Sabrina Elba talks wellness, how her heritage inspired the launch of her new skincare line, and Idris’s in-shower routine

Three years ago, while many of us were pub-quizzing on Houseparty, Idris and Sabrina Elba were busy planning the launch of their multifaceted wellness brand, S’Able Labs. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength with a burgeoning community of like-minded followers, an Audible Original podcast called Coupledom and, as of today, a skincare line dedicated to inclusivity and holistic wellness. 

Here, GLAMOUR catches up with Sabrina Elba on all things self-care and mental health, the importance of celebrating her heritage and her and Idris’s skincare secrets.

“I think the wellness industry has become appropriated”

We were determined to make S’Able Labs an inclusive space that represented everyone. because I think wellness has become appropriated in some sense. I think there’s a very niche specific version of what you consider someone who cares about wellness to look like or do or feel like. And I feel that’s such an unfortunate misstep because a lot of what we see in wellness has such significant roots in so many different cultures, histories and ethnicities. It’s a shame to forget all that.

“We wanted the skincare to combine our heritage with science”

Combining our heritage with skincare science has been a really cool part of launching S’Able Labs Skin, because Idris and I both grew up with very strong cultural heritages. We looked at ingredients that have a really long history in a lot of African households and started thinking about how we can combine them with things like niacinamide, tranexamic acids and fatty acids to really boost the efficacy.

I grew up going to Kenya frequently and I have the best memories of sitting under a Baobab tree. I remember my mom used to always say, “don’t sit under it, the seeds might hit your face!”. But it also has an amazing amount of antioxidants so it’s great for fighting free radicals and preventing environmental damage, which is why we used it in our moisturiser. Then, there’s Black Seed, which is in our toner. Idris’s dad used to drink them everyday because he said they were good for mental clarity, but they also have great anti-inflammatory effects, high levels of fatty acids and a tonne of other medicinal purposes that make it a great topical ingredient for hyperpigmentation.