those six years as getting her “master’s degree” in beauty. She left while pregnant with her first daughter, and in 2016 founded The Moment, a clean beauty editorial platform and consulting agency.
Running The Moment is where she found the gap. Brands would send her products to review, and she kept encountering the same problem: clean beauty formulas were either effective but unattractive, or beautifully packaged but full of essential oils and botanicals that irritated skin as much as the synthetic ingredients they replaced. She surveyed her Instagram community through Stories, asking followers what they wanted in a clean beauty brand, and the name “Saie” derives from “You Saie It, we Create it.”
Saie launched in November 2019 with four products: a mascara (Mascara 101), a brow gel, a lip balm, and a lavender eyelash curler, sold exclusively through Goop. By its eighth month, the brand was exceeding sales expectations by 200%, with 20% of e-commerce customers already returning for repeat purchases. In March 2021, Saie joined Sephora’s “Clean at Sephora” program, and the Glowy Super Gel, a water-based illuminator containing 75% water, went viral on TikTok in 2022.
The Strategy
Clean beauty that does not look like clean beauty
Saie bans over 2,000 ingredients from its formulas, including phenoxyethanol and synthetic fragrance, but positioned itself with minimalist, design-forward packaging rather than the earthy, granola aesthetic that had defined the clean beauty category. The brand’s visual identity is modern and cool, not clinical or crunchy, which attracted consumers who wanted clean formulas without adopting the lifestyle signaling that clean beauty had traditionally required.
Community-driven product development
Before launching, Crowell built a private 500-person Facebook group that grew to over 800 members who tested products and provided feedback during development. The first product, Mascara 101, was developed with this community’s input, and the model expanded into a “Clean Beauty Crew” on the TYB platform for formula testing and shade range development. A vanity case product sold out in 3.5 hours during its first drop, drawing 127,000 visitors to the website with 87% being new customers, and the second release sold 534 units per minute.
Sephora as the growth engine
Saie entered Sephora’s Clean at Sephora program in March 2021 and has since become one of the retailer’s top 10 makeup brands, doubling its in-store footprint and projecting 964 offline doors by 2025. The brand launched at Sephora Middle East in October 2024 across 40 doors in six GCC countries, where it was the number one brand on sephora.ae at launch, and its Sephoria Middle East booth drew over 3,000 visitors.
The 99-year-old campaign
In a category obsessed with youth, Saie made Crowell’s 99-year-old grandmother, Helene Simon, the face of a campaign after an Instagram follower suggested it. Crowell enlisted her entire family to convince Nanna, who was photographed wearing Slip Tint, Mascara 101, and Dew Blush. The campaign was covered by Good Morning America, People, and NewBeauty, and some customers purchased Saie for the first time because of Nanna’s photos, which said more about the brand’s definition of beauty than any positioning statement could.
The Numbers
Saie does not disclose granular annual revenue figures, but key financial indicators are publicly available.
Revenue: $100 million or more in 2024, with 50% or more year-over-year growth. The company is profitable.
Funding: Undisclosed pre-seed (August 2019) with investors including April Gargiulo (Vintner’s Daughter founder), Blake Mycoskie (TOMS founder), and Alexa von Tobel (LearnVest founder). Undisclosed seed (August 2020) led by Unilever Ventures with additional investors including Gwyneth Paltrow and G9 Ventures. A $200,000 convertible note in March 2021. No Series A or B rounds have been disclosed, suggesting the company has been largely self-sustaining since reaching profitability.
Earned media value: $25 million, ranking in the top 20 among beauty brands.
Product development timeline: Foundation took years because Crowell refused to use silicones. Lip gloss took three years to develop. The deliberate pace reflects Saie’s approach to launching fewer products at a higher standard.
What You Can Learn
Find the gap the category created. The clean beauty movement promised healthier products but often delivered new irritants in the form of essential oils and botanicals, and Saie was built specifically for the consumer who wanted clean ingredients without the tradeoff. For any online business, the most valuable market opportunity is often the problem that the existing solution accidentally created.
