Do you know the Muffin Man? How about the Mxffin Man?
The former might live on Drury Lane, but the Mxffin Man lives right here in San Antonio. He’s a brand ambassador for Lxve Mxffin, a homegrown lipstick company. (It’s pronounced “Love Muffin” — the Xs in the name represent kisses.)
Founder and CEO Darronnette Curtis, who began mixing lipstick formulas in her San Antonio kitchen more than a decade ago, was looking for a “fun, flirty” way to create interest in her brand and engage the community.
She decided to create a contest to find “the Mxffin Man.” She sought out contestants via social media and by distributing flyers in gyms, barbershops — even Home Depot.
The contest winner and 11 runners-up have generated even more buzz than Curtis hoped for her company, which sells matte, smear-proof lipsticks and high-shine lip glosses.
The men often attend Lxve Mxffin-sponsored events — most recently, several brought toys to a drive benefiting Child Advocates of San Antonio. They’re also featured prominently in the company’s Instagram feed.
Voting for the contest happened during a series of events at Porta Rossa Bar on Broadway, as well as through online voting. More than 15,000 people cast ballots across the country and even internationally, Curtis said, “far exceeding my expectations.”
Now she’s working on a 2024 calendar that will feature the Mxffin Man, aka Gary Bowie, and the 11 runners-up.
Bowie, 55, an entrepreneur, stylist and model who sports a full gray beard, heard about the contest through the Models of Texas community and was intrigued. He said representing the company as the Mxffin Man has been a blast, and he’s enjoyed getting to know Curtis, whom he called “loving, sweet and professional.”
“I hope I’m setting a good example of what the Mxffin Man should embody, you know?” Bowie said — while also crowing a little about his win. “I beat out some cats that were younger than me!”
Curtis said she’s had both admirers and potential future contestants tell her she must continue the contest, and indeed, the Lxve Mxffin website is already advertising for next year’s contest.
Meanwhile, she’s finalizing the calendar, which she expects to be ready to sell on her website in early January.
Learning from YouTube
As a child, Curtis remembers watching her mother apply her makeup, always finishing with Avon’s Cherry Jubilee lipstick. Adolescence turned a tomboyish Curtis into someone keenly interested in beauty and its rituals.
After graduating from Sam Houston High School, Curtis attended Temple University for two years, before returning to San Antonio to earn a marketing degree from UTSA.
She watched YouTube videos to learn her craft, mixing pigments and bases in her kitchen in the East Side Promise neighborhood. Unhappy with an early iteration of her company, she took some time off and then relaunched as Lxve Mxffin in June 2020 after finding a New York manufacturer she trusted to make her formulas.
Curtis considered moving to Los Angeles, believing she needed to be in that milieu to grow her company. Today, she feels strongly that San Antonio offers her, and any entrepreneur, the “community, love, support and resources” to grow.
For Curtis that included nabbing a spot in Maestro Entrepreneur Center’s pandemic-era Embracing Entrepreneurial Equity program, which offered customized training for 10 local Black and Latino entrepreneurs — nine of whom were women — for 10 weeks.
The program, which drew more than 200 applications, offered lessons in all aspects of launching and growing a business. Participants ended with a pitch event and the chance to win a grant of up to $20,000.
Curtis wowed the pitch audience by revealing that she had applied each of her lipstick shades on her forearm — and they hadn’t been smudged by her long sleeve.
Lxve Mxffin was ultimately awarded the full $20,000. The money arrived at a critical time for the company, Curtis said, allowing her to “take care of so many things,” which in turn propelled the company’s growth.
‘A good problem to have’
Lxve Mxffin lipsticks and glosses are sold via the company’s website and the occasional pop-up market; Curtis has three employees.
All of Lxve Mxffin’s shade names riff off of sweet treats, like Butta Pecan, Guava Bae and Honey Bun. Curtis introduced lip glosses in 2022 due to customer demand, she said. “Not everyone likes a matte lip, so you can wear the gloss on top, or on its own.”
Lxve Mxffin’s Black Friday promotion, which ran through the end of November, offered her lipsticks, which usually retail for $14, for half price. Several are now sold out.
“It’s a good problem to have,” she said, noting that her largest order to date will arrive next month.
Like many startup owners, Curtis continues with a variety of side hustles. “I’ll always be doing something creative,” she said. That includes co-producing the Texas Fashion Week runway shows at KLRN in October, where her lipsticks were used by makeup artist Cynthia Hernandez.
She also does video and photo shoots, recently working on a shoot for the inaugural issue of B. Eclectic Magazine, which is scheduled for release in February. Publisher Larissa Leath first met Curtis at a Texas Fashion Week event.
“She is so multifaceted,” Leath said. “Her photography skills and videography skills are amazing.” Leath appreciates that Curtis’ lipstick shades work on a wide range of skin tones, including darker skin.
Leath also praised Curtis’ Mxffin Man contest idea, which she called “spot on marketing” with the potential to become a viral phenomenon.
Curtis is certainly open to that possibility. She described Lxve Mxffin as still in “the building phase” but said eventually she plans to expand her product line. “I am a sucker for eye shadows,” she said. “I’m excited to dabble in that.”
The most fulfilling part of growing the business so far, she said, has been watching her mother, who wore Cherry Jubilee for decades, transition to Lxve Mxffin products. She alternates between Cherry Granita and Licorice, Curtis said. “She supports me 100%.”
