By In the world of beauty, where countless products promise radiant skin and youthful vitality, one brand stands out not just for its effectiveness, but for the heartfelt journey behind its creation. Sasekile, founded by the passionate and visionary Mantombi Makhubela is more than just a skincare line; it is the culmination of her dedication to natural beauty and wellness. Mantombi’s journey began with a personal quest to find skincare solutions that resonated with her ethos of purity and sustainability. Through extensive research and relentless innovation, she transformed her passion into a thriving business, offering products that celebrate the natural beauty inherent in everyone. Her story is an inspiring testament to how a personal passion can blossom into an empowering enterprise, enriching the lives of countless individuals seeking genuine, effective skincare solutions.
In an exclusive interview with Mantombi Makhubela we delve deep into her journey as a Skin Educator and the inspirational story behind the Sasekile product line.
Tell readers a bit about yourself?
I am Mantombi Makhubela hailing from a small town Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. 27 years of age and have served 6 years in the social media and digital space creating an authoritative voice on the frontline of this transformative movement. Through my voice, I have been able to gain a social media presence urging People of Colour (POC) to embrace their unique skin with confidence as well as sharing educational content around skincare for the everyday person to understand their skin needs.
Can you share your journey and what motivated you to become a skin educator?
The journey is always long but it’s in the everyday steps, that you’re led into your purpose. For context purposes and like a story told by many after I left school and obtained my degree in Community Development and Politics, I had a profound sense of emptiness. I lacked motivation and in my quest to find my muse during COVID-19, I engaged in deep introspection about what I truly desired to do. By taking something deeply personal, leveraging it and dedicating countless hours to study and research, I embarked on a career dedicated to representing the unique skin care needs of People of Colour and providing skincare solutions for Black women.
Luckily for me I didn’t look far and leveraged off what I had – fairly good skin. I’d get a lot of compliments from various people about how I had beautiful skin and questions about how I achieved fresh and healthy skin. Although, at the time I also had issues like hyperpigmentation I then went down a rabbit hole.
Every day, I would research and watch different influencers and doctors teach and explain the sciences of skin and how it works. I studied a lot of dermatology studies and did an online Udemy course on Cosmetic Entrepreneurship. I wanted to understand skin and understand it well.
I educated myself on the different ingredients and how they work on the skin I tried to find products that served People of Colour (POC) so I could recommend these skin products as solutions, backed up by all my research and learnings to Black women a victim of marketing, I received my first PR package from a Korean skincare brand I began to see and understand the gaps in the beauty industry; sharing educational content relevant to People of Colour and that’s how I became a Skincare Educator.
What advice would you give to someone starting to learn about skincare and looking to improve their routine?
My first piece of advice I always share with everyone is to understand your skin type, Everyone has different skin types ranging from oily-prone skin all the way to dry skin, and it’s important for one to first understand which threshold he/she falls under to treat the skin accordingly.
My second piece of advice would be to not give up too easily, patience and consistency go hand in hand in skincare; no product will give you overnight results; your skin cycle takes about 28-42 days to regenerate. So, you must give it time.
What trends do you foresee in skincare education and how do you plan to adapt to those changes?
As a budding entrepreneur who has recently started my brand, there’s been a huge spike in body care.
Heads, shoulders knees and toes are what more people are prioritizing especially People of Colour. 90% of our body is made up of skin and oftentimes has been neglected; thus, more brands have started catering to everything south of the Jawline.
Speaking of adapting, I think I am very much on track and in line with the trends. My brand involves body care that prioritizes transformative body care catering to the needs of black people.
What inspired you to develop Sasekile and how did the concept evolve into a tangible product?
One of the great affirmations I would receive growing up was from my paternal grandmother. In her last days of living, every morning before I went to school, she’d say to me “uSasekile ngwana waJabula” (you look beautiful); Jabulani being my father’s name whom she would call “Jabula”. For those who don’t know, Sasekile means “Beautiful in XiTsonga” so…SASEKILE is an ode to my grandmother. Her words of affirmation are a reminder to everyone to feel beautiful and confident with their skin.
Naturally, the first product I started with was a body butter that has shea butter and recently launched our new scent known as Exotica. I developed this product simply because I wanted to target the daily conditions we deal with when it comes to our bodies. As someone who suffers from dry skin, I wanted to create a solution-based product that still made people feel beautiful – that’s how I launched Sasekile.
How does Sasekile align with your mission as a skin educator?
Sasekile aims to educate, empower and impact, I believe my influence as the founder of the brand will help achieve this mission.
For now, I would say that the thought process behind choosing ingredients that go & will go into Sasekile products are multi-purpose ingredients that solve the problems of people. We currently only have one product in the market (more coming soon before the end of the year) but for this body butter, I chose Shea Butter as a hero ingredient because of the power this ingredient has. My target is to mainly focus on Black Skin that deals with conditions such as Keratosis Pilaris (Strawberry skin), Anti-aging and Hyperpigmentation.
I believe as Africans, in as much as all skincare should be science-backed there are still powerful ingredients that we can look into incorporating that have powerful properties especially when dealing with black skin.
What is your long-term vision for the Sasekile brand and how do you hope it will impact the skincare community?
Apart from being on shelves and finally gaining access to a greater and global market, Sasekile is about instilling confidence for all through transformative skincare at Sasekile we hope to impact women and men to feel good about their bodies as they come home to themselves.
Where can consumers purchase Sasekile products and what are the available channels for buying online or in-store?
Sasekile currently is available for purchase on our online store, we use peach payments, EFT and manual payments.