Your community can build your products. Saie developed its first product with direct input from an 800-person Facebook group, and the model of testing formulas and shade ranges with real customers before launch has produced products that sell out in minutes because the people who will buy them already helped design them.
Sustainability can be a competitive advantage, not a cost center. Saie ships by ocean instead of air, uses paper cartons instead of coated packaging, pre-produces components for popular products to avoid emergency air shipments, and became the first beauty brand to sign The Climate Pledge. The brand reached $100 million in revenue while doing all of this, which means sustainability did not slow growth but instead attracted the exact consumers who drive earned media and brand loyalty.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Saie?
Laney Crowell, a former Estée Lauder executive, founded Saie in November 2019 after discovering a gap in the clean beauty market while running The Moment, a clean beauty editorial platform.
Where is Saie sold?
Saie is available at Sephora in the US, Canada, and the Middle East, Sephora at Kohl’s, Credo Beauty, Cult Beauty in the UK, Goop, and through saiehello.com.
Is Saie actually clean?
Saie bans over 2,000 ingredients from its formulas and positions itself at the intersection of clean beauty and sensitive-skin safety, though some critics have noted that the brand uses artificial colors in products like Dew Blush while participating in Sephora’s Clean at Sephora program, which is supposed to exclude them.
What is Saie’s best-selling product?
The Glowy Super Gel, a water-based illuminator with 75% water content, went viral on TikTok in 2022 and is available in multiple shades. Other hero products include the Slip Tint tinted moisturizer with SPF 35 and the Dew Blush liquid-cream blush.
Is Saie sustainable?
Saie became the first beauty brand to sign The Climate Pledge in October 2024, committing to net-zero carbon by 2039, eleven years ahead of the Paris Agreement. The brand partnered with rePurpose Global to recover five million pounds of plastic over three years across four countries, employing over 2,000 women.
When was Saie founded?
Saie launched in November 2019 with four products: Mascara 101, a brow gel, a lip balm, and a lavender eyelash curler, sold exclusively through Goop. By its eighth month the brand was exceeding sales expectations by 200%.
Who owns Saie?
Founder and CEO Laney Crowell retains majority ownership. Minority investors include Unilever Ventures, which led an undisclosed seed round in August 2020, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, G9 Ventures, April Gargiulo, Blake Mycoskie, and Alexa von Tobel. No Series A or B has been disclosed.
How much revenue does Saie generate?
Saie reached $100 million or more in sales in 2024 with more than 50% year-over-year growth, making it one of Sephora’s top 10 makeup brands. The company is profitable.
Sources
- Fortune, “Saie Beauty sales and climate commitment,” September 2024. Revenue milestone, sustainability practices, product development timeline.
- Inc., “How Saie Hit $100M in Revenue Without Cutting Any Corners on Sustainability,” 2024. Revenue confirmation, profitability, growth rate.
- BeautyMatter, “Future50 2025: Saie,” 2025. Vanity case sales velocity, earned media value, retail expansion projections.
- Glossy, “Investors continue to fuel clean makeup brands’ growth,” 2020. Seed funding details, early sales performance, community development model.
- CEW, “Laney Crowell,” 2024. Professional background, Estée Lauder tenure.
- Columbia Women’s Business Society, “Laney Crowell of Saie”. Education, career trajectory, VC funding challenges.
- TheIndustry.beauty, “The Interview: Laney Crowell on How She Created Clean Beauty Brand Saie”. Brand origin, name derivation, clean beauty gap.
- The Climate Pledge, “Saie Beauty”. Climate Pledge signing, rePurpose Global partnership.
- NewBeauty, “Saie Beauty’s 99-Year-Old Model”. Nanna campaign details.
- Grazia ME, “Saie Beauty launches in the Middle East,” October 2024. Sephora Middle East launch, number one ranking.