Today we’d like to introduce you to Kari Hills.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Kari Hills. My personal brand sprouted from pain in motherhood. In it, I lost myself ..but that loss brought me somewhere more authentic. I am a multifaceted artist: a professional makeup artist of seven years, a poet, and a sacred space holder. It all looks different on the surface, but it’s connected by the same energetic work ..bringing women back home to themselves.
Through my pain, I learned the importance of healing in community, not isolation. I’ve learned that sensitivity is divinity, and that everyone needs someone to simply listen and hear them. An excerpt from my poem on Substack, “Like a Tattoo — Sensitivity is Divinity”:
“maybe we all need someone to share our stories with
someone who’ll hold it and see you more clearly.
Or alchemize it for you,
blessing that person with more compassion,
different perspectives,
erasing ignorance a bit at a time.
Sensitivity is divinity.”
Through these things, I’ve curated a retreat for women and mothers to come and release. A re-emergence, we’ll cry, dance, laugh, but ultimately move the stagnant energy and doubt from our bodies before we return home.
In accordance with that, I’ve curated a fundraiser event in Houston on August 2nd, 2026, where women can build local community and help sponsor a mother who has gone through significant trauma from birth, to losing a parent, to raising a developmentally delayed child with little help.
I genuinely want to help women, and I believe now is the time to come together, listen to our bodies, and act in alignment.
Even in my work with beauty , now what keeps me consistent is leaving women feeling better. I’ve had women come to me going through hard seasons , anxiety, feeling ungrounded from life’s events and they leave rejuvenated, just from touch and having life spoken into them.
So this is who I am: a healer in every realm of art, bringing it all to Houston. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road at all, but it takes grit to bring an idea into the 3D , especially for a bigger purpose. Knowing and hearing that I’m helping women pushes me and places a steel rod in my back.
Working on my first event alone especially, I’ve wanted to give up more times than I can count. Being told no, constantly negotiating, having plans change, endless meetings.. it’s all tiring. But since this is the first and not the last, it’ll get easier. It’s purely showing me perseverance.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a threshold-keeper. Someone who sits at the edge of women’s transformation ,whether that’s a bride the night before her wedding, a woman lying still while sound bowls move through the room, or a mother finally exhaling on a retreat . I help women cross into a more grounded, more themselves version of who they already are.
A healer who works in multiple languages: touch (makeup), words (poetry), and space (retreats, events). Most people pick one lane; I’ve built a body of work where all three feed the same mission.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
If I could give advice to anyone for finding a mentor or networking is go into spaces that align with you and genuinely go out of your way to talk to people. Especially in Houston you never know who you’ll meet
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/surrealachee
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surrealachee
- Other: https://substack.com/@surrealache
