Saie Beauty Founder Laney Crowell on Feeling Good and Doing Good

In today’s newsletter, we caught up with Laney Crowell, founder of clean beauty brand Saie Beauty, about how she built her community and what’s on the horizon for Saie. Also ahead, find your horoscope to help refine your intentions this eclipse season and discover a treatment plan for glowy, bouncy skin sans laser and needles. – Samantha

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THE CLOSE-UP

Saie Beauty Founder, Laney Crowell, on Building Community Through Beauty

Welcome to “The Close-Up,” Coveteur’s newest talent-led newsletter series, where we’ll be indulging in conversations with tastemakers, entrepreneurs, designers, and others paving the way in their respective industries. Focusing on the people at the forefront of new, innovative, and diverse brands, join us as we uncover their style ethos, guiding principles, challenges, and insights that have made them successful in the worlds of fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and beyond.

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking to Laney Crowell, founder of clean makeup brand, Saie Beauty. Ahead, we chat about how she transitioned from editorial to founding Saie Beauty, what feeling good and doing good looks like to her, and what’s next for Saie—including the Every Body campaign, vintage drops, and holiday goodies.

Samantha Wu: What was the catalyst for founding Saie Beauty?

Laney Crowell: I’ve always been obsessed with beauty, especially makeup. I transitioned from the editorial side to in-house at one of the biggest beauty companies in the world, and I worked there for five years. It was amazing. I loved learning from all of these incredible people. While I was there, I started diving into what is now called wellness. It was all about taking care of yourself, and trying to feel good. I did not feel great at the time and was teaching myself about nutrition. I took a meditation class and started really looking at ingredients. When I decided to leave Estée Lauder, there was this idea that there's a bigger idea around beauty. It's not just the products, it's this 360 concept. I honestly never even thought about starting a beauty brand. It wasn't until I had my blog where I was talking about holistic beauty that my community said very loudly, "Here's exactly what we're looking for that doesn't exist." That conversation is where the name of the brand comes from. You say it, we create it. The pillars that my community gave me are what we stand on today.

SW: When you were first getting your company off the ground, were there any initial setbacks or signs that you were on the right path, aside from positive feedback from your blog community?

LC: I think my instincts were the biggest sign for me. The feeling I had around launching Saie was so powerful that it was almost like I couldn't not do it. That was my biggest driving force because I couldn't get the voice out of my head saying, "Here's this incredible opportunity, don't miss it." Regarding setbacks, I'd never fundraised before. Fundraising was really hard and it was such a test of whether or not this was something I wanted to do because I was told no so many times. I had to work so hard just to raise that initial seed round. There were so many moments I could have given up because it didn't seem like it was going to happen.

SW: You've always been a beauty lover—I would love to hear how that's informed your day-to-day practices and principles for leading your company.

LC: Our motto and mission is “Feel Good, Do Good.” That's my point of view on really everything, whether that comes down to The Every Body campaign or the makeup we're creating. I'm not a makeup artist, so it's really about creating products that help you feel good and live your best life. Everything that we make is meant to be really easy to apply and is packed with skincare. If you look at our ingredient lists, you’ll see that Saie is really skincare with a little bit of pigment.

SW: How have your personal points of view shaped Saie's ethos and involvement across other industries?

LC: I think the Every Body campaign is a great example. I remember the moment Roe had been overturned and I was completely devastated and horrified. It was so gut-wrenching and awful. I held an Instagram live on Saie's channel to hold space for our community and talk about what had happened to feel and cry. I said something to my husband and he said, "Well, why don't you do something about it?" because I was sitting there crying and feeling badly for myself and complaining.

I think that's what everyone should ask themselves when they are feeling hopeless. Whether that's fighting the fossil fuel industry or fighting for our rights, we all should be doing something, on a small scale or a big scale. I thought to myself, "Well, what's the biggest thing I can do?” We're in the beauty industry, which is an industry started by, led by, run by, profiting from primarily women. I knew there was an opportunity to band together brands who were feeling the same way because I had founders reaching out to me saying, "I'm gutted. I can't even work today." That's what we did, and that's another take on feel good, do good.

The Every Body campaign 2023 launched on October 16th. We have over 55 brands who are part of the campaign. Our goal this year was to double the amount of funds raised for SisterSong, which is the largest grassroots organization for indigenous people and people of color fighting for reproductive justice. I think we're going to hit that, which is really exciting. I don't know if there has ever been a time when more brands have banded together for a cause. I'm really proud of this historic moment for the campaign.

SW: Aside from the Every Body campaign, where do you see Saie Beauty going next?

LC: Have your eye out for some exciting Saie Vintage drops next year. We're going to have them curated in a way that is going to be really special. Next year, I want to educate and focus on how Saie is the clean complexion expert. We do complexion so beautifully and help people understand not only our formulas but their skin as well.

SW: Finally, I have to ask, what Saie Beauty combo have you been living in?

LC: The holiday kit. I'm obsessed with it. I'm not going to put it on right now, but I really love Baby, which is the name of the Dew Blush in the holiday kit; it's limited edition. And I like wearing it with Play. I think they're so cute and they’ll be exclusive at Sephora!

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