Tower 28 Taps TikToker And “CEO Of Blush” Toni Bravo For First Influencer Collaboration

Six-year-old sensitive skin brand Tower 28’s first influencer collaboration is launching Tuesday with two new shades of its GetSet matte powder blush created in partnership with TikToker Toni Bravo.

Bravo’s sensitive skin and darker skin tone have made her picky about the cosmetics she wears. She tested the collaboration shades—the bright coral Downtown and warm raspberry Sunset Shirley—to ensure they suited her stringent requirements. Previously, she struggled to find orange and raspberry blush shades that work for her.

Bravo, who has 700,000 TikTok followers and 125,000 Instagram followers, has never previously done a product collaboration, although she’s consulted for brands behind the scenes. Eighteen months ago, when the development process for the two shades she created with Tower 28 got underway, she presented the brand with moodboards to convey her desire for shades that were, for example, designed to be “perkier” and serve as a “pick-me-up.” Along with swatching the shades during development, she vetted them for their ease of application, blending and all-day wearability.

“When it comes to the blushes, I want people to play and to be excited and layer on the pigment,” she says. “These are both very beautiful, vibrant shades, so I was leaning into having fun.”

The campaign showcasing the collaboration centers on Bravo as the “CEO of blush,” borrowing a moniker bestowed on her by her followers about a year ago due in part to her owning more than 100 blushes. The tagline for the campaign is, “Your blush just got a promotion,” and features photos of Bravo sitting on a desk surrounded by blush and playing with a copy machine.

The campaign will run for a month with billboards in Los Angeles, digital ads and 300 influencer mailers containing gifted products. The mailers are going to primarily micro- and affiliate-based influencers, and Bravo has handpicked the recipients of at least 100 of them. There will be a meet-and-greet with Bravo at Sephora’s location in the Los Angeles shopping center The Grove and co-branded Sephora and Tower 28 digital content.

Although the collaboration with Bravo is Tower 28’s first with an individual influencer, collaborations are a regular part of the brand’s cadence, and founder Amy Liu told Glossy last year that it does around five yearly to cross-promote products, raise awareness and expand its audience. In the past, it collaborated with chocolate brand Zac’s Sweet Shop, Universal Pictures movie “Kung Fu Panda 4,” activewear brand Set Active, haircare brand Ouai, snacks brand Deux and food brand Fly By Jing.

One of the main themes for the collaboration with Bravo is to bring joyfulness to the forefront of Tower 28’s storytelling. Often, sensitive skin is discussed in clinical terms and marketing tends to focus on results rather than the pleasure of using products.

“Color is our opportunity to build a world and the brand in a more fun way,” says Liu. “Our internal tagline is that we are a ‘good, clean, fun’ brand. Being fun is a huge part of how we differentiate from other brands that are safe for sensitive skin.”

Tower 28 originally introduced GetSet in March with seven shades to extend its presence in the blush segment after entering it with BeachPlease tinted balm cream blushes in 2019. The GetSet collaboration with Bravo is landing as blush has been having a big moment. The market research firm Circana estimates that prestige blush sales reached $481.8 million in 2024, up from $266.6 million in 2022.

Glossy has reported that Rare Beauty holds the No. 1 spot for blush at Sephora with Soft Pinch Liquid Blush. At Ulta Beauty, DIBS Beauty commanded the top blush spot in April with Desert Island Duo Blush + Bronzer Stick. In January, informed by data from insights resource YipitData, Women’s Wear Daily identified Patrick Ta, Milk Makeup, Benefit, Saie, Nars, Makeup by Mario, Merit, Haus Labs and Dior as joining Rare Beauty in the brands responsible for the leading 10 blushes in the prestige beauty market.

Tower 28’s sales tripled between 2023 and 2024, and Liu projects it will achieve double-digit growth in 2025. BeautyMatter estimated the brand’s 2024 revenues to be between $30 million and $50 million. Tower 28 has expanded its shelf space to endcaps at Sephora’s entire network of stores in the United States. In addition, it’s in the retailer’s Kohl’s shop-in-shop locations, Sephora Canada, Sephora United Kingdom and Mecca in Australia.

“Color is our opportunity to build a world and the brand in a more fun way.”

Bravo has been producing digital beauty content for around two years. She describes content creation as a journey of discovery alongside her followers. Before hopping on TikTok, she acknowledges she wasn’t an expert in products and application. Documenting herself experimenting with the products that work—and don’t work—for her has sparked conversations about diversity and inclusion in the beauty industry.

She says, “It became a thing where they started to look to me when it came to shade inclusivity and how something would look, whether on them or [other] deeper complexions.”

Timed with the GetSet collaboration, Tower 28 is rolling out a new quad photo format for shade displays on different skin tones. The brand is moving away from the traditional fair, medium and deep display to instead assign specific shades to four specific skin tones. Liu says that the format requires greater time, money and effort—she figures an additional model can cost on average $3,000 for a full day—but it’s worthwhile for consumer education and, the hope is, higher sales conversions.

“The [quad format] is about being clearer with helping someone see themselves in [the brand] and help them find their best [product] selection,” says Liu. “From the beginning, we said we’ll show all shades on all people so that people can see it and decide. But now we’re thinking it [may be] more advantageous for the customer if we show it on the [skin tones] that we think a product looks the best for.”

The GetSet collaboration with Bravo and the new quad format were planned ahead of the uproar over mineral sunscreen SOS FaceGuard SPF 30. Released on May 19, the product left a white cast on people with darker skin despite the brand initially claiming it left no white cast and had a “universal tint.” The brand has since dropped that marketing language.

In response to the uproar, Liu released a statement via Tower 28’s Instagram on May 29. In the statement, she said, “Despite our best efforts in testing, the truth is, we missed the mark.” According to the Instagram post, Tower 28 is developing another version of the sunscreen geared toward deeper skin tones.