Kim Roxie got her makeup done for prom one year. She went to a makeup counter at a local mall and left with her face smeared in a shade that was far too light for her skin tone.
“I was grayed-out, OK? I looked like a little ghost,” Roxie laughed.
Although she can look back on the moment with humor now, she said, it was indicative of a larger problem within the beauty industry. People of her complexion were being excluded, and she believes this planted the seed for the growth of her own clean beauty makeup brand, Lamik Beauty.
Her mother, who became a critical figure in Roxie’s brand and relationship with makeup, helped her wash off the lily-white foundation and redo her makeup.
“My mother woke up every day, got all dressed up, put her makeup on to go work at the post office. She was sorting mail. She was not in an office, she was not up front greeting anyone, but still, she would sit down and do her makeup every morning. That was for her,” Roxie said.
