We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zii Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zii, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I want to leave behind a legacy of transformation—one that empowers women to fully see themselves, spiritually and physically. Whether it’s through my makeup brushes, my book The Mental Gym, or my voice in spaces of faith and healing, I’m intentional about helping people reconnect to who they are and who God created them to be.

I want people to remember me as someone who turned pain into purpose and didn’t just chase her dreams—but made space for others to run with theirs, too. I hope they say I made faith feel accessible, beauty feel doable, and purpose feel possible.

At the end of the day, I want to be known as someone who lifted others—even while I was carrying my own weight. Someone who used her gifts, grief, and grit to make God proud and help women believe in themselves again.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Sure! I’d love to introduce myself.

My name is Zii Davis, and I wear a few hats—but all of them lead back to the same mission: helping others see themselves through the lens of confidence, clarity, and calling.

I’m a professional makeup artist and beauty educator with over 10 years of experience, the creator of Matter Brushes—an intuitive makeup brush line designed especially for beginners—and the author of The Mental Gym: A Spiritual Workout Journal to Strengthen Your Faith and Mind.

I stepped into the beauty industry by accident to supplement my income after not finding a job in my field after college. However, I quickly realized how transformational makeup could be— not just on the outside, but in the way it helped women show up in the world. Over the years, I realized there was a deeper confidence struggle happening. So many women were saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” when it came to makeup—but also saying the same thing about their purpose, their healing, and their identity.

That’s when my work expanded into faith, mindset, and mentorship.

Through Matter Brushes, I make makeup easy to understand—especially for beginners who felt overlooked or overwhelmed by traditional beauty standards. Each brush is numbered in order of use and clearly labeled with its purpose. My goal is to take the guesswork out of the glam process so that everyday women can feel like pros at home.

Through my online academy, Beauty for Us University, I teach everyday women how to build confidence in their skills, master a 15-minute beat, and walk out of the house feeling good in their skin.

But my work doesn’t stop at the surface. I also guide women spiritually through The Mental Gym, my guided journal that uses biblical principles to help you build emotional strength, faith, and resilience. It’s for those who’ve been showing up for everyone else—but finally want to show up for themselves in a meaningful way.

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What sets me apart is that I don’t separate beauty from belief.
I combine makeup artistry with faith and mental wellness, offering a full-circle experience that addresses how you look and how you feel. It’s not about perfection—it’s about progress, identity, and confidence.

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I’m most proud of the community I’ve built— from the women in my free Facebook group learning makeup together, to the clients in my visionary accountability circle setting bold goals and chasing them in faith.

And what I want people to know about me is this:
I’m not just here to help you “look” better. I’m here to help you “become” better—more confident, more aligned, more you. Whether you find me through a makeup tutorial, an encouraging video, or a keynote I’m delivering, I want you to walk away believing:
“I matter. My voice matters. My beauty matters.”

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Absolutely. One of the most defining moments of my journey—and a true test of my resilience—was navigating life, business, and motherhood after the unexpected loss of my daughter’s father – with whom I was engaged to married. I was left to raise our daughter alone while still trying to hold on to my identity, my faith, and my purpose.

There were days I felt completely empty and broken—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. But something in me refused to let grief be the end of my story. I started showing up in small ways—through prayer, journaling, and just giving myself permission to feel. Over time, those small moments of survival turned into strength.

Out of that season came The Mental Gym, a spiritual workout journal I wrote to help others strengthen their minds and their faith, just like I had to. It was birthed in the middle of heartbreak, but it became one of my most healing, purpose-driven projects.

That experience reminded me that resilience isn’t about being strong all the time—it’s about being willing to keep going, even when you feel weak. And today, I get to help other women do the same—show up, heal, and find beauty again, even after loss.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I’ve had to learn—more recently than ever—is how to surrender and receive help in a deeper way than I’ve ever had to before.

I never saw asking for help as a weakness. It just wasn’t something I often needed. I was used to managing things well, figuring things out on my own, and carrying what was mine to carry. But after losing my daughter’s father, everything shifted. Suddenly, I was navigating single motherhood, grief, business, and my own healing—all at once. For the first time, I found myself needing more support than I had ever required before.

That need placed me in a new and uncomfortable place of surrender. Not because I lacked strength—but because I finally reached a season that required more than just me. And that’s been humbling. I’m still learning to ask for help without guilt, to release the pressure to hold everything on my own, and to trust that allowing others to show up for me is a part of God’s provision, too.

It’s a process. I still feel the weight of my challenges. I still catch myself trying to muscle through. But I’m becoming more aware that true resilience sometimes looks like openness, softness, and the willingness to say, “I can’t do this by myself today—and that’s okay.”

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTPS://www.iamzii.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamzii_____?igsh=cHd4cWVyNWYycnIw&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ziidavis
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC_K1a6ZdOCnkbV0oZLP-VjQ

Image Credits

Photographers include: Marcus Porter Photography, Be Manning Photography, Ray Simone Photography, Antoine Lever Photography, Christian Williams