Brand Breakdown
Is Saie Beauty a Clean Beauty Brand?
Saie Beauty has quickly become a favorite in the clean makeup world, known for its dewy complexion products, effortless formulas, and skincare-inspired approach to beauty. From its popular Dew Blush to its Slip Tint tinted moisturizer, the brand has built a following around makeup that looks and feels good on the skin.
But at Oh Daisey, we know that being marketed as clean doesn’t necessarily mean every ingredient meets our standards. So we took a closer look at Saie’s formulas, ingredient philosophy, and sustainability efforts to see how the brand really measures up.
The Saie Brand Story
Saie was founded in 2019 by Laney Crowell, who previously worked in the beauty industry and wanted to create a makeup brand that felt more approachable, transparent, and conscious of its environmental impact.
After hearing from women who felt that clean beauty was too expensive, didn’t perform well, or simply wasn’t exciting, Crowell set out to create something different.
The result was Saie, a brand built around high-performing makeup, skin-loving ingredients, and thoughtful sustainability practices. Today, Saie is best known for its lightweight complexion products, creamy blushes, and effortless, everyday makeup essentials.
What Saie Claims About their Ingredients
Saie describes its approach as combining ingredients derived from nature with science-backed formulation to create makeup that’s both effective and thoughtfully made.
The brand maintains its own ingredient standards, excluding ingredients such as parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrance, certain chemical sunscreen filters, talc, and several petroleum-derived ingredients.
Saie also emphasizes ingredient transparency, cruelty-free practices, and sustainability. Its products meet Sephora’s Clean + Planet Aware criteria, and the brand is Leaping Bunny certified.
Rather than relying exclusively on botanical ingredients, Saie combines plant-derived oils, extracts, and skin-supporting ingredients with carefully selected synthetic materials to achieve the texture, pigmentation, and performance consumers expect from modern makeup.
Inside Saie's Ingredients
Saie’s formulas contain a combination of nourishing botanical ingredients, mineral pigments, and modern cosmetic ingredients.
Take the brand’s popular Slip Tint Tinted Moisturizer. Its formula uses non-nano zinc oxide for mineral SPF 35 protection, alongside ingredients such as grape seed oil, argan oil, jojoba esters, hyaluronic acid, and licorice root extract.
We particularly appreciate that Slip Tint is formulated without synthetic fragrance, essential oils, silicones, and several other ingredients we typically look to avoid.
The Dew Blush formula takes a similarly straightforward approach, using ingredients like glycerin, elderberry extract, licorice root extract, and mineral pigments to create a lightweight, blendable cheek color.
However, some shades also include synthetic colorants such as Red 7 Lake, Red 22 Lake, and Yellow 6 Lake.
While these are permitted cosmetic colorants when used in accordance with applicable regulations, they are ingredients we prefer to evaluate more closely under the Oh Daisey standards.
Overall, Saie has some beautifully considered formulas, particularly within its complexion collection, but ingredient lists can vary significantly between products and shades.
Anything We'd Change?
Our biggest concern with Saie comes down to certain synthetic colorants.
Some products, including Dew Blush, list synthetic lake dyes among their possible color additives. At Oh Daisey, we prefer mineral and botanical pigments where possible, particularly when a formula can achieve similar results without synthetic dyes.
We’d also love to see Saie continue expanding its ingredient transparency around individual shades, pigment sourcing, and potential trace contaminants.
Mineral pigments aren’t automatically free from concerns either. Ingredients like titanium dioxide require consideration of particle size, formulation, and exposure route, while pigment purity and heavy-metal testing are important considerations across color cosmetics.
None of this means Saie’s products are inherently unsafe. It simply highlights why we don’t automatically approve an entire makeup collection based on a brand’s clean beauty positioning.
Our Verdict
Saie is a brand we appreciate, but we’d recommend evaluating its products individually.
The brand has made meaningful progress in creating high-performance makeup without many of the ingredients commonly found in conventional cosmetics. We especially appreciate its fragrance-free formulas, mineral sunscreen options, cruelty-free certification, and commitment to sustainability.
However, certain synthetic colorants and other formula-specific ingredients mean not every product will necessarily meet the Oh Daisey Clean Beauty Standards.
For anyone transitioning toward cleaner makeup, Saie is absolutely worth exploring. We’d simply recommend checking individual formulas rather than assuming the entire collection receives an automatic approval.
At a Glance
Founded:
2019 by Laney Crowell.
Cruelty Free/ Vegan:
Leaping Bunny certified cruelty-free. Many products are vegan, including Dew Blush, but the entire collection is not vegan; Slip Tint contains beeswax.
Certified Organic:
No brand-wide organic certification identified. Saie uses a combination of naturally derived and synthetic ingredients.
Sustainability:
A major focus for the brand. Saie is certified Plastic Negative through rePurpose Global, participates in Pact Collective’s beauty packaging recycling initiatives, and has committed to reducing its environmental footprint through the Saie Climate Initiative.
Parent Company:
Privately held. Saie has received outside investment, but no controlling parent company was verified.
Manufactured:
Manufacturing locations may vary by product. A single country of manufacture for the entire collection could not be verified.
Giving Back:
Saie is a member of 1% for the Planet, committing 1% of sales to environmental causes. The brand also supports plastic recovery initiatives and environmental partnerships.
Oh Daisey Rating
OhDaisey Approved!
Where to Start
Curious where to begin? These are the products that stood out based on ingredient quality, formulation and overall usability.
