Sacheu Goes From TikTok Favorite To Target Staple With Nationwide Rollout Of Full Assortment

Sacheu could offer a blueprint for how a TikTok-famous brand evolves into a global makeup mainstay.

It’s taking another step in that direction by rolling out its full assortment of 46 stockkeeping units to nearly 1,600 Target stores after launching at the retailer last fall with six shades of its viral Peel Off Lip Liner Stay-N on side-cap displays in over 1,700 locations, according to the brand. The expansion comes after the lip liner became Target’s No. 1 item in the lip category in its first month, with 75% of sales coming from customers who had never purchased Sacheu before.

“It’s a major milestone moment. We kicked off our partnership with Target in the fall with our lip liner stain and had absolutely incredible results,” says Vincent Hickey, chief commercial officer at Sacheu and partner at parent company Gloss Ventures. “That gave Target the confidence to lean in with us on a rollout in almost 1,600 stores, which is incredibly rare.”

“We know our guests are looking for high-quality beauty products that deliver real, visible results,” says Amanda Nusz, SVP of merchandising, essentials and beauty at Target. “As we continue to grow our assortment, we’re excited to introduce more Sacheu products to our guests, delivering innovative products across lips, cheeks, eyes and brows at an accessible price point.”

The Target rollout mirrors the path the brand took at Ulta Beauty, where it entered with a limited lip assortment before expanding last July into a full cosmetic set now carried in more than 1,000 stores. In less than two years, wholesale has gone from practically nothing to currently accounting for roughly half of Sacheu’s sales. Hickey anticipates Target will drive around 30% of the brand’s growth over the next year.

Mass-market beauty retailers are hungry for social media-fueled brands like Sacheu to reinvigorate the makeup category. In 2025, market research firm Circana estimates mass-market makeup sales rose 2%, trailing prestige makeup’s 4% growth. Meanwhile, some legacy players have struggled to bring excitement to makeup shelves. Coty, for example, has been exploring a divestiture of its underperforming CoverGirl brand.

Sacheu is on track to generate $110 million in sales this year, up from $85 million last year. The publication Puck previously reported the figures, and Hickey confirmed them. Speculation has mounted about a potential sale process, but Puck and Hickey corroborate that the company hasn’t selected an investment banker.

In January last year, Sacheu secured $15 million in series A funding from investment firm Peterson Partners. Sacheu isn’t the only lip-stain brand attracting investor interest. Wonderskin, another viral peel-off lip product brand, raised $50 million in series A funding in May to accelerate retail distribution and product development. Private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners led the round.

As strategic partners and private equity firms evaluate the brand, they’re examining profitability and product concentration as well as channel concentration. Asked about profits, Hickey says Sacheu over-indexes on gross margins compared to most mass-market cosmetics brands, a function of its masstige positioning and selective distribution strategy. The brand’s lip liner stain is $14, and its products are priced as high as $35 at Ulta.

“We’re confident about our future no matter how our distribution channels evolve.”

The arrival of the full assortment at Target will certainly erode Sacheu’s reliance on the lip liner stain at the retailer, but Hickey points out that reliance is already diminishing. On TikTok Shop, he divulges the brand’s sales are practically evenly split between the lip liner stain and other products. Launched last year, liquid blush Cheek Stay-N is a top contender for non-lip liner stain sales.

However, the peel-off lip stain remains the gateway into the brand. It’s not just a gateway product, though. Sarah Cheung, content creator and founder of Sacheu, and Hickey note it inspires loyalty, too. On a blended basis, Hickey discloses Sacheu’s repeat purchase rate is above 30%.

“People thought that the lip liner stain was a trend-heavy, very viral moment, and it’s still our bestselling SKU. I think there’s a reason for that,” says Cheung. “It’s very talkable. People love sharing it, and it goes viral easily. But, outside of that, the reason why it’s peel off is because we want to form an occlusive layer on top of the pigment so that it actually seeps in, and that’s where the long wear comes from.”

As it diversifies distribution and product sales, Sacheu is leaning into formula performance rather than virality, highlighting long wear as budget-conscious consumers seek products that provide lasting value. Cheung explains the brand calls its products “life-proof” makeup and designs them to be waterproof and transfer-proof.

“We test it in humidity, we test it in oil, we want to make sure that it actually stays on,” she says. “Especially with liquid formula, that’s really tricky to do. So, our formula actually has a film-forming complex where it just forms a film on top of your skin so that it doesn’t budge once it sets.”

Kicked off last week, a campaign promoting three new cool-tone shades of the lip liner stain—Cold Call, First Bloom and Ice Breaker—spotlights its staying power and ability to address “lip emergencies” like smudging, fading and ghosting color. The campaign stars Cheung alongside Brooke Monk, a content creator with more than 55 million social media followers and arrives as Sacheu is broadening its marketing and advertising mix.

Last year, the brand extended beyond creator-led social promotion into out-of-home advertising and a large-scale, three-day Sacheu World pop-up in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice. This year, instead of concentrating marketing around a single marquee moment, the company is spreading its experiential efforts across smaller activations, including masterclass-style events and co-branded programs with Ulta.

With Sacheu firmly ensconced at Target and Ulta with its full assortment, the brand isn’t planning an aggressive product release calendar this year and isn’t rushing to widen distribution beyond its present footprint. Hickey says the brand has reached a “sweet spot” with its existing retail partners and is prioritizing productivity over further retail expansion.

“We receive so much love on the hero product, but we really want to educate people on the rest of our assortment. So, that will continue to be a big focus for us,” says Cheung, who adds, “We thrived before TikTok Shop, and we’ve thrived during TikTok Shop. I’m confident about our future no matter how our distribution channels evolve.”