Saie Sold Out a Creator-Built Eyeshadow in 12 Hours. Tom Ford Passed First

Saie's rose-gold eyeshadow, developed with creator Hannah Chody, sold out on Sephora's website in 12 hours after more than 7,500 waitlist sign-ups. The shade, called Bellini, exists because Tom Ford Beauty ignored a three-year consumer signal sitting in plain sight on TikTok.

Chody, who has more than 288,000 followers, spent roughly three years hunting for a dupe of Tom Ford Beauty's Cream and Powder Eye Color in Golden Peach, discontinued in 2023. She tested about 50 alternatives and documented the search on TikTok. Commenters repeatedly asked whether Tom Ford Beauty would relaunch the shade or partner with her. Chody told Allure in 2024 she had reached out and heard nothing back.

"I've tried to get in touch to no avail, but I'm here! I'm patiently waiting," she told the magazine at the time.

Saie answered instead. Last month it debuted Bellini, a shade of its SuperSuede Baked Eyeshadow, and more than 1,300 people have since signed up for restock notifications, according to the brand. Crowell said the interest exceeded expectations and produced a halo effect: a 305% sales lift across Saie's other core shades.

"The results were just so incredible," Crowell said. "There was a magic to this. It's not going to be easily replicable."

That last clause deserves emphasis. Even the CEO says this isn't a repeatable playbook. Read the quotes carefully.

How did Saie find the opportunity?

Crowell discovered Chody's dupe hunt the way most people did: on her own TikTok feed. Viewers began tagging Saie in the comments during Chody's search. At the time, Saie didn't sell an eyeshadow at all. Once the company decided to enter the category, Crowell contacted Chody directly.

"I said, 'I know this is kind of fast timing, but I'm actually going to Italy to where we make the product. Do you want to come with, and we can actually develop the shade in person?'" Crowell said. Chody said yes immediately.

Chody helped create and name Bellini over a month of development and multiple rounds of product testing. Crowell said Saie forecast a big launch and still underestimated demand. That gap between forecast and reality is the whole story here: the brand found demand a competitor had left unclaimed and executed before anyone else did.

What did the campaign actually deliver?

The rollout ran on Chody's owned channels plus a Sephora-hosted TikTok Shop Live event. The Live set a record for the highest unit sales of any featured Sephora brand to date, the company said, and generated 6.5 million impressions. 89% of those viewers were new to the brand, according to Saie.

"The conversation started on TikTok; that's where the majority of [Chody's] followers are," Crowell said. "When Sephora came to us with the TikTok Shop opportunity, it just made perfect sense."

Offline, Saie ran several activations:

• Bellini-making kit mailers sent to influencers and press
• New York events with Chody offering in-person product trials and bellini cocktails
• An Austin billboard, in Chody's hometown, with the tagline "All eyes on Hannah Chody"

Chody's posts about the billboard and the launch have generated millions of TikTok views to date.

"What was really part of the secret sauce to how successful this campaign is is how engaged [Chody's] community is," Crowell said.

Can marketing leaders copy this?

Probably not, and Crowell doesn't claim otherwise. Saie continues working with Chody on content, especially restock updates, but Crowell frames this as a one-time alignment of creator, community, and product gap rather than a template.

The transferable lesson, she said, is listening to a brand community online and in person, then executing thoughtfully where competitors aren't activating. Saie applied the same logic to its New York Knicks sponsorship, a category where, in Crowell's words, there was "no other brand speaking to women in that moment."

One caveat for CMOs weighing similar moves: this worked because the demand was documented, measurable, and visibly ignored by the category owner. Most creator partnerships don't arrive with three years of audience evidence attached. Saie's next move, per Crowell, is simply listening for it.

"We're continuing to be true and authentic to what this was, which was us answering the demand from her community," Crowell said. "You say it, we create it."