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.
Ironically, Roxie didn’t initially share this love for makeup. Rather, it took working at a makeup counter during college to see how makeup could make people feel beautiful and confident, and that ethos would later inform the creation of Lamik Beauty.
“I had fallen in love with making these women feel good about themselves,” Roxie said. “I felt like a doctor, I felt like a healer. That sort of significance was something that drew me to [this] industry and keeps me in this industry.”
Roxie’s mother passed away in 2014 from metastatic breast cancer. This devastating blow forced her to look at the kinds of products her community, and woman like her mother, were using. She said she discovered that many of the products marketed to women of color contained ingredients like carcinogens and talc. “I’m not saying that if my mother didn’t wear makeup every day that she wouldn’t have gotten metastatic breast cancer,” Roxie said. “But, what I am saying is that she was put at risk.”
Roxie said that representation ― especially within the world of makeup ― is beneficial not just for the people of color that have been notoriously excluded, but also for people with light skin.
“In the makeup industry, Black beauty professionals have such a rich knowledge of how to do makeup for all skin tones, when that’s not necessarily the case the other way around,” Roxie said.
Because of the necessity of getting work, Black makeup artists developed an ability to understand every facet of makeup, from color matching to different skin types, making them especially capable candidates for product development.
And to Roxie, supporting Black-owned businesses is an indication of your values: “How you spend your dollar is your vote. As consumers, we can’t just be mindlessly shopping. We have to be mindfully shopping.”
Learn more about Lamik Beauty’s products below, along with other incredible Black-owned cosmetic brands, some recommended by fellow Black-owned companies and others that are doing significant things in the world of beauty.
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Lamik Beauty
Roxie told HuffPost that Lamik is an acronym for “love and makeup in kindness,” and with those values, the brand has worked to provide people of color with access to clean beauty products that meet their needs.
A defining brow duo to get a complete brow look
A lightweight volumizing mascara
Danessa Myricks Beauty
Roxie, a self-proclaimed indie beauty brand junkie, says she’s a big fan of Danessa Myricks Beauty’s products. Myricks, a self-taught makeup artist and mother, launched her company to build a world of inclusive beauty for all races, ages and genders. She creates innovative and multifunctional products to pay homage to her own early experiences as makeup artist, when she had limited resources and products.
A hydrating contour balm with nourishing ingredients
A multi-tonal highlighting palette with an eye-catching finish
An adjustable coverage hybrid foundation and concealer
The Lip Bar
Recommend by Jordan Karim, the owner and founder of organic skin care brand Flora & Noor, for its inclusive shade range and cruelty-free formulas, The Lip Bar launched in direct opposition to a one-size-fits-all approach to beauty. Started in the kitchen of founder Melissa Butler, The Lip Bar creates products free from excessive and unnecessary chemicals and aims to diversify the beauty industry one lipstick at a time.
A flattering everyday eye shadow quad
A velvety, long-lasting lip pencil
A non-drying lipstick made with lip-loving ingredients
Unsun Cosmetics
Katonya Breaux, founder and owner of Unsun Cosmetics, told HuffPost that she started her company after a fruitless search for non-chemical sunscreens that didn’t leave a gray and purple hue on her skin. “They did not create tinted versions of these sunscreens for my skin tone,” Breaux said, “so I created a sunscreen that suits people with darker complexions, while also allowing me to start a conversation with my community about the importance of clean sun protection.” Breaux’s brand continues to bring awareness to the fact that melanated skin is continually left out of the picture when it comes to sun damage prevention and representation within the sunscreen industry.
A tinted sunscreen that won't leave a white cast on deeper skin tones
A dewy and glistening highlighter for both face and body protection
Beauty Bakerie
After a successful yet difficult battle with breast cancer, Beauty Bakerie founder Cashmere Nicole created her brand in 2011 with the goal of creating cruelty-free cosmetics made without potentially harmful ingredients and inclusive to everyone. Nicole has since implemented initiatives like Sugar Homes, which supports the needs of orphaned children worldwide, and Beauty Bakerie continues to be one of the most vocal beauty brands when it comes to social justice issues and bringing awareness to disparities within the beauty community.
A cult-favorite setting powder with blurring effects
A hydrating makeup primer that feels like butter on the skin
Pat McGrath Labs
One of the most influential makeup artists of the past 25 years, Pat McGrath is known for her creative vision, high-performance cosmetics and coveted formulas. In a 2007 Vogue interview, McGrath attributed much of her creativity to her mother, a Jamaican immigrant to Britain. “She was always mixing up colors because there wasn’t anything out there for Black skin,” McGrath said. Now, nearly 15 years later, McGrath has created a luxury brand that features hues, shades and formulas that highlight the beauty of all skin tones.
