Every brand is vying for Gen Z’s dollars, likes and eyeballs, and Too Faced has established a new role devoted to doing so. The makeup brand has appointed actor and TikTok star Sara Echeagaray as its first-ever creative director in residence.
Echeagaray was a senior in high school when Covid hit. “I didn’t really have a senior year because everything was shut down,” she said. Having also lost the creative outlet acting served in her life, she found herself spending time on TikTok. “Everyone was doing the ‘Renegade,’ so I decided to do little TikTok skits. … I was just posting there mindlessly,” she said. It proved not only successful but also life-changing. “That’s how my agency and my manager found me.” Since then, Echeagaray has been cast on a Disney Plus show, “Big Shot,” and amassed 7.7 million followers on TikTok.
For 25-year-old Too Faced, working with Echeagaray — particularly on the heels of founder Jerrod Blandino’s departure this time last year — represents a chance to refresh its perspective and take in new voices. In Echeagaray’s newly developed role, she will have the opportunity to weigh in on product development and creative work, including social posts and photoshoots.
“It just made a ton of sense to tap into somebody who we feel represents the brand well,” said Tara Simon, Too Faced’s global brand president. “Too Faced is a serious makeup brand that knows how to have fun. We believe that makeup is power, and it gives people the freedom and self-confidence to express themselves. Sara fits into this brand ethos perfectly, thanks to her authentic, confident presence on social media and her bold approach to making a name for herself and expressing her point of view, all while having fun.”
Echeagaray is not a typical beauty brand spokesperson or collaborator, in that she is not known for her beauty content. “When I got the call from my agents, and they were like, ‘Oh, my God. They want to work with you.’ I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Why?!'” the 21-year-old said.
Echeagaray will be paid for the position, which will run through the end of the year. The brand said that, while she will have some deliverables, they will “ebb and flow.”
“Her role encompasses shining a light on Too Faced via social media, being part of our brand campaigns and engaging with our product development teams, so naturally there will be results and outputs that will come from this process,” Simon said.
Coincidentally, Too Faced was Echeagaray’s first introduction to non-drugstore beauty products, she said. It came via a cousin giving her a bottle of the brand’s Born This Way foundation. “I would always watch the beauty gurus growing up, so I knew that this product was insane,” she said, referring to content creators on YouTube and Instagram.
Echeagaray said she first met and bonded with the Too Faced team in January, when she was invited on an influencer trip to Orange County.
Too Faced is enjoying a renaissance on social media and with a younger generation. It is one of a small cohort of brands to have over a million followers on TikTok. The brand recently made its way back onto Piper Sandler’s annual teen survey, showing up as a top-10 favorite cosmetics brands. In January, its Cloud Crush blush went viral on TikTok and subsequently sold through a year’s worth of inventory in four months. The hashtag #cloudcrush currently has 1.2 million views.
“We wanted more input from a younger consumer, … and [Sara] lives and operates in the world where we’re growing so much,” Simon said. “It’s important for us to be close to our consumers and to be listening. We know we don’t have all the answers.”
Creatively, it’s a moment for the brand to try new things, Simon said. “We are doing things differently. We don’t have just one person who’s at the head of all of creative, so we can take more input than we would have been comfortable taking in the past.”
“I feel like I’ve just hit a milestone — not only for myself, but also for the brand,” said Echeagaray.
