A young, beautiful, 21-year-old Isan Elba had New York City at her fingertips, when she caught herself staring at a mountain of excess, feeling empty, searching for more. At the time, Elba was an “influencer,” and as someone with the power to persuade, companies sent her thousands of free packages in the hopes that she would promote something to her audience. There was, it seemed, a neverending influx of products piling at her door each day—too many to count; too many to try. Elba felt stuck, and wracked her brain trying to find a way to connect to the people behind the numbers on her screen.

Two years later and Elba is the founder of her own company, Beauty Access, which endeavors to eliminate waste in the beauty industry by connecting extra product with people in need. Elba is “Miss Businesswoman,” she jokes, having opened a new bank account this morning. It’s clear that she’s left behind the cut-and-dry influencer life in favor of something more meaningful—whether it be her entrepreneurial endeavors, her philanthropic efforts, or her work as a DJ with Les Filles.

In her time as a DJ, she’s played New York Fashion Week with Vogue, a Tony Awards after party, and an Architectural Digest fundraising party for LA Wildfire relief. She’s been able to use her creative and personal pursuits to fuel her initiatives. “I never thought I could do all of these things, and now that I am it’s a dream, I genuinely love what I do,” she says.

Elba’s nonprofit initiative Beauty Forward launches in November. It’s an extension of her company Beauty Access, which aims to create “inclusivity and sustainability in the beauty industry,” she asserts. Beauty Access started as a way to connect people working in the cosmetics space through a series of events and panels. Elba was driven by her desire to create her ideal world where women in the business could learn from each other. When she became an influencer, she found herself chasing brand deals, “waiting on somebody else to tell [me] what was next all the time,” she explains.

She describes the influencer life as one of a “glorified saleswoman,” yet kept asking herself, “How are you going to sell something to somebody and you don’t know them? [How are you going to sell someone something] if you don’t have a real interactive, intimate relationship?” Ultimately, through the enduring power of community, Elba was able to bring her ideas into fruition and her first Beauty Access event featured the women who helped make her life as an influencer possible, including the head of PR at MAC Cosmetics, VP at Karla Otto, and a Journalist at Birdie. Behind the scenes it was friends with event spaces and production experience that supported the event’s infrastructure.

“I definitely took the fake it til you make it approach by accident,” says Elba, “I genuinely feel like this is all fueled by self doubt in a way,” she adds. Unsure of whether or not her passion would be shared by anyone else she took her chances because there was a clear disparity amongst the industry, one which rewarded excess and waste. “When someone tells you no, chances are you’re probably not going to cower and shut down, you’re going to find a way to do it.” She continues candidly that, “being a content creator or a nepo in general, I have this expectation that someone is going to put down what I’m doing.”

With what felt like an immense amount of pressure on her shoulders to succeed, she was still able to stay grounded in the integrity of her true mission; to provide beauty and hygiene products to women and girls in need, and in so doing, reducing waste. “At first I was proving [myself] to other people, then I realized that’s just self-destructive. Then it became proving to myself and if you’re working against yourself, then the sky truly is the limit,” she adds.

Now stretching across almost every sector of the industry including sustainability, marketing, tech, media, and production, Beauty Access and Beauty Forward are creating the groundwork for a new kind of influencer economy. Beauty Forward created a “tech-enabled redistribution system,” which tracks products from door to door. With technology, everything happens through Beauty Forward: The products are picked up, taken to a facility where they are inspected and sorted, and then redistributed to low-income and in-need women across New York City. “[We’re] hoping to have 20,000 to 25,000 products distributed next year,” Elba tells me.

She also notes their collaboration with the non-profit Women in Need who have helped Elba identify how to make a stronger impact, “because as much as I love a lip liner, there’s more pressing things like deodorant and body wash… it’s important to think about beauty as wellness, it means education, it means self-care. We’re really trying to tackle and redefine it with every single thing we do” she adds.

Even before launching in the fall, Elba already has brands hoping to work with Beauty Forward to do initiatives in cities like LA and London. Grounded by trust, passion, and curiosity, she tells me that, “I really hope more than anything, Beauty Access and Beauty Forward can be a centerpiece for people that look like me, people who think like me, to be able to do whatever they want. I have big dreams for this, and this is genuinely only the beginning.”

Photographed by Tommy Rizzoli

Styled by Natasha Bock

Written by Kayla Hardy

Hair: Antoinette Hill

Location: Moxy East Village