Jamie Kern Lima: Baywatch Babe

Jamie Kern on Baywatch

QVC fans know her as the founder of IT Cosmetics who struggles with hereditary rosacea and has a love of face sculpting. But Jamie Kern Lima actually started her career in front of the camera by winning the Baywatch College Search Contest in 1998/99 (depending on the source). Check out some pictures here, but be forewarned that whoever posted them is not exactly her number one fan.

Jamie Kern in Miss USA Pageant

Jamie also won the Miss Washington USA pageant in 1999 and went on to compete in the Miss USA 2000 pageant (You can catch her entrance around the 4:25 mark). At the time, according to Pageant News Bureau, Jamie said she "wanted to be the next Barbara Walters"

What is it with these home shopping folks and beauty pageants? Forget baton twirling and insipid questions about world peace, all pageant contestants need to be given a product to pitch during the evening gown competition. Whoever has the most sales by the end of the night, will be crowned the winner.




From there, Jamie was able to land a gig on the first season of Big Brother. She didn't win, but she was the last woman to be banished from the house. She was also given the nickname “Hollywood” by the other contestants since she really wanted to be an actress. You can check out some pics here and here.

Apparently, these Big Brother rivalries never end. Someone went so far as to create a fake twitter account in Jamie's name and tweet out some really nasty stuff. I can’t imagine that she would be stupid enough to publicly make fun of another contestant’s “fake tits" or tell them that they will get cancer from all the Botox they use. I don’t know for a fact that it’s fake, but it wasn't a verified account and it has since been disabled. Take a look at a screenshot of Jamie's fake twitter account here.

Jamie met her future husband, Paulo Lima, while studying for her MBA. They got married at the Seattle Space Needle on 7/7/07. (see really cute picture of Jamie and Paulo on their wedding day). Her maid of honor was CNN/HLN anchor Natasha Curry.

Jamie then worked as a reporter for KNDU and KPTV, but found that covering local murder stories every day was not the sort of glamorous journalism she wanted to do. Inspiration struck after struggling with her own makeup.

The white space just presented itself. [...] I remember in the middle of one newscast—it was during a break—and I wiped my forehead and my eyebrow came off. I started searching for problem-solving products, and there really weren’t any. - Businessweek

In the beginning, she used her middle name to be her own fake assistant and had actresses living in her home in exchange for them doing packaging work. But how did she manage to get on the Q?

I’d been sending my products to them for a long time and always heard “no.” We were at an awards event, and their buyers actually tried the products and freaked out. We launched IT Cosmetics on QVC. I knew our product was amazing and I knew when women get it home it will change their lives – but before any of that happens you have to sell. I was shaking like a leaf and the producer kept telling me in my ear “calm down…..calllllmmmmmmm down.” I found out later he was communicating with the production staff to get ready for me to faint live on air. - Beauty and the Feast Blog

So, all you aspiring QVC beauty product vendors, sending samples to buyers does NOT work! You need to stalk them down at awards shows and forcibly give them makeovers in the bathroom. Also, be sure to wear your beauty pageant crown so they know that you're in the secret club.

IT Cosmetics recently got a big investment from investment firm TSG (they previously backed Smashbox and Elf) . Unfortunately, when the big bucks start rolling in, these cosmetics companies inevitably get too big for their britches and the brand starts to suffer. I certainly hope not. Like Jamie, I have hereditary rosacea and need that Bye Bye Under Eye!