Since its debut, the Sarah Creal brand has focused on creating makeup for women over 40, a consumer often overlooked by the industry.
First came the Back of the Cab Mascara in June 2024. In August, the brand introduced its eyeliner, Eyes Up Longwear Liner — a product its namesake founder said she began developing at the outset of the brand’s development. Its tagline reads: “Did you think your eyeliner days were behind you? Fall back in love with eyeliner.”
“We had an in-app preview at Sephora on August 31, and we did 192% above their [sales] forecast,” Creal said, regarding the eyeliner’s launch. She attributed the SKU’s success not only to the tagline, but also to the emotional truth behind it. “For women 40 plus, it’s like, all of a sudden, you’re not cool. You can’t wear cool things,” she said.
Before founding her namesake brand, Creal developed Victoria Beckham’s brand — including its bestselling Satin Kajal Liner. “[Even with] the many formulas that I personally created, I got to a point where I could no longer use them,” she said, referring to their staying power on older women.
Eyes Up launched with six shades, with plans to expand to 12 by the end of 2026.
The success of Eyes Up was bolstered by creator Erica Taylor (1.8 million Instagram followers, 2.3 million TikTok followers). Like Creal’s brand, Taylor’s content centers on women over 40 — and like Creal, she had experienced eyeliners that once worked no longer holding up. Taylor met Creal before Eyes Up hit the market and recalled bringing up Creal’s Satin Kajal Liner creation: “I actually said, ‘It runs on my skin. Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could make it as a pencil and it didn’t run?’ And she just looked at me.”
Creal said the challenge, this time around, was creating an eyeliner that would stay put on hooded lids. “I want great, creamy payoff. I want to be able to blend it — but then it actually needs to set and not transfer onto hooded lids,” she said.
Taylor echoed that the problem with eyeliner is often transfer. “As we mature, our skin is drier, so we’re using more creams. Plus, we have lid texture and fold. … Your average pencil will get stuck, and the pencils that are good with texture are usually super creamy, so then they transfer.”
According to Creal, her formula is unique for its “meticulous balance of the pigment, creaminess of the ceramide and the specific polymers used, which are flexible but also tight enough and strong enough.” Creal also invested in testing the product solely on women ages 40-65 and those who had self-identified as having sensitive eyes.
Taylor was among the first to receive the pencils and shared them with her audience on August 30, the day before the Sephora preview, demonstrating that they did not budge. The videos were organic. “There was nothing financial happening here. I was just so excited, because I was like, ‘This is special. This is different. And I want to tell my community about this,'” Taylor said.
At Sephora, Sephora Collection eyeliners are $13 or $15, Urban Decay’s are $23 or $26, Charlotte Tilbury’s is $32, and Valentino’s is $38. As it’s priced at $35, Taylor said, she told her audience she knows Sarah Creal’s is not a cheap product. “I was like, ‘You can buy seven more pencils that suck, or you can get one good one that actually works,'” she said.
When Taylor posted about Creal’s “Bronzey” shade, a metallic bronze, it sold out. Previously, “it [had been] one of our slower-moving SKUs,” Creal said. On the Sarah Creal e-commerce site, one in four customers has returned to purchase another shade.
Following the liner’s success, Creal said Sephora encouraged the brand to expand the franchise. Now, this week, it is launching a new shade: Jungle, a metallic olive green. Additional launches are planned for March and May, with more to follow in the second half of the year. Each will receive an app preview, which Creal said is more unusual for shade extensions than for entirely new product launches.
To develop the expanded collection, Creal invited Taylor to Germany. It was, again, not a paid partnership, though Taylor shared the experience with her audience on social media. “She had never been in a laboratory like that with genius color chemists seeing the entire process, and she has such an incredible eye,” Creal said. Taylor also offered insight into which shades would resonate commercially, drawing on her decades of experience working at makeup counters. “I know, because I dealt with clients for 30 years, what colors will sell, what colors are functional, and what’s going to move,” she said. As new colors launch, Taylor will help “tell the story,” she said.
Also this week, Creal launched the Face Flex Color Corrector Instant Under Eye Brightener, building on the success of her existing Face Flex concealer. “We’re seeing that this client is very hungry for anything that is happening in the eye zone. … I want her walking out of her house feeling like a million bucks, looking like a million bucks, feeling confident and having makeup that keeps up with her, so that when she walks back in the door at the end of the day, she still looks magnificent. I don’t believe that she wants to quit makeup. I believe that makeup is not keeping up with her.”
Collabs of the week
Ossa x Alison Lou
This week, jewelry designer Alison Lou’s signature letter charms get the charm-trend treatment as the brand teams with the “it” girl phone chain maker Ossa. “We wanted to treat the phone not just as a tool, but also as another canvas for personal expression,” Alison Lous founder Alison Chemla said in a collaboration announcement. Each letter charm is $15; the chain that holds the charms is $35, or $60 with a corresponding phone case.
Spicy Dan x Cozyland
Cozyland and Spicy Dan, two influencer favorites, have a new collaboration featuring Cozyland pajamas printed with Spicy Dan’s chili pepper logo, and two Spicy Dan necklaces with cloud-shaped clasps that match the pajama set. “We love Cozyland’s fun prints and soft pajamas,” said Spicy Dan founder Danielle Meyer. “But our favorite part about Cozyland is that the sets can be worn in bed, but also out of the house with a fabulous coat — and the jewelry is meant to be paired with cozy clothes or anything, really.” The pajamas retail for $160, while the necklaces — one green amethyst and one blue quartz — are each $195.
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