Beame: How Eniye Okah Is Changing the Way We Think About Suncare

Eniye Okah did not set out to create another sunscreen brand. She set out to challenge the way we think about suncare.

For years, the advice has been clear: apply, and reapply. Yet reapplication remains one of the least consistent habits in everyday routines. The gap between instruction and behaviour is obvious.

“I just felt that there wasn’t enough exciting innovation in the market,” she says, particularly when it comes to helping people build habits they can stick to.

That frustration became the foundation for Beame. From the outset, the focus was clear. This was not about adding another product to an already crowded category, but about addressing the habit at the centre of effective sun protection.

“Suncare reapplication is the focus for the brand,” Eniye explains.

This is the story of how that focus took shape, and what it takes to build a suncare brand rooted in real life.

Seeing the gap and trusting her instinct to fill it

Eniye’s background gave her a practical edge as a founder. Years spent as a buyer meant she understood how quickly categories become crowded, how easily products start to look the same, and how important it is to identify what is genuinely missing.

When she looked closely at suncare, what stood out was not a lack of messaging, but a lack of follow-through. She noticed what she describes as “white spaces” in the category, gaps rooted in behaviour rather than branding.

If reapplying SPF is so widely advised, why is it still something most people struggle to do consistently?

Beame became her answer to that question. Rather than positioning the brand around trends or promises, Eniye anchored it in behaviour change. Every decision, from formulation to positioning, was shaped by how the product would realistically be used.

That approach is what sets Beame apart. Less trend-led beauty brand, more solution-led business, built from lived experience and a clear understanding of how people actually behave.

The reality behind the brand

From the outside, launching a beauty brand can look polished. Behind the scenes, it is constant pressure and problem-solving. 

As Eniye puts it,

“When you’re a founder, you have challenges every single day. It never ends.”

For Beame, that pressure has shown up most clearly in funding. SPF is not a category you can approach lightly. Products need to be developed properly, tested thoroughly, and approved to meet strict regulatory standards. Each stage comes with unavoidable costs.

Testing alone can run into the thousands, before packaging, manufacturing, or launch are even considered. 

To keep the business moving, Eniye relied on a mix of personal funding from her full-time job, alongside grants and, later, a loan. It was a careful, incremental approach, finding ways to progress without overextending too early, and building the brand in step with what was realistically possible.

From idea to demand, when momentum became real

Towards the end of 2024, Beame ran a crowdfunding campaign, marking a clear turning point in Eniye’s journey.

The campaign did more than raise money. It created momentum. It showed that people understood the problem Beame was addressing and that they wanted a solution. That validation mattered, not just on a personal level, but strategically too. It shifted how retailers and potential investors engaged with the brand, changing the kinds of conversations Eniye was able to have about Beame and its potential.

“It’s been a long journey,” she reflects.

Getting there took time, but the experience brought clarity and confidence. It helped Eniye better understand what it really takes to build and launch a product in a way that is both credible and sustainable, and reinforced that the problem she set out to solve genuinely resonated with others.

Finding reward in progress

When Eniye talks about what has been most rewarding so far, she does not mention sales figures or public wins. Instead, she talks about perspective.

Looking back, she sees the distance travelled. The risks taken. The fact that much of it has been built through her own persistence, often alongside a full-time job.

“When I look back, it’s more about what I’ve accomplished on my own,” she says.

For Eniye, the reward is not a single breakthrough moment. It is the steady evidence that progress is happening, even when it feels slow.

Lessons learned, cash flow, and scrappiness

Eniye highlights one lesson that stands above the rest.

Cash flow is everything.

In a product-led business, especially in a regulated category like suncare, every decision is tied to what the business can realistically sustain. Growth has to be paced. Spending has to be deliberate.

That reality has also made her proactive. She speaks openly about the importance of building a database of grants, leaning on her network, and looking for opportunities to bring funding into the business wherever possible. Waiting is rarely an option.

Alongside that comes the importance of staying scrappy. She did not invest heavily in branding during the first year. Instead, she created something functional, enough to communicate the idea and start conversations.

“Try to be scrappy with what you’ve got,” she says.

It was never about cutting corners. It was about directing energy and money towards what would actually move the business forward. The response to Beame showed that a strong idea can resonate long before everything looks polished.

Support, and the role of community

For Eniye, meaningful support has come from people rather than institutions. Other founders have played a significant role in her journey, offering perspective, reassurance, and practical insight at different stages of building Beame.

“Connecting with other founders has massively helped me,” she says.

At the same time, she has found the formal ecosystem for early-stage consumer and beauty brands in the UK to be more limited. Much of the attention and funding has shifted towards tech, leaving fewer structured pathways for product-led businesses trying to gain traction. In response, she has sought out programmes in the US, where support for consumer brands feels more established.

That contrast has shaped her experience. While institutional backing can feel uneven, founder communities often provide something just as valuable: shared understanding. 

Barriers that remain, and what needs to change

When it comes to what still holds women back from starting their own businesses, Eniye is direct. Time is limited, money is a barrier, and access to investment remains uneven.

“I see a lot of people who say they support women, but they don’t,” she says.

For her, the issue is who funding is truly accessible to. Early-stage support is often the hardest to secure, yet it is the phase where founders need it most. Too much capital, she believes, is reserved for businesses that have already proven themselves.

In her view, the UK’s appetite for early-stage risk is limited. And when risk tolerance is low, opportunity narrows. It shapes who gets the chance to build, and who has to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.

Advice for women starting out

Eniye’s advice to women considering starting a business is grounded and honest. Start with the problem, and spend time understanding it properly.

That means speaking to the people you believe you are building for and testing whether the frustration is shared, or whether it only feels urgent to you. For Eniye, that early validation shaped everything that followed.

She is also honest about the emotional side of starting. Doubt is part of it. So is fear. There is rarely a moment where everything feels certain.

“It is scary,” she says, “but it’s more scary and upsetting if you don’t try.”

For her, the bigger risk is staying still.

One word that sums it up

Eniye didn’t shy away from honesty when asked to describe her journey in one word:

“Exhausting”.

Building Beame has meant navigating long stretches of uncertainty, balancing a full-time job alongside a growing brand, challenging assumptions about who the product is for, and confronting the reality that funding does not come easily, even when the idea is strong.

Consistency and perseverance have carried her through the quieter moments, the slower seasons, and the doubts that inevitably surface. 

She is not waiting for the conditions to improve. She is building anyway.

Ready to rethink your suncare routine? Explore Beame here.

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