SOFT POWER

ACTOR AND ENTREPRENEUR TRACEE ELLIS ROSS ON HER NEW SOLO TRAVEL SHOW, HER BLACK-FOCUSED BEAUTY LINE AND THE REAL MEANING OF LUXURY

- STORY BY L'OREAL THOMPSON PAYTON PORTRAIT BY ERIK MELVIN

Tracee Ellis Ross embarked on her first solo trip.

The actor and entrepreneur was in her mid 20s and host of The Dish, a talk show on Lifetime. She was earning the most money she'd ever made up until that point and wanted to treat herself to something nice. There was just one problem: None of her friends were able to go with her.

"I had seen this gorgeous resort called Pink Sands in a magazine and I decided to take the leap and go," she tells Business Traveler. "Something about all of those elements worked and I've just taken them into the rest of my life: working hard, offering myself a treat and going somewhere I want to go even if someone can't go with me." It was then that Ross learned a valuable life lesson, one that has remained with her throughout the years: "I am responsible for my own happiness."

"That ended up helping to define this idea of luxury for me, which is the opportunity to be," she says. "That is one of the most luxurious things that we can offer ourselves in a culture that keeps us running and moving so quickly."

From Roku's Solo Traveling With Tracee Ellis Ross

These days, Ross takes at least one if not two solo trips per year. Most recently, she invited the world to come along as she crossed the globe for her new show, Solo Traveling With Tracee Ellis Ross, on The Roku Channel. In the three-part series, Ross visits Marrakesh, Morocco; Playa del Carmen, Mexico; and Marbella, Spain.

REVOLUTIONARY LUXURY

Ross has built an award-winning career as the star of such hit series as Girlfriends and Blackish. And while she is certainly no stranger to luxury with first-class flights, five-star resorts and designer clothes, all of that is surface. Real luxury, she suggests, lies within.