Some people, like Sabrina Elba, radiate effortless grace. Her self-described “minimalist” fashion and beauty style—which includes everything from timeless pixie cuts to crystal-adorned Gucci tops—has earned her muse status. But to Elba, being an It girl is about more than aspirational aesthetics. In true Gemini fashion, she considers herself a “student of life.”
It all began with her affinity for poetry slams while growing up in Canada. A performer herself, she was glued to the screen any time Def Poetry Jam was on. She thought she might become an actress or a lawyer. “But I realized the office life just wasn’t for me,” says Elba, who studied philosophy at Simon Fraser University.
These days, when she’s not writing moving op-eds on police brutality for magazines like Elle, she prioritizes her charity work as a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. She was also inspired to further her education and get an aesthetician’s license after she and her hubby, actor Idris, cofounded their skin care brand, S’Able Labs, in 2022. “That’s just my personality,” Elba says. “If I’m going todo something, I want to be the most well-informed person in the room.”
She’s sitting across from me sporting a bumped bob, a next-level glow and a gray dress that matches her chic skin care bottles. Contrary to popular belief, even with her statuesque physique and Calvin Klein campaigns, Elba was never a professional model. “I never thought I could be a model growing up,” she says, “because I had curves, and you didn’t really see those in magazines. But I’m happy I can now show people they can do whatever they want.”
Her understanding of the importance of representation is the driver behind everything she does—especially her skin care brand, which champions African botanical ingredients in products like the brand’s Okra Serum and Qasil Cleanser. “Why are these ingredients so undervalued?” asks Elba, who has Somalian roots. “I’m reminded that so much about African culture is undervalued, in general. I want us to have our time to shine.”
Here, Elba discusses her career and beauty journey.
ESSENCE: What has your entrepreneurial path been like so far?
Sabrina Elba: Idris has had a huge influence on me. He’s the most typical entrepreneur and has a new idea every day. He always tells me, “If you want to change something, do it.” The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is that you have to surround yourself with people that you respect, admire and want to be like, because they will guide you.
ESSENCE: Who are your beauty and fashion muses?
Elba: I always borrowed all of my mom’s stuff growing up. I was definitely a mini her. I also had a huge poster of Naomi Campbell in my room. For an ’80s baby like me, ’90s supermodels were all over pop culture. It was just a thing. And I’ve always loved Whitney Houston—because she looked like my mom. I loved her clean aesthetic. She was a minimalist.
Kelly Rowland has also been a big one. If I were ever going to be in a Destiny’s Child movie, let’s be honest, I would definitely be Kelly. I’m also obsessed with Cate Blanchett. I think she’s the epitome of keeping it fresh at any age. And obviously Rihanna is a massive influence. She’ll do the stuff that everyone else is afraid to do. Her fearlessness is really fun.
ESSENCE: Were you always into beauty and fashion growing up?
Elba: I was definitely always into beauty and fashion, but I wouldn’t say I found my way until a lot later in life. And I think a lot of that came from body confidence. When I started dating Idris, I was immediately self-conscious. I wasn’t used to seeing pictures of myself everywhere. Everyone gains a bit of relationship weight, too. I was just unsure of how to find myself in an industry that really created itself for sample size.
ESSENCE: What helped you find your confidence along the way?
Elba: I learned, once you embrace dressing how you want to dress, not dressing to cover something on your body, it really changes. I feel like as soon as I accepted that, it showed. It made a massive difference in how people perceive me in the fashion space and the brands I work with. Now I feel like I’m at a place where I can evolve and try new things. I’m not doing it because I’m unsure. I’m doing it because I’m having fun.
ESSENCE: How would you describe your fashion and beauty style right now?
Elba: I think I’ve always been a minimalist on the beauty side. It’s funny because Africans love heavy makeup. Have you ever gone to Nigeria? I remember one time I shot for a Nigerian magazine, and I said to them, “Why am I wearing so much makeup?” They’re like, “Oh, we just started.”
ESSENCE: That was just the base, honey— that was nothing.
Elba: [Laughs] Exactly. I was like, “Is everything okay over here?” Even the makeup I’m wearing right now, I can’t wait to take off. I love minimalist beauty, and I think it perseveres through time. It’s a really great pairing for an evolving fashion aesthetic.
ESSENCE: Agreed. I’m looking at your nails. I see you’re into the trending “no-manicure,” too.
Elba: Yes, I’m like that with nails, too. I’ve never been a Saweetie-type gal. I can live through her, though, and I appreciate it. And I can only imagine it takes six hours to do those nails. But I’m the type of person who’s like, “How do I get out of here as fast as I can?”
ESSENCE: And when it comes to fashion?
Elba: With fashion, I think I sometimes fall into the minimalism categories, still—but I love falling into maximalism, too. For me, that means playing with more colors. It’s really easy to get stuck in a neutral and black cycle. It happens to everyone at some point. You’ve got to remind yourself to have fun. I also think there’s more freedom in being a Black woman in fashion. We get to play with so many colors that pop nicely on our skin tones. And it looks quite natural for us to do that.
ESSENCE: Definitely. The same with hair. We have so many options. Speaking of which, you’ve been exploring different styles lately. You’re in your bob era now.
Elba: I know. I’m wearing a shorter cut! I actually wore a wig two days ago—and I was struggling. I felt the lace lifting, and I was just like, I don’t know how people do it. I think I would need a Beyoncé $10,000 wig. I like to not even know it’s on. It has to be film-quality lace, like movie-production lace. I’m realizing, if I want long hair, I think I’d rather do a weave.
ESSENCE: You mentioned you don’t enjoy wearing makeup. But as someone who has to be camera-ready constantly and wear a lot, how do you keep your skin clear and healthy?
