Following her solo appearance at the Met Gala, Savannah James is continuing her pivot into the spotlight with her new beauty brand, Reframe.
For the past two years, podcast host, mentor, and mother of three Savannah James has been quietly working on something close to her heart. Her skincare line, Reframe, officially drops this May with three core products: the Pigment Processor, a brightening serum ($115); the Compression Complex, a facial sculpting moisturizer ($95); and the Circadian Cream, an overnight collagen-rich moisturizer ($135).
With this launch, Savannah is adding “beauty entrepreneur” to her growing list of titles—but make no mistake, this isn’t just a side project.
“This is my baby,” she told PEOPLE of the brand. “I didn’t want it to be lackluster. I wanted it to be a real product with real research and real results.” So for a while, all her energy went into making it happen. “It was this. This first.”
Her love of skincare turned into a serious learning journey as she surrounded herself with experts and made sure Reframe would meet the highest standards. That led to a pretty major (and first-of-its-kind) partnership with Howard University’s College of Dermatology.
“It needed to be accredited from an educational institution,” she says of the brand. Through rigorous testing across the Fitzpatrick Scale, they were able to ensure the products are effective and inclusive.
“I really love clinical skin care. But it’s not always cute, and it’s not always really innovative,” James said about her impetus for starting Reframe, according to PEOPLE. “So I think that for us, we wanted to reframe what clinical skin care looks like for the real world. I think the consumer now is really smart and knowledgeable on all of the things and ingredients and the way that they want their skin to behave. So I think that that was the white space for me. Also, with the packaging and how it looks, I think we all want something that’s beautiful and that we want to look at every day. Something that’s fun and new. This is where we landed.”
The wife of LeBron James, probably the most famous athlete in the world, Savannah has long stayed out of the spotlight–But this new brand seems to be a departure from that decision. She also spoke about that transition, but adds that her privacy is a big reason she didn’t put herself in any of the campaigns for Reframe.
“I think that I understand that [it does put me in the spotlight], but I think, purposefully, I didn’t want to be the face of the brand and I didn’t want to be in any of the campaigns, because I wanted to be taken seriously,” she explained. “I don’t want it to be looked at like, ‘oh, she had time, so she did something with skin care.’ I’ve really, really invested a lot of time and research into making sure that these are products that can compete with any clinical skin care or luxury skincare brand that exists on the market, because it’s something that I would love to go into a store and find or see online and use myself.”
As for what’s next, Savannah says it’s, “Expansion.”
“We are already working on some really cool things,” she told the outlet. “So I think that starting out with the three products is really just getting our foot in the door and I think that once we have a name for ourselves, you’ll be able to trust us and see what else we’re bringing. The sky is the limit.”
