If you haven’t heard of Saie, you will soon. Since launching last September, the clean beauty brand has rapidly attracted a feverish level of enthusiasm for its affordable, luxury-quality offerings that supply glowing skin, lustrous lips, and long, full lashes without any (and we mean any) toxic ingredients. What’s more, with a just-announced new round of seed funding led by Unilever—also joined by Goop founder and wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow—Saie is primed to become even more of a player in a market that’s expected to reach $22 billion by 2024. Launching an accessible line with clean formulations, sustainability, and transparency as key pillars—and having it deliver by today’s standards—is no small feat, but for Saie founder and CEO Laney Crowell, it was the “only way to create the brand she wanted to see herself.” Having spent five years as an executive at Estée Lauder, and founding her own wellness website, The Moment, Crowell was inspired to launch Saie when, after seeking to detox her lifestyle, she realized there was a dearth of clean makeup products that “performed, looked cool, and weren’t too expensive.” Crowell began by recruiting some of her former Estée Lauder team members, including Sarah Tallman to lead product development, who was already on a personal journey toward clean living after being diagnosed with breast cancer, and Tina Gu to oversee finance and business development. With Crowell also enlisting the help of her friend and wellness influencer Geri Hirsch as creative director, Saie’s first collection of hero products—tinted lip balm, mascara, brow gel, and an eyelash curler—launched in the fall, free of 2,000 harmful and irritating ingredients commonly found in cosmetics.

Clean mascaras tend to leave much to be desired, so it’s no surprise that Saie’s Mascara 101, which harnesses beeswax, shea butter, and quick grass extract in an inky formula that doesn’t flake or smudge, has become an instant cult favorite. And rest assured, formulas that both perform and impart nourishing benefits is a common theme throughout the range. “I wanted Saie products to be the things people needed but couldn’t find clean alternatives for, things like mascara, lip gloss, and highlighter,” explains Crowell. “And then we decided to take it a step further, and make products that aren’t just exciting in the clean world, but that disrupt all of beauty with highlighters that aren’t strobey, just simply cool: lip gloss that’s a treatment too; mascara that gives you that superchic look and is crazy nourishing.” For the lips, there’s the lightly tinted everyday Liquid Lip Balm, infused with squalene, beeswax, and coconut oil, or Really Great Gloss, loaded with juicy, plumping, and hydrating hyaluronic acid, coconut milk, sunflower butter, and grape-seed oil. For a sun-kissed skin effect, there’s glossy sheen-imparting Dew Balm highlighter, laced with hydrating fatty acids and calming marshmallow root, and illuminating Glowy Super Gel, which utilizes plant-derived glycerin, brightening vitamin C, and antioxidant-rich rose hip seed oil. A new bronzed shade named Sunglow, meanwhile, came as a suggestion from its community.

Just as important as its consciously crafted formulas are its sustainable, yet stylish and shelfie-inspiring, packaging, which was designed in partnership with TerraCycle. “I wanted Saie to have chic, fashionable branding and packaging so you’d be excited to see it in your makeup bag,” explains Crowell. “It was a lot to take into consideration, especially since we’re so focused on sustainability, and I drove my team nuts, but I was just tired of compromising in one place or another and I was hearing from so many others that they were too.” Moreover, Crowell hopes that the solutions they’ve innovated will have ripple effects within the industry. “My hope is that bringing big beauty expertise to the clean market, like performance and packaging, changes the way people think about clean beauty,” she says. “I believe it’s the only way forward for ourselves and the planet.” So what’s next for nine-month-old Saie with more funding, and Paltrow throwing even more weight behind the brand’s mission after Goop became its first exclusive retailer at launch? Product development, retail expansion, and marketing, says Crowell. As far as the latter is concerned, there will continue to be a major emphasis on community engagement, with an open dialogue to facilitate two-way feedback. And while inclusivity has been a focus from the beginning, from the brand’s campaign stars to its collaborators and paid influencers, Crowell is continuously looking for new ways to ensure the customer base sees themselves in the brand. “We’re, of course, still working on ways where we can be better, but our community holds us accountable,” she explains, adding that Saie is launching its first complexion category next month, and that a “complexion crew” of community members was established to help guide the shade creation. “We can’t claim to be a brand that’s both good for people and good for the planet without being a brand that supports and takes action for all races, genders, and sizes.”