Houston beauty brand owner Kim Roxie talks following your path to success

The road less traveled is a fleeting question. We all wonder what could have been if we made a different decision or took a different path. What originally was supposed to be an interview with beauty brand owner Kim Roxie about holiday makeup and COVID business tips became a lesson in ingenuity and finding your life’s path.

Roxie is the owner of LAMIK Beauty, which is an acronym for Love And Makeup In Kindness, and focuses on manufacturing all-natural vegan products for women of color. Roxie was recently featured on CNBC for being named among Jay-Z’s “top black-owned business to know.”

I opened our interview video call by asking Roxie about the LAMIK brand and its recent success.

“I’m always blown away by who the makeup is touching and knows about it. A brand isn’t just a brand anymore, it’s a movement and I’m amazed by how the movement is going and how people are participating,” she said. “I have worked really hard over the last decade to establish LAMIK as an empowerment brand as opposed to a makeup brand and our new ‘Show Up Collection’ reflects that! It’s dedicated to the woman who is showing up and being a trailblazer and the woman who is just trying and showing up every day and standing in her truth.”

As our conversation shifted to women empowerment, I inquired as to why women supporting women was so important to her.

“I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for women, and black women in particular, who have supported me in my journey. I opened my first makeup shop at 21and I owe that to the women who were around me. They gave me that empowerment to say ‘yes I can do that,’” she responded.

“Was makeup your first love?” I asked as Roxie settled her petite frame back in her chair with a smirk revealing a mischievous grin.

“Umm, not at all,” she laughed.

So what led you to a career in makeup?

“I needed a job, she laughed. “When I got to college I had to get a job to help pay for my housing and living expenses, and that’s how I ended up working at the mall behind a makeup counter. If I came from a more privileged background financially, I never would have got into makeup. My dream was to become a concert pianist.”

Shocked, I interrupted her to make sure I heard correctly. “You play the piano?”

“I did, I don’t anymore because it wasn’t paying me. Many people don’t know, but I was trained in classical piano from the age of 7 to 17. In high school I was the pianist for the choir and my first major in college was piano,” she revealed.

How did you transition so quickly after years of putting in so much work toward your dream?

“When I played concert piano it was very competitive and it wasn’t for fun, so when I stopped playing, I just stopped playing,” she said very matter-of-factly.

To me the irony is that your gift has always been in your hands, you started with piano but makeup is a skill of the hand as well. It always amazes me at how our life path has a way of finding us and leading us to our destiny.

“You are so right! And I’ve learned that it’s the path that God has chosen for you. It’s always been his way, even when we didn’t know it. I have been so blessed to be able to say that I have been an entrepreneur since I was 21, and I have created a product that people really love and support. But it was his plan all along. So, when I get upset and I get frustrated, for me it comes back to me saying, ‘okay God, I hear you and it’s okay, everything is not a sprint. It takes time,” said Roxie.

Time, skill, dedication and being obedient to the path God has set before you. Go out and do something great today.