As Car­ni­val 2025 ap­proach­es, make-up artists are em­brac­ing a fresh beau­ty trend—lu­mi­nous, bold looks on flaw­less skin, com­ple­ment­ed by soft, tint­ed lips.

Ac­cord­ing to Karyse Bap­tiste, founder of Bou­jee Glam Beau­ty, the fo­cus this sea­son was on achiev­ing a blurred, ra­di­ant com­plex­ion that holds up un­der the sun and ex­cite­ment of the road.

Bap­tiste and her brand have part­nered with Bou­jee Mas­quer­ade, a beau­ty hub at the Radis­son Ho­tel, to of­fer pro­fes­sion­al, long-last­ing make-up ser­vices to mas­quer­aders.

Bap­tiste said many of the artists at the hub will be us­ing Bou­jee Glam Beau­ty’s Ex­ot­ic Eye­shad­ow Palette, known for its high­ly pig­ment­ed, Caribbean-in­spired shades.

“Com­plex­ion is in—peo­ple are in­ter­est­ed in that blurred fin­ish, il­lu­mi­nat­ing skin with tint­ed lips,” she said.

Bap­tiste em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of skin­care in achiev­ing a flaw­less look, ad­vis­ing mas­quer­aders to start prep­ping their skin months in ad­vance.

“Skin­care is key—months of prep would be ide­al to en­sure the make-up sits well on your face. En­sure you use a fa­cial mois­turis­er with SPF 30 as a min­i­mum,” she added.

From pas­sion project to beau­ty brand

Bou­jee Glam Beau­ty, which Bap­tiste launched five years ago, has grown from a pas­sion project in­to a recog­nised beau­ty brand.

The Ex­ot­ic Eye­shad­ow Palette has been a stand­out prod­uct, sell­ing over 300 units across re­tail out­lets and on­line plat­forms. The brand’s clus­ter lash­es, re­leased in late 2024, quick­ly gained pop­u­lar­i­ty, sell­ing out with­in months.

How­ev­er, the jour­ney has not been with­out its chal­lenges. Like many fe­male en­tre­pre­neurs, Bap­tiste faced fi­nan­cial hur­dles and the dif­fi­cul­ties of es­tab­lish­ing cred­i­bil­i­ty in a com­pet­i­tive in­dus­try.

She ini­tial­ly used her per­son­al sav­ings—funds orig­i­nal­ly set aside for a home—to in­vest in her brand. She lat­er turned to fam­i­ly for sup­port.

“De­layed grat­i­fi­ca­tion is key,” she ad­vised, en­cour­ag­ing as­pir­ing en­tre­pre­neurs to save, rein­vest, and use their ex­ist­ing jobs as step­ping stones to­ward their goals.

“Save, rein­vest, and use your 9–5 job as a plat­form to pro­pel your dreams,” she added.

Ex­pand­ing a Caribbean beau­ty prod­uct

De­spite these chal­lenges, Bou­jee Glam Beau­ty has steadi­ly ex­pand­ed its reach. Through re­gion­al dis­tri­b­u­tion, strate­gic col­lab­o­ra­tions, and in­no­v­a­tive mar­ket­ing ef­forts, the brand has strength­ened its pres­ence in the lo­cal beau­ty scene. Re­cent in-store events, in­clud­ing Christ­mas pro­mo­tions that fea­tured com­pli­men­ta­ry make-up ser­vices, have helped boost con­sumer en­gage­ment.

With Car­ni­val 2025 on the hori­zon, Bap­tiste re­mains fo­cused on grow­ing the brand while con­tin­u­ing to em­pow­er women through beau­ty and en­tre­pre­neur­ship.

“I found­ed Bou­jee Glam Beau­ty to rep­re­sent who we are as a peo­ple, show­cas­ing our di­ver­si­ty and rhythm while mak­ing a mark in the beau­ty in­dus­try,” she shared.

Her mis­sion re­mains the same.

“Five years lat­er, my mis­sion re­mains stead­fast—em­pow­er­ing women through beau­ty, rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and en­tre­pre­neur­ship.”