Beyond the celebrity label: Inside Sabrina Elba’s skincare brand

By focusing on underserved markets and ethical supply chains, S’Able Labs is hoping to position itself for long-term success in the competitive beauty industry

Sabrina Elba wears many hats. She’s a model, fashion icon, actress and philanthropist. But she’s also building a community around her skincare brand that is getting international recognition.

In a world inundated with white-labelled celebrity brands, Elba’s S’Able Labs took two and half years of rigorous product development before hitting the market. Just shy of three years since its launch, Elba says the brand is going from strength to strength – and they’re only just getting started.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t something Elba has always wanted. But she suffered with acne-prone skin at high school in Canada in the early 2000s and had found there wasn’t a lot of information on how to deal with issues with black skin.

“I remember thinking I was the problem,” Elba recalls. “I was buying into a lot of brands that weren't necessarily buying into me.”

After a flair-up again in her 30s, she started experiencing the same issues with her skin and was shocked to see how little progress had been made. The education was there but Elba still felt that products weren’t quite hitting the mark.

“Melanin-rich skin is, unfortunately, seen as niche, so products aren't necessarily made to treat as a priority. If you're not addressing issues because you've seen them as niche, you're ignoring a massive part of the population.”

Success is more than the balance sheet to Elba. Since tapping into this relatively untouched African beauty market, she’s been inundated with consumers thanking her for shining a spotlight on African ingredients, such as okra. She closes our discussion with a challenge to business leaders: to engage with their community.

“It's impossible to sit in an office and understand how you can connect to a community that you haven't been around,” Elba says. “I do think there's a lack of engagement that happens between business and community and I don't quite understand why that is. I think there's a lot of boardroom planning that happens around engagement that doesn't actualise where the community is. I believe that's the wrong way to do it. Make sure that you are attending events, making room and spaces for your community to show up to.”