Gorgeous Mbali talks about the launch of Angela Jewellery

Mbali Sebapu, popularly known as Gorgeous Mbali, was first introduced to us as a lifestyle social media influencer but she soon evolved into a businesswoman when she launched her beauty brand, Hermosa Flor. Since spending 12 Hours With Gorgeous Mbali, her beauty brand has grown significantly, even going international, and she’s also launched a new accessories business — Angela Jewellery. We caught up with her to find out more about the brand and its launch.

Interview by Maki Molapo

What inspired the jewellery brand and how long had you been working on it prior to the launch?

Essentially my love for jewellery, as a girl known for make-up and beauty, I wanted to venture into something I love and it is without a doubt that jewellery was one. So I’ve been working on Angela for about a year or so before the launch. 

How would you define the Angela Jewellery brand?

It is for every girl who loves to accessorise. We have pieces that range from simple, to edgy and cool and I wanted this to be inclusive for every girl who loves jewellery. To be honest, it’s always 90% of girls and they are all different and I wanted to cater for all their different tastes and styles. 

What sets your jewellery pieces apart from other brands we’re familiar with?

It’s accessible and relatable and a different kind of beautiful (laughs), from price point to styles. 

Most of your stock sold out within hours of your launch, did you know there was a huge appetite for it?

I know most of my followers, who are my supporters and customers, relate and follow me because of similar interests, and jewellery being one of my biggest loves, I knew there were people who would be keen to support and buy. 

What challenges did you encounter while working on bringing this brand to life?

Quality control. I believe in value for money and giving people products I know I can confidently walk in a store or see on an online store and buy. I also had a challenging process of introducing and launching the brand, but I have a team that is creative and know how to bring ideas to life and we worked together and did what we knew will interest people and it was fortunately a success. 

What inspires the designs and details of the pieces?

It has to be the mould of different people. When I sit down with my team, we look at archetypes of every woman and think what will interest them. So, the designs are an culmination of research and tapping into the mind of various consumers of jewellery pieces. 

We’ve seen Hermosa Flor customers customise their own make-up pallets, what can we expect from Angela Jewellery?

For [what] we have only just introduced, we are intentionally listening to the beat and we want to have the right hums and flows once we have further understanding of our customers and have listened to what they suggest. We are also big on trend forecasting and our trend forecast team is on their toes and keeping all of us at Angela Jewellery on our toes. 

Your pieces are currently sold online, do you have plans of taking your pieces to stores or do you plan on dominating the online shopping space?

The world is now highly digital so that will still be retained but I might have something in the pipeline for a store 😊. 

Find Hermosa Flor Cosmetics on social media: IG: @angela_jewellery_sa. 

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