Local mother-daughter duo starts skincare business during pandemic

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Parents working from home with their children stuck indoors during the pandemic was hard on both ends. To keep everyone satisficed, one local mother-daughter duo found a middle ground.

Kristen Rogers is a mother and entrepreneur of several service-based businesses. She and her daughter Ka’Mari Heath joined together during lockdown to start Butter Me Up LLC, a skincare business.

“I do a lot of placing the orders, she makes the product, and then we sit together and we decide on scents,” Rogers said.

Ka’mari Heath was only 10 years old at the time when the idea came while trying to fight boredom during the start of the pandemic.

“When I was at home with my mom, we were talking about doing something so I don’t have to sit in the house all day during quarantine,” Heath explained. “At first I was going to start with a lip gloss business, but a lot of other kids started doing that and I still wanted to do something around skin care and body care. So, my mom and I were thinking about different ideas, and she thought of body butter.”

The now-12-year-old says that she really enjoys being a young business owner.

“It’s actually pretty fun. I thought it was going to be a little stressful at the beginning, but then once I started getting compliments and critiques it was calming,” she said. “And, I like helping people. it was really fun.”

Rogers shared that she wasn’t sure this was something her daughter would stick with for long. However, once the two started to table events, it sparked positive emotions to see Ka’Mari shine.

“I feel great. I mean, it works with her extrovert personality. I’m an introvert myself so just to see her at the table as she interacts with everyone — usually people come over, they look at me and I just point to her. This is her. I’m just here for support.”

She says money from sales is divided into Ka’Mari’s personal salary, funding the business, and tuition for college in the future.

If you’re interested in buying the product you can go to Ka’Mari’s facebook page Butter Me Up Body Care LLC and send them a message.