KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

At just 23 years of age, Ani­ka Woods is al­ready cre­at­ing a space for her­self in the lo­cal beau­ty in­dus­try. It was dur­ing the height of the pan­dem­ic in 2020 that the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South­ern Caribbean grad­u­ate de­cid­ed to ven­ture in­to her own busi­ness—Glow­box Cos­met­ics by Ani­ka.

“It all start­ed from the hate I had for lip gloss,” she re­called. “The stick­i­ness, the weird white residue, it just wasn’t for me, but I loved the idea of the prod­uct. I want­ed some­thing that felt com­fort­able, looked great, and ac­tu­al­ly con­tributed to lip health. So, I de­cid­ed, Why not for­mu­late your own? One that was smooth, non-sticky, and com­fort­able to wear.” She didn’t just want it for her­self but for oth­er women as well. “I knew that if I had strug­gled to find a good lip gloss, so had oth­er peo­ple,” she added.

“That’s when I de­cid­ed to turn it in­to a busi­ness. Glow­box Cos­met­ics by Ani­ka was born from my pas­sion for cre­at­ing high-qual­i­ty beau­ty prod­ucts that peo­ple love. What start­ed with lip gloss has now ex­pand­ed to lip creams, lip oils, lip scrubs, and strip lash­es. And I’m not stop­ping there!”

Woods will be launch­ing two new prod­ucts soon: shim­mer body oils and lip con­tour pen­cils to­day, in time for Car­ni­val.

“Beau­ty isn’t just about ap­pear­ance; it’s about how you feel, and I love know­ing that my prod­ucts help peo­ple feel more em­pow­ered and com­fort­able in their own skin,” she said.

“But be­yond just look­ing good, I’m pas­sion­ate about for­mu­lat­ing prod­ucts that sup­port skin health. So many beau­ty prod­ucts on the mar­ket fo­cus on­ly on aes­thet­ics, of­ten at the ex­pense of qual­i­ty in­gre­di­ents. I want­ed to change that. Whether it’s nour­ish­ing lip oils that hy­drate in­stead of dry­ing out lips or shim­mer body oils that give a glow while al­so con­di­tion­ing the skin, I fo­cus on cre­at­ing for­mu­las that en­hance beau­ty with­out com­pro­mis­ing it.”

What dri­ves her pas­sion is the idea that beau­ty and self-care should go hand in hand. “I don’t just want my cus­tomers to love how they look when they use my prod­ucts; I want them to know they’re al­so tak­ing care of their skin in the process,” she added. “That bal­ance be­tween con­fi­dence and care and al­so hear­ing how much my prod­ucts have ben­e­fit­ted so many of my cus­tomers is what keeps me go­ing.” For Woods, be­ing a young fe­male busi­ness own­er has its chal­lenges.

“There are a lot of ob­sta­cles, es­pe­cial­ly in such a com­pet­i­tive in­dus­try,” she said. “Some­times peo­ple un­der­es­ti­mate you, and oth­er times you have to work twice as hard to be tak­en se­ri­ous­ly. But I’ve learned that con­sis­ten­cy, con­fi­dence, and stay­ing true to my vi­sion are key. I fo­cus on grow­ing my brand at my own pace and cre­at­ing prod­ucts that tru­ly stand out.”

Her ad­vice to oth­er young women out there is to be hon­est with them­selves. “This jour­ney isn’t easy, and there will be chal­lenges: slow sales, self-doubt, and mo­ments where you won­der if it’s all worth it,” she said. “But if you tru­ly be­lieve in your brand, keep go­ing. You don’t need to have every­thing fig­ured out from the start. Start with what you have, and learn from your mis­takes as you grow. Suc­cess takes time, but the ef­fort is al­ways worth it.” The Glow­box Cos­met­ics by Ani­ka in­cludes lip gloss, lip cream, and lip scrubs.

For more in­for­ma­tion vis­it: www.glow­box­cos­met­ics.com