‘Tread carefully’: Influencer’s heated social media fallout with Sydney brand

Wellness influencer Sarah Stevenson has found herself at the centre of a heated social media fallout with Sydney-based fragrance brand Who Is Elijah.

Wellness influencer Sarah Stevenson, better known as Sarah’s Day, has found herself at the centre of a heated social media fallout with Sydney-based fragrance brand Who Is Elijah after a planned perfume collaboration was suddenly scrapped.

The mum of three first addressed the cancelled project in a video to her 1.2 million Instagram followers.

“Two years ago they reached out to me to make a fragrance … and we were all really excited,” she said in the video.

“Unfortunately it’s no longer happening and I’m sure you’re asking why, and honestly we are asking the same question. We don’t have the answers for you.

“I was really excited about this collaboration. But it’s just not happening.”

Sarah Stevenson, AKA Sarah's Day, has revealed the major mistake she made in Fiji that nearly ended her family's holiday early. Picture: Instagram

Stevenson’s followers quickly questioned why the collab had fallen apart, and if there had been a contract in place, to which she claimed, “Unfortunately I just started making content in good faith because I was so committed and excited.... contract is only really useful once the product was launched.”

But things escalated when Who Is Elijah CEO Adam Bouris weighed in, labelling Stevenson’s version of events “absolutely rubbish” and claiming she had shared a “false narrative” and was not being upfront with her followers about why the deal had ended.

Bouris wrote the company had offered for Stevenson to continue the perfume under her own brand, which he claimed was promptly rejected.

“I would tread carefully here,” he wrote.

Who Is Elijah, a Sydney based perfume brand.

Who Is Elijah founder Raquel Bouris. Picture: Instagram

Stevenson and her husband Kurt Tilse quickly hit back at Bouris’ claims.

“Put yourself in my shoes,” Stevenson said.

“I’ve been promoting this and working on it for over 24 months … I would have really appreciated a call or even an email to me. Not an email to one of my team members after being ghosted … My own team had to call me and tell me the news.”

Tilse added, “Sarah hasn’t said a single thing bad … She has simply let her community know that it’s not going ahead.”

Who Is Elijah founder Raquel Bouris later went online to explain her side of the story, and told Confidential she was “cautious” to give further comment to avoid “fuelling the fire.”

“We ended a contract well within the agreed terms, there was no breach … The idea that two years of work went into this is simply untrue,” she said in her own social media video.

Ms Bouris claimed that the project only began in May 2024 and involved minimal hours from Stevenson’s side.

“From our perspective, I could count the hours worked on this project on one, maybe two hands,” she said.

Ms Bouris added that her team handled all fragrance development, logistics and compliance, while Stevenson’s involvement ended at the sampling stage. She claimed the social media content the influencer shared was done independently from Who Is Elijah, and the decision to end the collaboration was simply business.

“There’s no scandal here, no villain. Just a strategic decision for the future of my business, one I fully stand by,” she said.

Health and wellness influencer Sarah Stevenson aka Sarah's Day. Picture: Instagram

In a statement, Stevenson claimed her post sharing the news was “in no way malicious” and was “to simply update my audience... on something they had been asking about for months”.

“I understand emotions are heightened right now but I truly wish the team at Who Is Elijah all the best,” she said.