Elba: It’s been a journey. Selfishly, I created S’Able Labs for myself—so I make all the things I want to use. My biggest thing is that I double-cleanse at night with my micellar [water] and my cleanser. In the morning I’ll just use the micellar, but at night I’m using my cleanser, usually in the shower. I love to just have everything off and go to bed with a bouncy, glowy, hydrated face. So I do have a very simple routine that I’m consistent with, thanks to my brand. Additionally, I get facials once a month. I am super-aware of the maintenance skin requires. That’s also because I’m a trained aesthetician. It makes me quite picky with facials, because I know I can just do it myself. But I am very in tune with my skin’s health, now, and what my skin needs. And I think intuitive skin care is really important.
You need to listen to your skin. If something works for someone else, maybe it works for you, maybe not. But what works for me is a Hydrafacial. I love a Hydradermie facial—and it’s not even about going to get microdermabrasion. It’s just the deep exfoliation, and the cleanse that you will never really do for yourself. It’s like having a personal trainer once a month. They’ll take more time, they’ll do more sculpting—and the lymphatic drainage is just so important. So I’m big on facials. And I am learning to become health conscious from the inside, too.
ESSENCE: Well, whatever you’re doing is clearly working. And what are some ways you’re prioritizing your inner health?
Elba: I’m starting an ochre water challenge. I’m trying to take care of my digestive tract—because we learned so much in my course about the gut-skin relationship. If you’ve got a backup of constipation—so sorry, I know that’s gross, but you’re going to see that on your skin! Your body yells for help through your skin. But yeah, I’m just trying to be a vitamin-and-water girlie.
ESSENCE: Tell us more about how you almost became a lawyer!
Elba: U.B.C. is the school I applied to, though I didn’t go. I almost wish I at least did a year, because then I could say I was a law-school dropout. But I didn’t go. I still think about going. But it would take so much time, and if you try and do it part-time—oh, God, it would take even longer.
ESSENCE: You’re now a licensed aesthetician.
Elba: I got my license a year ago now. I wanted to learn more about skin, to be able to just further my education.
ESSENCE: Have you been actively giving facials?
Elba: Yes! To friends and family, all the time. That’s the part I wasn’t expecting to love, though—because I used to not like touching people! I could also never watch Dr. Pimple Popper videos like everyone else. Now I can. You become desensitized to it. And you realize it’s so much more about helping the person than anything else. When you give a facial and you can feel someone relax, that’s the best feeling in the world. My mom is now asking for them all the time. I don’t think I would go and work in a salon or anything like that—but I have so much more respect for facialists than I ever did before. The work is hard on your neck and your back and your hands.
I’m also obsessed with it now. I like being the most educated person in the room. It’s that competitiveness. Maybe it’s because I’m a Gemini. Who knows? But my pet peeve is when someone knows something that I don’t know. I will literally make a mental note and go and learn it after.
ESSENCE: Knowledge is power, correct?
Elba: Yeah. Knowledge is power. But it can be slightly unhealthy sometimes, because I think you build a very high expectation for yourself. At this point, this is a venting session and not an interview! [Laughs]
ESSENCE: What are some ways you practice self-care, especially on those days when you might feel you’re being hard on yourself?
Elba: I try to do “selfless self-care.” I love the idea of self-care through community—and I’m the first to call my mom or my siblings, or hang out with my friends, if I need a self-care moment. I feel so much better, and it allows me to reset. If I’m just with a group of friends, then I can forget about whatever was happening that week, or just chill with laughter and spend time with them.
Aside from that, I love to do masks. If I put my mask on and take an hour and watch a movie or something like that, it’s perfect—because it gives me that deep exfoliation that I need.
ESSENCE: I’m sure these practices come in handy when you’re doing your philanthropic work. How did you get into that?
Elba: For sure. Sometimes I wish I could take a few months out of the year and just do that, because the constant back and forth can be jarring. And philanthropic work is very emotional. It’s weird sometimes, to be on the ground and then have to come back for a red carpet. But it definitely illuminates what’s important in life.
My doing this work is inspired by my mom. She’s always been a philanthropic person. And as long as I can remember, she had her own foundation and would go back to Somalia whenever she could. She would take water to areas that didn’t have it. I remember being annoyed with it when I was younger. I was like, “You’re leaving again?” But I think subconsciously it bled into my personality, and I love it. I always ask myself, What do I want to be remembered for? And I think it would be that I cared and that I tried to give back.
ESSENCE: That’s beautiful. And it definitely ties into your brand, S’Able Labs. You’re educating our community about African ingredients and ethical sourcing.
Elba: I definitely want to see every brand using these ingredients. It’s not about gate-keeping. It’s about building opportunity for this world of A-beauty that deserves its light. At the end of the day, our brand is all about sharing a story—and trying to remind people that when they pick a product up off the shelf, those ingredients are attached to a person. And sometimes you have to remember that when something’s really cheap, someone’s paying for it, somewhere.
ESSENCE: Absolutely. That storytelling is so important. Speaking of stories, what will the next chapter of the brand look like?
Elba: Sunscreen development is extremely important to me—not to say it will be out anytime soon. But I’m so passionate about this journey, and especially more and more when I see so many brands putting out the “invisible” mineral screen. And I’m like, Did they not even have one Black person in their office? There’s still a white cast. But that makes me more passionate to crack it. The exciting thing is, now we formulate so much, thinking botanical first—and we’re discovering these amazing botanicals along the way.
Otherwise, we’re going to be doing work around ingredients and the storytelling around them this year, and I’m really excited about that. There was an article recently about how Estée Lauder got caught for child labor around its ingredients. There have also been stories about women dying who are working for shea butter companies. It’s just really sad, and truly not worth that. It’s not that serious. I think if more people knew these things, it would change the way we shop.
